Gâteau au chocolat et crème de marrons (Chocolate and chestnut spread cake)

This simply yet utterly amazing recipe came from a lovely French friend Aurelia. She is very giving with her recipes, and we are often found discussing food and recipes at length. Now living in NZ, having been born in France, she has a wealth of recipes I've never heard of. This is one of them.

What I still marvel at, with this recipe, is the sum of the ingredients are exponentially more exciting than what you'd expect

 

100g dark chocolate (I used Whittaker's Dark Ghana)

100g butter

3 eggs

Approx. 370g chestnut paste (you can buy this at specialty food stores and online) I buy at La Cave or Maison Vauron

2 handfuls of walnut pieces (optional)

Melt butter and chocolate and let cool 2 minutes.

Mix eggs and chestnut paste.

Add chocolate mixture.

Mix well.

Add walnuts and pour into buttered dish and cook between 20-30 minutes @200°

Bon appetit x

My son who has never liked "cake" is a great fan of this dessert, I made it last month for his 15th Birthday (this blog has featured many of his "not cake" birthday desserts over the years)

It didn't look overly celebratory with just candles so I crushed some chocolate coated honeycomb and sprinkled over the top.

We always serve with vanilla bean ice cream

Passionfruit Crunchies a childhood favourite biscuit

Passionfruit Crunchies are an absolute favourite from my childhood. Probably because only 1 or 2 batches were made every passionfruit season. Then you had to wait until next year.

Mum (AKA Grandma Kiwicakes) made them every year. This year Grandma Kiwicakes passionfruit vine failed, as ours had taken off prolifically, I decided it was time I gave them ago and asked for the recipe.

Grandma Kiwicakes tells me the recipe was from "the Truth cookbook - an old scandal rag" - seen below without a cover. These recipe books certainly already expect you to know how to cook - with instructions like, "sandwich together with passionfruit icing" I used butter/icing sugar and 1 passionfruit to make my icing.

I doubled the recipe, and used larger than teaspoon sized balls, as mum always made them BIG. This resulted in two oven trays, with 34 halves, resulting in 17 biscuits when sandwiched together. You can make them any size you like.

I baked at 180C

Red Velvet cupcakes in support of All Blacks rugby

I recently outed myself as a closet rugby fan. I attended the first Lions test match her in my hometown of Whangarei and have been glued to the TV ever since. Tonight the Lions take on the Maori All Blacks. I'll be perched on the edge of the couch screaming at the TV as all good rugby supporters like to do.

I seemed a good day for some rugby cupcakes. I'd been wanting to try the new Whittakers Full Eighty chocolate bars. Which consequently are very nice. Using Rainbow Dust edible metallic lustre dusts, I trialed "metallic dark silver" left, "metallic light silver" (middle) and "starlight silver saturn" (right) - whilst the beauty of each colour is hard to portray in the photo, my favourite was the "silver saturn". I dusted the lustre powder straight on to the chocolate and on to grey fondant silver ferns, made using this mould

I Wanted a black cream cheese icing for my red velvet cupcakes, so I first made a chocolate cream cheese icing to which I added black progel food coloruing . I find a good dark cocoa such as this one makes a nice dark buttercream/icing meaning you need less black food colouring to go from dark chocolate brown to black 

Recipe

125 grams softened buter

125g room temp cream cheese

4 cups icing sugar

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

6 Tbsp water.

Beat together butter and cream cheese. Add. cocoa powder. Add 1 cup of icing sugar at a time and continue to beat. Add a little water after the addition of each cup of icing sugar.

If you do not want chocolate flavoured icing, omit cocoa powder and add a good squeeze of lemon juice instead.

Because I'm 99.9% sure the Maori All Black are going to come out on top It's black icing atop red cupcakes for me today

Yet more great Millionaires caramel recipes & ideas from Kiwicakes

Millionaires caramel makes a great topping for no bake slices. Simply heat to 50 degrees Celsius and spread spread over your no bake slice, press in slated poprcorn. Top with chocolate if desired.

Millionaires caramel can be used to coat and stack profiteroles. Simply heat to 50 degrees celsius, dip to coat. Spread a little on your cake board and press down first profiterole. Repeat creating a pyramid shape.

Millionaires caramel is great for mini banoffe pies. Paint melted chocolate on your mini tart cases, place three slices of banana in base. Cover the base and bananas with melted millionaires caramel. Place three slices of banana on top when ready to serve along with a dollop of whipped cream.

Millionaires caramel can be used to create fruit upside down cakes. Simply place your millionaires caramel in the base of your tin, with the fruit from your usual recipe and cover with cake batter. Bake per your recipes instructions. Once tipped out a wonderful toffee fruit base is created.

Quick and easy millionaires caramel truffles are so tasty and quick to prepare. The millionaires caramel has a fudge like consistency prior to heating making it perfect for these yummy truffles. Chill your caramel, then roll in to a sausage shape, cutting it in to even cherry sized pieces. Roll these in to a ball and dip in melted chocolate. Cool. A gift any one would love to receive. These are also lovely with some sea salt flakes sprinkled on top before the chocolate sets.

More great Millionaires caramel recipes from Kiwicakes

Today I'm thrilled to share with you yet more great ideas for our millionaires caramel

To the top of brownie or chocolate cake pour warmed millionaires caramel over the top and drop sliced Maltesers on the top. Drizzle with more caramel and melted chocolate.

Millionaires caramel can be added to vanilla or classic cake mixes, as it has here in layers 1 & 3. To 975g cake mix which has been mixed up to it's liquid form add 375g millionaires caramel and blend until combined.

When making a cheesecake filling - blend your millionaires caramel with the double cream before mixing with the cream cheese. The millionaires caramel can also be warmed to make a thin topping layer.

Millionaires caramel makes a great filling for donuts too. Heat caramel slightly and fill a piping bag using a bismarck tip for filling. Heat caramel to 50 degrees Celsius and dip for a coating then press in to sprinkles.

Warm millionaires caramel to make a topping for gateaux. As well as a great filling between layers.

Millionaires caramel makes a great binding agent for muesli bar slices. Heat 250g millionaires caramel to 50 degrees Celsius and add 50g puffed rice, 75g bran flakes, 75g cranberries, 75g roasted almond flakes, 150g muesli, 75g chopped dates, 75g walnuts. (You can use any blend of nuts/fruit to your liking this is just a suggestion). Line a slice tin aprx 32x20cm and press down in to tin. Allow to cool. Drizzle with chocolate if desired.

Millionaires caramel is great for no bake slices. use as a topping by heating to 50 degrees Celsius and pouring over chilled/set base the press desired fruits/nuts on top and press gently.

A cheats quick version of pecan pie follows......using a beater blend 2 eggs with 500g of Millionaires caramel until combined. Add 120g of cake crumbs and 30g flour. Stir in 40g of pecan pieces and pour in to pastry case. Place pecans on top before baking. Bake at 180C for aprx 40-45mins. 

Kumara cheesecake recipe

Last year on a trip to NZ's Kumara capital (Kaipara district). I was thrilled to discover something new - Kumara cheesecake. Once I returned home I was determined to create my own version of the dish. Whilst mine differs from the one I ate, I was very happy with the taste and texture of mine. And it couldn't be easier to make. The topping has a fudgy texture which contrasts nicely with the cheesecake filling.

My recipe makes a large cheesecake, you could half the recipe if you have a smaller pan. I used a 10" diameter Fat daddios springform pan

For the base

1 packet of Superwine biscuits crushed

1 tbsp sugar

150g melted butter

Mix and press in to base of pan

For the Cheesecake filling

500g kumara peeled and cut in to small pieces

500g Philadelphia Cream Cheese at room temp

3 Tbsp condensed milk

Boil kumara until soft. Allow to cool. Place in food processor and blend until smooth add cream cheese and condensed milk. Pulse to combine. Pour on top of biscuit base.

For the topping 

2 cups brown sugar

125g butter

Good handful of macadamia nuts

Warm the sugar & butter gently together in a pan on stove top until sugar dissolves. Allow to cool slightly stir in nuts and pour over top of cheesecake filling.

Refrigerate 4 hours or until set.

Dome shape desserts using millionaires caramel from Kiwicakes

These delicious desserts were made by my 13 year old at Christmas time, using an idea given to her by the lovely Laurel Watson (dessert lady extraordinaire). With three simply ingredients, these are actually created from ready made ingredients, which made it easier for my 13 year old to cope with.

Using an size sphere shaped mould fill 2/3 full with either white or dark Bakel's truffle (a type of ready made ganache avilable from Kiwicakes) cut circles of trifle sponge slightly smaller than the dome using a round cutter and press down in to the truffle mix. They have a tendency to want to float upwards, we found poking a hole in them with a skewer helped the trapped air escape making them less likely to do this. Freeze.

Remove from freezer. taking a sharp knife gently remove some of the sponge. Taking some warmed millionaires caramel, to which we added some sea salt (30 seconds in microwave), fill a piping bag and pipe a small amount in to each cavity. Replace sponge discs on top of caramel and freeze again.

After 30 mins (or longer) remove from freezer and spread more truffle sealing the base. Freeze again.

Once frozen to this stage, the desserts are ready in their basic form, as we were ready to serve we took a strawberry and dipped it in the opposite colour truffle, placing the strawberry on the frozen dessert provided the chill factor needed to set the strawberry coating

I prefered the look of the drip above, however if you prefer the neater look below, this was how they naturally ocurred, I had to encourage the drip above by giving it a slight shake.

Mini Passionfruit Cheesecakes

Recently the lovely Jenny who works at Kiwicakes made mini passionfruit cheesecakes, which were a huge hit at her party. I'll admit I think these are so much prettier than 1 large cheesecake. And her super easy way of making them has inspired me to make them this weekend.

Using any plain biscuit crush a 250g pack in the food processor with 150g melted butter. This wonderful cheesecake pan has loose bottoms making it super easy to get the finished chilled cheesecakes out.

Press your crushed biscuit down in to the pan

Top with cheesecake mix

For the topping use one box of lemon jelly and one jar of passionfruit pulp. Adjust the water amount for the jelly, to allow for the passionfruit pulp. (e.g remove 300ml of water to allow for 300ml of passionfruit pulp)

Voila! the finished cheesecakes so simple, yet they make you look like a dessert chef superstar.

A pie from my Nordicware bundt pan

I recently decided to try baking a pie in my Nordicware bundt pan. This isn't really a recipe, as you can fill with whatever you have to hand, and it will bake well regardless of the contents (provided they are not too wet)

We have milking goats, so I frequently make ricotta. To 500g of ricotta I added tons of spinach, which I wilted in a pan with a little olive oil and some garlic. I tossed in some chopped ham, chives and walnuts and bound together with an egg. The best thing about this pie, is you really can throw in a bit of whatever you have.

I folded filo sheets in half length ways, that had been brushed with butter, and lined the pan. Where the hole is in the centre I flicked the filo inwards until I'd filled the pan with my ricotta mixture.

Once filled I unfolded from the centre outwards.And brushed the top with melted butter

Then I baked it at 180C until golden brown Aprx 30 mins.

The pie flipped out of the pan with ease.

It was pretty darn tasty and looked stunning as well. A lovely winter warmer.

Chocolate Melting moments

If you follow this blog regularly you'll know I've been on a mission to teach my youngest to bake & cook. After trying these melting moments we decided to try chocolate ones. This recipe was given to me by my friend Steph over 20 years ago - I was shocked to realise it's been that long since I made them.

They are just as easy as the original type to make

Ingredients

250g butter

1/3 Cup icing sugar

1 1/4 Cups flour

1/2 Cup Cornflour

These can be sandwiched together with chocolate ganache or a simple chocolate butter icing.

Beat together butter and icing sugar until pale & fluffy. Stir in sifted dry ingredients. Line a tray with baking paper. Roll in to small balls and flatten with the back of a fork. Bake at 180C for 10-12 mins. Cool on tray before sandwiching together with your choice of icing.