Chocolate Fondant

Rich mini chocolate cakes, with a gooey centre

Makes 6 fondants

Chocolate Fondant
Served with Vanilla Ice Cream

These warm, soft, little chocolate cakes are the perfect dessert. Make them for your dinner party and they will be a hit! They are also fairly simple to make. Just make sure to keep a close eye on them once they’re in the oven.

I came across the most delicious chocolate fondants at one of my favourite restaurants in Cape Town; El Burro in Green Point. The combination of ice cream and warm chocolate is the best way to end off a meal.

Since I’m in Johannesburg now, quite a distance from those yummy El Burro chocolate fondants, I decided to make some of my own. I served mine with some vanilla ice cream too! This weekend, why don’t you give them a try? Here’s how to make your own warm chocolate desserts.

INGREDIENTS:

140 g good quality dark chocolate

100 g butter

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

50 g castor sugar

50 g flour

2 teaspoons cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking powder

DIRECTIONS:

1.       Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and flour 6 ramekins.

2.       In a double boiler, gently melt the chocolate. Add the butter and stir until the mixture is smooth. Remove the mixture form the heat.

3.       Whisk together the eggs and sugar until light and creamy. Add in the vanilla essence.

4.       Whisk in a spoonful of the melted chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. This will temper the eggs.

5.       Whisk in the rest of the chocolate mixture.

6.       Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Gently fold until incorporated.

7.       Divide the mixture between the 6 ramekins.

8.       Allow the filled ramekins to chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

9.       Remove the ramekins from the fridge and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

10.    Run a knife around the edge of each ramekin to loosen the cakes. Turn out onto plates and serve with vanilla ice cream. 

Checkerboard Cake Tutorial

Learn how to make your own checkerboard cake

Checkerboard Cake

This cake looks fantastic, on the inside and out. Don’t mind the crumbs while putting this cake together, because I promise, the fun you will have afterwards, is worth the mess! I couldn’t wait for us to cut the cake, to reveal the inside.

I baked this cake for Sanjay’s farewell. He’s moved to the UK now. And it’s very cold there, so to help him celebrate his last bit of warmth here in SA, I made this fun cake. He also loves to play golf, so I completed the cake with some fondant golf decorations.

Here's how I made my Checkerboard Cake.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

1 vanilla butter cake, 20 cm

1 chocolate butter cake, 20 cm

Large serrated knife for creating layers

Round wax paper template, 12 cm

Toothpick

Small sharp knife
Round cookie cutter, 5 cm

Cake board, 20 cm

Chocolate butter icing

Palette knife

DIRECTIONS:

1.       Have your 2 cakes ready to assemble into your masterpiece.

Vanilla and chocolate cakes

2.       Place one of the cakes on a cutting surface. I started with the chocolate cake.

Ready to cut

3.       Using a large serrated knife, cut the cake in half to create 2 layers.

Chocolate cake in 2 layers

4.       With a toothpick, secure the 12 cm round wax paper template to the cake. Using a small sharp knife, cut out a 12 cm cake round.

Template secured in place

5.       Next, create a 5 cm cake round using a cookie cutter.

5 cm cookie cutter

6.       You will then be left with 2 cake rings and 1 cake round.

7.       Do the same with the vanilla cake.

8.       Now you will have 4 cake rings and 2 cake rounds altogether. You are now ready to layer your checkerboard cake.  

9.       Begin with a 20 cm chocolate cake ring. Place this ring on your cake board. this will make it easier to move your cake later.

10. Using a palette knife, spread a thin layer of butter icing on the outer edge of a 12 cm vanilla cake ring. Place this cake ring inside the chocolate cake ring.

11.   Now take a 5 cm chocolate cake round and spread a thin layer of icing on the outer edge. Insert the chocolate cake round into the vanilla cake ring. Spread a thin layer of icing on top of this first layer.

Cake layer with chocolate ring on the outside

12.   Continue to layer your cake by alternating the chocolate and vanilla cake cut outs. Don’t forget the icing between the cake rings. This will prevent the cake falling apart when you cut it.

Cake layer with vanilla ring on the outside

13.   Once you have completed 4 layers, your cake will look something like this.

Cake layers

14.   Now you can cover your cake with a crumb coat, and decorate as you like.

Finished cake

I would love to hear from you about your baking adventures. Let me know how your cake turns out.

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Spicy carrot cake, in miniature

Carrot Cupcakes 

I had a lot of fun decorating these little carrot cakes. The best part of baking, I think, is making that sweet swirl on top of a delicious cupcake.

I used my large, open star nozzle for piping the cream cheese swirl. And sprinkled some chopped pecan nuts on top to finish them off.

Sharing IS caring, after all. And I couldn’t possibly eat them all by myself. So I called my old friend Krelin, and arranged a tea date. It was good catching up, especially with some yummy carrot cupcakes in hand.

Here’s how I made my carrot cupcakes. Let me know how yours turn out. 

Time to bake!

Carrot Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Adapted from: Recipes from the Royal Kitchen compiled by Heilie Pienaar 

INGREDIENTS:

For the cupcakes:

60g (¼ cup) butter, soft

¼ cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 ¼ cups self-raising flour, sifted

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 pinch salt

²/₃ cup (160ml) low fat milk

½ cup grated carrots (about 2 medium carrots)

1 small handful of chopped pecan nuts

For the cream cheese butter icing:

50g butter

1 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted

The juice of half a lemon

1 package (175g) plain, low fat cream cheese

DIRECTIONS:

For the cupcakes:

1.       Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake liners.

2.       Cream the butter in a mixing bowl, until light. Add the sugar and continue beating until light and creamy.

3.       Beat in the egg.

4.       Mix in the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, while alternating with the milk. Be careful not to over mix.

5.       Fold in the grated carrots.

6.       Spoon the mixture into the liners, until about ²/₃ full.

7.       Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean, once inserted.

8.       Remove the cupcakes from the pan, and allow to cool on a wire rack.

For the cream cheese butter icing:

1.       Cream the butter in a mixing bowl until very light.

2.       Add the icing sugar and lemon juice and beat until smooth.

3.       Beat in cream cheese until just incorporated. Do not over mix.

4.       Pipe the icing over the cooled cupcakes as desired. Decorate with the chopped pecan nuts.

Time to decorate!

KitKat Chocolate Brownies

Your favourite chocolate brownie with a surprise!

KitKat Chocolate Brownies

These baked goodies come to us thanks to Big Sister, Nishtha. And I think they are quite yummy! 

As I arrived home from work one day, Nishtha greeted me with a sudden call of my name: ‘Deepta!’

‘Oh no!’ I thought to myself. ‘What have I done wrong now?’ Big sisters tend to be a little bossy at times, so naturally I was worried. 

Nishtha then pulled out her phone, and showed me a picture of some KitKat Brownies. ‘You HAVE to make these for us', she said, sounding excited.

'Phew!' I thought. 'All she wanted was cake'. No problem. Because I love an excuse to bake.

So with our love of chocolate, I baked these for us as a special treat. They turned out so good that I wanted to show you how to make some of your very own. Here's how. Let me know what you think.

KitKat Chocolate Brownies

Makes 36 small brownies

Adapted from: The Pioneer Woman Cooks (thepioneerwoman.com)

INGREDIENTS:

150g good quality dark chocolate

125g (½ cup) butter

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

½ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

3 eggs, beaten

1 cup self-raising flour

1 pack Family Break (150g) KitKat
1 teaspoon icing sugar, for dusting

DIRECTIONS:

1.     Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20 cm square baking tin.

2.     Melt the chocolate and butter in a medium saucepan, over a low heat.

3.     Stir in cocoa powder.

4.     Remove the saucepan from the heat, and stir in the sugar and vanilla essence.  

5.     Pour in the eggs, and then fold in the flour.

6.     Pour ¾ of the batter into the tin, and spread out evenly using a spatula. Line the KitKat fingers on top of the batter. Pour in the remaining ¼ of the batter so that the KitKat fingers are completely covered.

7.     Bake for 30 to 40 minutes at 180°C, or until a toothpick comes out clean, once inserted.

8.     Remove from the baking tin and leave out to cool on a cooling rack.

9.     Dust the icing sugar over the brownies using a fine mesh sieve, and cut into squares.

For variation, replace the KitKat with 100g (½  cup) pecan nuts or walnuts, roughly chopped.