Day three of five... Adventures in Chocolate!

Dear Readers, 

How are you bearing up during The Marathon of Whimsy? Silver Whimsy herself is becoming slightly fatigued by all this baking, but is nonetheless ENJOYING the CHALLENGE! (Never a good sign when one talks of oneself in the third person is it?)

So today, the Whimsy Kitchens bring you what has been described by our Number One Baking Guru Dan Lepard as "simply the best chocolate muffin you'll ever eat". And, by George, I tell thee this needs be true because this is quite probably the most complex chocolate muffin you will ever make as well. I started baking at 11 am and I have only just finished, so from mise-en-place prep through to baking to icing to Whimsy photoshoot, these chocolate muffins have taken THREE HOURS to make. That is a long time in my book! 

First things first, here are the ingredients: 

50g cornflour

3 tablespoons cocoa

100g dark soft brown sugar

225 ml cold water 

75g unsalted butter (cubed) 

125g dark choc broken up into small pieces

75ml sunflower oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large free range eggs

125g caster sugar

125g plain flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

So, these are entitled 'Chocolate custard muffins' and come from Dan Lepard's 'Short and Sweet' book. The name instantly put me off as did the complexity of the recipe. It has;t really been noted here but I have NO luck when it comes to baking with chocolate. It always seems to go wrong. SIBF suggests it's just that my palate doesn't really work around chocolate in baking and I think that's true, but I also think I just suck at baking with chocolate. I was hoping Dan's recipe would break that trend! 

The first step was super-exciting because it felt like SCIENCE! Place the cornflour, cocoa, brown sugar and water into a saucepan. Whisk under a medium heat constantly and watch the magic happen!!! As it reaches boiling point (don't be put off - it will take a few minutes), your mixture will begin to turn incredibly thick, smooth and shiny as pictured above. It is v exciting! When this happens, remove from the heat and...

...beat in the butter and chocolate until melted and absorbed (doesn't take very long at all). 

Then, beat in the oil, vanilla and one of the eggs until it's combined before...

...beating in the caster sugar and remaining egg until the mixture is smooth, glossy and thick. It will probably look a bit like this: 

Sift the flour and baking powder together into the pan and marvel as your hand too turns preternaturally enormous as mine in the picture below. (Sorry, I just had to include this image as I CANNOT BELIEVE how long my fingers look. I am also EXTREMELY AMUSED by the shape of my little finger.)

 Scoop out into your muffin tray. TOP TIP: I wasn't sure how deep I could fill them and ended up with some mixture left over but having made them I can now confirm that you can fill your cases to the top as they don't rise *that* much and mine could have definitely taken more mix.

 Bake in the oven at 160 fan assisted for twenty five minutes. They do give you a sense of pride when they come out of the oven because they promise so much! Especially for a baker renowned (by her SIBF) for chocolate baking disasters.

 I'm not even going to BEGIN explaining how I made the extremely extra-chocolatey-get-me-some-more-chocolate-oh-no-that-is-way-too-much-chocolate-help-I-have-now-o'd'd-on-green-and-blacks chocolate icing, but if you would like the recipe, feel free to email me or leave a message on the blog.

 I suggest serving in the garden with a cocktail umbrella. And possibly a cocktail.

 Anyone want a chocolate muffin? Seriously I have SO MUCH CAKE IN THE HOUSE HELP! COME AND EAT SOME!!
Until the next time, which I calculate to be tomorrow,
Silver Whimsy x

Something for the Weekend...

Hello Cake Lovers,

I hope you're all coping with the on-going battle between summer and winter? It looks like there's about to be a storm here so instead of going swimming, I decided to make a deliciously decadent dark chocolate marble cake. It's a cake that reminds me of birthday parties when I was little and has the most intense chocolate icing; a perfect remedy for post-election blues. (Or rather a momentary remedy - as much as I like to think baking could make political waves I'm not sure it can.)

Making this cake really couldn't be easier - make a Victoria Sponge, split the mixture into two bowls and add a tablespoon of coacoa powder mixed up with warm milk to one half of the mixture to make the chocolate sponge. Dot alternate tablespoons of the two mixtures in a circular cake tin and then swirl in a figure of eight with a skewer to make it marble!

I have to confess that this time for some weird reason I got it into my head that my brand new palette knife (major excitement in the Silver Whimsy kitchen at the purchase of said knife) would work just as well as a skewer. This is not a good idea! Do use a skewer to make your swirls. I kind of realised as soon as I used the knife that it wasn't a good idea but I carried on regardless because I'm having one of those days - I dropped a bag of sugar, spilt a whole cup of tea on both my feet and the sofa and put a white sheet in with an extremely dark wash. Domestic Goddess I am not. Mais je digress... I find you have to bake this cake for about 45-50 mins because you'd normally split a Vicky Sponge so it only takes 25 mins, but do check after 30 mins because it would be awful if it burnt!

Anyway, once your cake has cooled melt 100g of 70% coacoa solids dark chocolate with about 25g unsalted butter and two tablespoons of water in a bowl over a pan of gently bubbling water. It's best just to leave the chocolate mixture to do it's own thing and then stir it to combine and thicken once it's all melted because this helps to avoid the chocolate from splitting.

Then, using a spatula, ice your cake! Yay! That's the fun bit.

Then eat it with a cup of good and strong Yorkshire Tea and find temporary chocolate oblivion. One of the bst things about this cake is that it keeps really well for a few days so if you make it on a Friday you can still have cake joy on a Monday!

Until next time, happy weekend,

Love Silver Whimsy x