I’ve already shared one recipe in this series: my Pink & Green Checkerboard Biscuits, inspired by Rosamund and Posy Li, two of the new characters in Season 4. Today’s recipe is inspired by their mother: Araminta Gun, the Evil Stepmother-esque antagonist of the season, played by Katie Leung (whom you might recognise as Cho Chang from the Harry Potter films!).

Table of Contents

• The Inspiration
• Equipment
• Ingredients
• How to Make Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets
  • Making the Chocolate Shortbread Dough
  • Pressing the Shortbread into the Tartlet Tins
  • Baking the Shortbread
  • Making the Espresso Caramel
  • Making the Ganache
    • Microwave Method
    • Hob Method
    • Serving Instructions
• Recipe

The Inspiration

Araminta Gun is the archetypal ‘Evil Stepmother’; she’s twice-widowed, always wearing black and positively brimming with nefarious schemes. When it came to creating a sweet treat inspired by her character, I immediately thought of some sort of double-chocolate tart (I mean, with that all-black wardrobe, it was kind of a must!): chocolate pastry and a dark, chocolate filling for a super moody, but still sophisticated and elegant treat. I actually received some tartlet tins (these ones, from Lakeland!), for my birthday last year, so I decided to make mini tarts instead of one big tart (one of the best decisions I could have made, as it turns out— more on that in a sec!). I also love making my Bridgerton-inspired recipes feel like they could fit right in at a fancy afternoon tea, so tartlets seemed like the perfect choice.

I absolutely could have made a simple, dark chocolate ganache tart with a chocolate pastry, but I wanted something a little bit more unusual for this recipe. I toyed with a couple of different ideas, but eventually settled on something that I was really excited about: a Millionaire’s Shortbread-inspired, espresso-flavoured tart. If you aren’t familiar with Millionaire’s Shortbread, it’s a super popular treat here in the UK: it’s typically served in bar form (like a brownie or slice) and features a layer of shortbread, a layer of condensed milk caramel and a layer of chocolate.

Money plays a key role in Araminta’s storyline, so the whole ‘millionaire’ vibe seemed like a perfect fit. She’s by no means a sweet character though and Millionaire’s Shortbread is (perhaps infamously) a very sweet dessert, so I wanted something that, along with the darker, double-chocolate element, would tone that sweetness down and speak more to the bitterness of her character: enter, the espresso. Chocolate and coffee is such a classic pairing (it even has a name: mocha!), so this flavour combination isn’t anything groundbreaking, but the tartlets still feel pretty unusual and exciting (while still being absolutely delicious and very palatable)!

While you would usually use pastry for a tartlet, I’ve opted to use a shortbread base here for a few reasons. Firstly, I wanted to stick as closely as possible to a typical Millionaire’s Shortbread. Secondly, the added sweetness of the shortbread compared to a pastry actually works really well in this recipe, because both the espresso and chocolate are, well, not so sweet. Thirdly (and finally), I actually have a bit of a mental block about pastry: I just haven’t been able to master it yet! This shortbread base is SO much easier to work with than a classic shortcrust pastry: it’s really great!

So, in summation: my Araminta Gun-inspired, Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets feature a chocolate shortbread crust, an espresso caramel filling and a shiny, dark chocolate ganache glaze. All of these elements come together to make the slightly more refined, much less sweet cousin of the Millionaire’s Shortbread and, I have to say, they might just be one of my favourite treats yet!

Equipment

As I mentioned, I used these tartlet tins from Lakeland for this recipe. They’re 10cm in diameter, 2cm deep, non-stick and have fluted edges and removable bases.

If you’re able, I really do recommend making this recipe in tartlet form: I’ve tried it in a couple of different formats (bars, bigger tarts etc.) and the ratio of the different layers is just perfect in the mini form! Plus, they slice so beautifully and look so pretty: I might just have to start developing even more tartlet recipes so we can all justify the presence of specialist tartlet tins in our kitchens…

Ingredients

To make these Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets, you will need:

• Caster sugar

I use golden caster sugar here, as I do for most of my bakes, because I think it adds a deeper flavour. If you only have white caster sugar though, that will work absolutely fine!

• Butter

I’m using salted butter here, because the salt really enhances the chocolate flavour and helps to temper the sweetness of the caramel. If you only have unsalted butter to hand, that’s absolutely fine— just add a pinch or two of fine sea salt to both the shortbread and the caramel.

• Plain flour

Don’t be tempted to use self-raising flour here, or your shortbread will puff up too much and you won’t be able to fit the fillings into the tartlet cases!

• Cocoa powder

Cocoa powder is what turns regular shortbread into chocolate shortbread. It is quite a drying ingredient though, so the amount of butter in the shortbread is increased slightly to ensure the dough comes together perfectly.

• Condensed milk

Ah, condensed milk: love of my life, bringer of joy. This is a key ingredient in any Millionaire’s Shortbread and this recipe is no different! It is the main ingredient in the caramel layer.

• Dark muscovado sugar

Typically, Millionaire’s Shortbread recipes use a more neutral sugar in the filling (think light brown soft sugar, light muscovado or even golden caster sugar), but I’ve used dark muscovado here to really enhance the bitter espresso flavour in the caramel and bring a little more depth and darkness to the dessert overall.

• Golden syrup

A small amount of golden syrup is also added to the caramel filling. I find that this helps to give the caramel a smoother, more velvet-y texture.

• Instant espresso powder

Instant espresso powder is the key to getting a really intense, espresso flavour without adding to much liquid to the caramel filling (and it’s readily available in most supermarkets). It is different to instant coffee granules: a bit richer and stronger, so do make sure you get the right product!

• Dark chocolate

Use a high-quality dark chocolate here for the best results— the flavour will really shine through in the finished dessert! You can go as dark as you fancy: I’ve used a 54% chocolate, because I really love the taste, but a 70% one would make for an even more sophisticated flavour.

• Double cream

We’ll melt the cream together with the chocolate to make a rich ganache. If you’re in the US, use heavy cream.

• Glucose syrup (optional)

To make sure the final layer of ganache stays really shiny, even after it’s been refrigerated, I like to add a very small amount of glucose syrup. I have this on hand for a bunch of other baking purposes, but it is a bit of a speciality ingredient. You can substitute golden syrup for the same effect, but I do find that it adds a slightly more intense sweetness to the ganache layer, so you might want to consider using a darker chocolate to balance it out!

• Sea salt

You’ll need to add a little salt to both the shortbread and the caramel if you’re using unsalted butter, just to help all of the other ingredients really shine. I also like to sprinkle the finished tarts with a little flaky sea salt: it’s a really simple decoration but it looks very elegant (and tastes delicious!). I’ve used Fleur de Sel on these tarts, which is extra delicious, but regular sea salt would also be great. Just be sure to sprinkle the salt on just before you serve the tarts, as it can dissolve slightly if it’s left in the fridge, which doesn’t look quite so pretty.

How to Make Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets

These tartlets look complicated, and there are a few different steps you need to work through, but each step is super straightforward! The shortbread crust is SO much easier to work with than a typical pastry (and it’s made entirely in the food processor!), the caramel layer is incredibly forgiving and the ganache is truly just a melt-everything-together situation. Take it step by step and you’ll be absolutely fine!

Making the Chocolate Shortbread Dough

To make the shortbread dough, put all of the dry ingredients (caster sugar, plain flour, and cocoa powder) into a food processor and pulse to combine them. I’m using a mini food processor here, because I was making a smaller batch, but I’d recommend using a standard-sized food processor for the full batch!

This ensures that the cocoa powder is well incorporated and your dough is evenly chocolatey!

Add the cold, diced butter to the dry ingredients.

Then pulse again until a chocolatey dough forms. That’s it!

A couple of tips at this point:

• Make sure your butter is cold and diced.

The cold butter helps to make the shortbread really short (hence the name!) and flaky. Dicing it beforehand means that it will combine more quickly with the rest of the ingredients.

• Don’t be tempted to add water.

Because the butter is cold, the dough will take a bit of pulsing/processing before it comes together. You might start thinking that it’s too dry to form a dough, but it’s not! You don’t need to add any extra liquid/butter, just keep processing it and the dough will form. Trust me!

Pressing the Shortbread into the Tartlet Tins

Unlike pastry, this shortbread can just be pressed into the tartlet tins. No rolling out, no flouring the work surface: just pressing in the dough with your fingers.

Start by lightly greasing each of the tartlet tins with butter. This will help you get the tarts out of the tins later on!

Bring the dough together with your hands, then divide it into 9 equal portions: 1 per tartlet tin. This way, you’ll know exactly how much dough each tartlet requires and you won’t have to worry about over-filling one and under-filling another.

Use your fingers to press one portion of the shortbread into one of the tartlet tins. Aim for an even layer of shortbread across the base and up the sides of the tin, leaving a small amount of overhang at the top edge. This doesn’t need to be perfect, as we’ll smooth everything out later, once the tarts come out of the oven.

Use a rolling pin to roll over the top of each tartlet tin. This will remove the excess shortbread dough and leave a super neat, flat edge on the tartlet shells.

The final step before the tartlet shells can be baked is to prick them all over with a fork. The shortbread will still puff up a little in the oven, but this allows the steam to escape and helps to minimise the puffing, so don’t skip it!

Once all of your tartlet shells are filled with shortbread and ready to go, collect all of the offcuts and bring them together with your hands. These offcuts can be formed into a few little chocolate biscuits, which can be baked alongside the tartlets as chef’s treats. Don’t be tempted to press the offcuts back into the tartlets— you want that extra space for the fillings!

Baking the Shortbread

Arrange the tartlets (and the extra biscuits!) on a baking tray, then bake them in the middle of the oven at 175°C (conventional, not fan) for 12-15 minutes, until the shortbread is puffed and the surface looks dry. If you’re still waiting for your oven to preheat, I’d recommend putting the tartlets into the fridge to keep them nice and cold until you can bake them.

At this point, the shortbread won’t resemble a tart shell. However, while it’s warm, it will be soft enough to manipulate, so you can use a metal dessertspoon/cup measure to gently press down on the base to flatten it back down and against the sides to sharpen them up and make it resemble a tart shell once more. This sounds fiddly, but it’s actually so quick and easy to do (and I would still take it over rolling out pastry!).

Repeat this for all of your tarts, so that you’re left with perfect little cocoa shortbread tartlet shells, ready to be filled! Set them aside to cool slightly while you make the espresso caramel filling.

Making the Espresso Caramel

I know, I know, the word ‘caramel’ can send even the most confident of bakers into a spiral, but I promise, this one’s easy! No sugar thermometers, no convoluted temperature tests, just everything in a pot and a bit of light stirring.

I like to use a saucepan with a pouring spout for this, because it makes it super easy to pour the hot caramel into the tartlet shells when it’s ready. If you have one, I’d definitely recommend it.

Place the butter, condensed milk, dark muscovado sugar and golden syrup into the saucepan and set it over a low heat.

Stir the mixture every now and then until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.

While this is happening, dissolve the instant espresso powder in a splash of hot water and set it aside, ready for later.

Once the mixture is smooth, turn the heat up slightly to medium-low and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. The mixture has a tendency to stick, so you need to stir more frequently at this stage to stop it from burning.

Allow the mixture to boil for a couple of minutes, until it’s nice and thick. I realise this is a little vague, but don’t stress about it: a minute or two of boiling and stirring and you’ll be absolutely fine!

Remove the pan from the heat and stir through the dissolved instant espresso powder until it is completely incorporated.

Adding the espresso at this stage ensures that the coffee doesn’t burn while the sugar boils, which would make everything a little too bitter (and much less tasty!).

With that, the caramel layer is ready! Pour it into the tartlet shells, filling each tartlet about 3/4 full (this is to leave space for the ganache layer later).

Set the tartlets aside at room temperature to cool completely (about 30 minutes to an hour) before making the ganache layer.

Making the Ganache

The final layer of the tarts is a simple, dark chocolate ganache, with the addition of a not-so-secret ingredient to make it extra shiny and help it slice really nicely when served. This ingredient is glucose syrup (also known as liquid glucose). If you can’t find glucose syrup, you can use golden syrup instead (though this has a slightly more intense, caramel-y sweetness, so I would recommend using a slightly darker chocolate to balance this out if you do).

You can make the ganache in the microwave or on the hob. I tend to use the microwave, because it’s so easy!

Microwave Method

Finely chop the dark chocolate, then put it into a microwaveable jug with the cream and the glucose syrup.

Heat this in the microwave on the lowest heat setting in 30 second bursts, stirring in between each burst, until the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth, shiny ganache.

Hob Method

Finely chop the dark chocolate and place it into a heatproof jug.

Place the cream and glucose syrup into a small saucepan, then set over a medium heat and bring to just below a simmer, stirring frequently to ensure that it does not catch.

Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate and leave to sit for a minute.

After a minute, stir the mixture until the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth, shiny ganache.

Whichever method you use, once the ganache is ready, pour it over the caramel layer on each of the tartlets, filling them right up to the top, so that the ganache is level with the top edge of the shortbread crust. Give the tarts a gentle shake from side to side to smooth out the ganache layer and ensure that it completely covers the caramel layer below.

Transfer the tartlets to the fridge and allow them to chill for at least 2 hours (though they can be stored in the fridge like this for 2-3 days: the espresso flavour will get even more intense the longer they chill!) before serving.

Serving Instructions

When you’re ready to serve the tarts, carefully remove them from their tins. I find the best way to do this is to gently pull the sides of the tin away from the shortbread all the way around to loosen it, then set the tin on a small jar/tin and press down gently on the top edge to release it, making sure to apply any pressure as evenly as possible around the circumference of the tin. Then, hold the tartlet upside down and use a small, sharp knife to pry the base of the tin off the bottom of the tartlet.

Just before serving, sprinkle the tartlets with a little flaky sea salt (I used Fleur de Sel, for extra fanciness!). You can either slice the tartlets into tiny slices (SO CUTE!) or you can serve them whole for extra decadence. If you are slicing them, I recommend using a small, sharp knife and wiping it off in between each cut so that you can see the pretty layers.

Don’t be tempted to sprinkle the tartlets with salt ahead of time, while they’re still in the fridge, because I find that the salt starts dissolving and looks a lot less pretty if you do this.

Recipe

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Double Chocolate Espresso Millionaire’s Tartlets

Inspired by the character of Araminta Gun in Bridgerton: Season 4, these tartlets feature a chocolate shortbread crust, an espresso caramel filling and a shiny, dark chocolate ganache layer, all topped off with a sprinkling of sea salt.

Course Dessert

Keyword Caramel, Chocolate, Espresso, Millionaire’s Shortbread

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Chill Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 9 tartlets

Equipment

• 9 x 10cm diameter tartlet tins

Ingredients

For the chocolate shortbread:

• 75 g caster sugar
• 225 g plain flour
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 180 g salted butter, cold and diced, plus extra for greasing (see Note 1).

For the espresso caramel layer:

• 100 g salted butter (see Note 1).
• 1 x 397g can condensed milk
• 100 g dark muscovado sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/2 tbsp instant espresso powder, dissolved in a splash of hot water.

For the ganache layer:

• 90 g dark chocolate, finely chopped (see Note 2).
• 180 ml double cream
• 1/2 tsp glucose syrup (see Note 3).

To finish:

• Flaky sea salt (I used Fleur de Sel, but any sea salt would work).

Instructions

Make the chocolate shortbread tartlet shells:

• Preheat the oven to 175°C (conventional oven, not fan). Grease 9 tartlet tins lightly with butter and set aside.
• Place all of the shortbread ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until a dough forms (this will take a bit of time— just keep processing and it will come together! Don't be tempted to add any water.).
• Tip the dough out onto a clean work surface and finish bringing it together with your hands. Divide the dough into 9 equal portions, one for each tartlet tin.
• Press a ball of dough into one of the tartlet tins, aiming to get an even layer of shortbread right across the bottom and up the sides of the tin. Leave a small amount of overhang at the top of the tin, then use a rolling pan to roll over the top of the tin to remove the extra dough and leave a super neat edge. The dough offcuts can be used to make a few little chocolate biscuits that can be baked alongside the tartlets.
• Prick the dough on the base of each tartlet all over with a fork, then bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until the surface looks dry (the shortbread will still puff up quite a bit, but that's okay— we'll fix it in the next step!).
• As soon as the tartlet shells come out of the oven, use a dessertspoon/metal cup measure to gently press the shortbread down on the base and around the sides. The shortbread will still be quite soft when it's warm, so you can easily reshape it to make the perfect little tart shells.
• Leave the tarts to one side to cool slightly while you make the caramel layer.

Make the espresso caramel layer:

• Place the butter, condensed milk, dark muscovado sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan (preferably one with a pouring spout, if you have one). Set over low heat and stir every now and then until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
• Turn the heat up slightly to medium-low and allow the mixture to boil, stirring frequently, for a couple of minutes, until thick.
• Remove the pan from the heat and stir through the dissolved instant espresso powder until completely incorporated.
• Pour the hot caramel into the tartlet shells, filling each tartlet about 3/4 full (you need to leave room for the ganache layer). Set the tartlets aside at room temperature to cool completely (about 30 minutes to 1 hour).

Make the ganache layer:

• Once the tartlets are completely cool, make the ganache layer. Place all of the ganache ingredients into a microwaveable jug and heat on the lowest setting in 30 second bursts, stirring in between each burst, until the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth, shiny ganache. If you don't have a microwave, bring the cream and glucose syrup to just below a simmer in a saucepan, then pour over the chopped chocolate, leave to stand for a minute, then stir until smooth.
• Pour the ganache onto the cooled tartlets, filling them right up to the top, so that the ganache sits level with the top of the shortbread crust. Give the tarts a gentle shake from side to side to make sure the ganache layer is smooth and completely covers the caramel layer below.
• Transfer the tarts to the fridge and chill for at least 2 hours before serving. The tarts can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days, so you can make them ahead of time (the espresso flavour will also get more intense as they chill).

To serve:

• Carefully remove the tartlets from their tins. Sprinkle with a little flaky sea salt and serve.

Notes

1. You can use unsalted butter instead: use the same amount but add a pinch or two of fine sea salt.
2. I used a 54% dark chocolate, which isn’t super dark, but works really well with the other flavours. If you want a slightly more bitter, intense flavour, use a darker chocolate (a 70% would work well!).
3. Adding a small amount of glucose syrup to the ganache makes it super shiny and helps it slice really nicely. Glucose syrup is a bit of a specialist ingredient though so, if you don’t have it to hand, you can use golden syrup instead. Golden syrup has a slightly more intense, caramel-y flavour and sweetness, so, if you do this, so you might want to consider using a darker chocolate to balance it out.

And welcome to the latest, festive instalment of my Baking Around the World series, where I (attempt to) bake delicious, sweet treats from around the globe, in an effort to broaden my foodie horizons!

This time, we’re heading back to Sweden! I’ve already made one bake from Sweden (jordgubbstårta, a light and airy cake filled with pastry cream and strawberries), but I love making festive cookies from around the world this time of year, so I decided to try out these schackrutor (‘chess squares’) too.

A quick Baking Around the World disclaimer before we get into the recipe:

While I have done/will do extensive research for each of the recipes in this series, the recipes are unlikely to be 100% authentic because of differences in ingredient availability, variations within families/regions and multiple other reasons. I'm so sorry if I absolutely butcher your favourite childhood treat (and please let me know in the comments if I have made any unforgiveable errors), but please do give me the benefit of the doubt here- I am just a baker with a serious sweet tooth, trying to broaden her baking (and cultural) horizons through tasty snacks :)

Table of Contents

• Schackrutor: Explained
• Ingredients
• Making the Dough
• Shaping the Dough
• Slicing and Baking the Cookies
• Storage Instructions
• Final Thoughts
• Recipe
• Sources Used

Schackrutor: Explained

Schackrutor are bitesize, shortbread-style biscuits that are made with two flavours of dough (vanilla and chocolate), which are pieced together to create a (typically) 2×2 checkerboard (hence the name, which means ‘chess squares’). Checkerboard cookies are popular all over the world, but it seems that schackrutor were where it all began!

These cookies aren’t restricted to being a ‘Christmas cookie’, but I think they make such a lovely festive treat, especially if you have any friends/family members who aren’t a fan of the more traditional Christmas flavours (think nuts, oranges and dried fruits!).

Schackrutor are often served in Sweden for fika (a social coffee break steeped in rich tradition), sometimes are part of the ‘sju sorters kakor’ (‘seven types of cookie’) custom. Apparently, seven is considered the ideal number for cookies at a gathering, because any less would be ‘stingy’ and any more would be ‘over the top’! To save time, one dough is often used to make multiple different types of biscuits, sometimes called ‘1-2-3 Cookies’, (because of the proportions of the ingredients in the dough: 1 : 2 : 3 of sugar : butter : flour!) and this is the dough we’ll be making today.

Ingredients

You only need 5 ingredients to make schackrutor. The basic dough itself only requires 3 ingredients, while the 2 remaining ingredients provide the chocolate and vanilla flavour.

• Caster sugar

I used golden caster sugar, but white caster sugar will also work.

• Salted butter

I discovered in my research for the jordgubbstårta that the majority of the butter available in Swedish supermarket tends to be salted, so I’ve used salted butter here in an attempt to be more authentic! It’s great, because then you don’t have to worry about adding any salt yourself! If you only have unsalted butter, I’d recommend adding a generous pinch of fine sea salt to your flour at the beginning of the recipe. Your butter needs to be at room temperature (or slightly softened, if your house is chilly!).

• Plain flour

It’s important to use plain flour (not self-raising) for this recipe, because you don’t want the biscuits to rise— you want them to be short and crumbly!

• Vanilla bean paste

In Sweden, vanilla flavour is usually imparted via the addition of a store-bought product called vaniljsocker (‘vanilla sugar’). This ingredient is not readily available here in the UK, so I’ve used vanilla bean paste instead. I like using the paste because it imparts a lovely vanilla flavour without adding too much liquid to the dough (and you can see all the tiny vanilla bean specks in the cookies!).

• Cocoa powder

A small amount of cocoa powder is added to half of the dough to give it a chocolate-y flavour and a deep brown colour, which contrasts nicely with the vanilla dough and helps the checkerboard design to really stand out.

Making the Dough

Schackrutor dough is really easy to make: I do it in the food processor (because the cookies are so tiny, you only need a small amount of dough, so I do it in my mini food processor. You could easily scale the recipe up and make loads of biscuits, though!).

Place the caster sugar, softened butter, plain flour and vanilla bean paste into the food processor.

Pulse everything together until it comes together into a dough… and that’s the dough made!

Tip the dough out onto a clean work surface.

Then give it a little knead to bring it together into a smooth ball.

At this point, you need to weigh the dough, so that you can split it in half evenly. You can eyeball this, but you’ll get the neatest, most even cookies if you weight it! Weigh the whole ball of dough, then divide that number by 2 and split the dough into two equal balls, each weighing that final amount.

Now you need to add the cocoa powder to one of the dough balls. I like to knead it in by hand, until no streaks of vanilla dough remain, so that I can make sure it’s really well incorporated! It’s a little messy, but all the best things are.

Once you have two balls of dough: one chocolate and one vanilla, you’re ready to shape the dough into the classic checkerboard design!

Shaping the Dough

Now it’s time to make the schackrutor log (though it’s really more of a cuboid, which is what gives these biscuits their classic, square shape when sliced!).

The log is made up of four smaller logs (also cuboids): two vanilla and two chocolate, which are pressed together to form the checkerboard design.

Take one of your dough halves (I’m working with the chocolate dough first here) and divide it in half again, so you have two equal balls of dough (it helps to weigh and divide the dough by 2 here, just like last time, to ensure they’re perfectly even!).

Take one of the dough balls and form it into a thin, rectangular log. The aim is for the cross section of the log to be a 1 x 1 cm square (mine ended up about 17cm long). I used my hands to press the dough into a rough log, then tapped all of the sides with a bench scraper, turning the log as I went, to get those square edges.

Repeat this process for the second dough ball, making a square log as similar to the first as you can! Things might be getting a little sticky at this point, but it’s important that you don’t add any extra flour/cocoa powder, because the logs need to be tacky enough to stick to each other later on. If things get unbearably sticky, I’d recommend just washing down your work surface and utensils before getting going again (almost like a stickiness reset!).

Once you have your two chocolate logs, repeat the whole process for the vanilla dough. I’d recommend wiping down your work surface before you do this, to make sure you don’t get any streaks of cocoa in your vanilla dough. Because of the added cocoa powder in the chocolate dough, you might find that the vanilla dough is slightly softer/stickier, but don’t worry— it’ll bake up perfectly!

Once you have all four of the logs ready to go, you can form the checkerboard design.

Place one vanilla log alongside one chocolate log and press them together, being careful not to distort the shapes too much.

Then, add the second vanilla log on top of the chocolate log and the second chocolate log on top of the bottom vanilla log, pressed against each other along the middle so that you have a 2×2 design, with the logs of each colour in opposite quadrants. Gently press all of the logs together so that there are no gaps between them.

Wrap the log tightly in clingfilm, then use the bench scraper again to press gently on each of the sides a few times to really square them off.

Transfer the log to the fridge and allow it to chill for at least 2 hours before slicing. This ensures that they are firm enough to slice without disturbing the checkerboard pattern (and means that the cookies won’t spread too much during baking!).

Slicing and Baking the Cookies

Once the cookie logs have chilled, it’s time to slice & bake them!

Start by preheating the oven to 180°C (conventional oven, not fan) and lining a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Remove the schackrutor log from the fridge and use a small, sharp knife to cut it into slices, about 5-7mm thick (don’t worry too much about getting them perfect, just try your best so that they bake pretty evenly!).

Space the cookies out onto the prepared baking trays (they won’t spread too much, but it’s best to leave a little space between them, just in case!).

Then, it’s time to bake the schackrutor! They’ll need about 6-8 minutes in the preheated oven, just until the edges are starting to turn golden.

Once baked, leave them to cool for 5 or so minutes on their trays, then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Storage Instructions

The schackrutor need to be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. They’ll keep for about 3 days before they start going a bit soft (still tasty, just not quite as crisp!).

Final Thoughts

I LOVE these little checkerboard cookies! They dough itself is very similar to the one I use for my 5-Ingredient Iced Star Biscuits, but it really shows how versatile it is, because the two cookies have such different vibes.

Also… these cookies are SO much smaller than I expected them to be! As in, they really are bitesize. You could definitely make them bigger if you wanted to (by making taller/wider logs, or even stacking more logs together, which I’m very interested in having a go at), but I do kind of love how tiny they are, it makes them feel so cute and dainty.

These are a simple cookie, elevated to something surprisingly impressive by just a little cocoa powder and a bit of shaping, which I think is pretty magical! I also like that you can form the log, get everything ready, then slice and bake the cookies when you want to serve them, so your family/friends can enjoy some delicious, fresh biscuits.

Recipe

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Swedish Schackrutor

Bitesize vanilla and chocolate shortbread cookies with a checkerboard design.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Swedish

Keyword 5 ingredient, Biscuit, Chocolate, Vanilla

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes minutes

Chill Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours 35 minutes minutes

Servings 25 cookies

Equipment

• Baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
• Bench scraper/clean metal ruler, for squaring off the biscuit dough.

Ingredients

• 25 g caster sugar
• 50 g salted butter, softened.
• 75 g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

Instructions

• Place the sugar, butter, flour and vanilla bean paste into a food processor. Pulse until a dough forms.
• Weigh the dough and divide it in half evenly.
• Knead the cocoa powder into one half of the cookie dough until no streaks of vanilla dough remains.
• Divide the vanilla dough into two equal balls. Form each ball into a square log (use a bench scraper/clean metal ruler to really square off the edges), about 1 x 1 x 17cm. Set aside, then repeat with the chocolate dough, so that you have four logs. Do not add any extra flour/cocoa powder at this stage— you need the dough to be slightly sticky.
• Press one vanilla log against one chocolate log. Place the second vanilla log on top of the first chocolate log, then the second chocolate log in the remaining space, on top of the first vanilla log. Press the logs together gently so they stick.
• Wrap the log tightly in cling film and use a bench scraper to press up against the sides and make it super square. Place the log into the fridge to chill for 2 hours before slicing and baking.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional, not fan).
• Cut the log into approx. 5-7mm slices. Space the cookies on lined baking trays and bake in the preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until just starting to turn golden around the edges.
• Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the trays, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before enjoying. The cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days before they start going soft.

Sources Used

Books:

Crumbs: Cookies and Sweets from Around the World, Ben Mims.

ScandiKitchen: Fika and Hygge, Bronte Aurell.

Websites:

Daily In-A Kitchen: 3×3 Checkerboard Cookies

Totally Swedish: Brysselkex and Schackrutor

True North Kitchen: Swedish Checkerboard Cookies

Swedish Spoon: Schackrutor—Swedish checkerboard cookies

Visit Sweden: Chessboard Cookies (‘Schackrutor’) – Recipe

Every Christmas, I make a whole load of my family’s favourite Peppermint Bark. We were sent some homemade peppermint bark as a gift many years ago and, ever since, it just hasn’t been the festive season without a full jar of the stuff!

However, my sister-in-law, Amy, is not a huge fan of peppermint, so, obviously, that particular bark isn’t exactly her treat of choice. Last year, we sat down and brainstormed some ideas for a zero-peppermint alternative and we landed on this: a Rocky Road-inspired bark, with a 50/50 blend of milk and dark chocolate with raisins, marshmallows and digestive biscuits.

In today’s post, I’m sharing the recipe for Amy’s Bark: a fun, festive alternative to peppermint bark (for the candy cane-haters and the rocky road-lovers alike!).

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• Method
  • Tempering the Chocolate
  • Assembling the Bark
• Recipe

Ingredients

To make Amy’s Bark, you will need:

• Dark chocolate

I like to use a 50/50 blend of dark and milk chocolate for this recipe. The dark chocolate that I use contains about 72% cocoa solids (so relatively dark). When combined with the milk chocolate, you get a perfectly sweet (but not-too-sweet!), chocolate base. However, if you prefer, you can use all dark or all milk: it’s up to you!

• Milk chocolate

The milk chocolate that I use for this recipe contains about 32% cocoa solids.

• Digestive biscuits

Biscuits add great crunch and texture to the bark. Digestives are a classic biscuit here in the UK and a key feature of our Rocky Road. They’re great, because they add a slight saltiness, which balances out the sweetness of the other ingredients, but feel free to experiment with different biscuits!

• Raisins

Dried fruit adds sweetness, tartness and a bit of a chew to bark. You can use raisins or sultanas for this recipe (I actually prefer sultanas myself, because they’re seedless!), but you could also really branch out and use dried cranberries, cherries or even chopped, dried apricots!

• Mini marshmallows

Marshmallows add even more chew and sweetness. I prefer to use mini marshmallows so they can be easily distributed throughout the bark (and it’s a lot less sticky than cutting up bigger marshmallows!).

Method

Amy’s Bark is pretty simple to make: the only tricky part is tempering the chocolate! Once the chocolate is in temper, you need to work fast, so it’s best to get everything weighed out and ready before you start:

• Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
• Weigh out the marshmallows and raisins and have them to hand, ready to sprinkle over the bark.
• Break the digestive biscuits up into very small pieces (this helps to keep the bark relatively thin and ensures that the biscuits are evenly distributed throughout the chocolate).

Tempering the Chocolate

To make Amy’s Bark, you start by tempering the chocolate. This ensures the finished bark sets properly at room temperature and has a great snap.

This chocolate tempering process is complicated by the fact that we’re using a combination of two chocolate types: milk and dark, so it’s a little different to the chocolate tempering instructions given here. Luckily, dark chocolate is actually the easiest to temper, so it’s easier to temper this mix than it is to just temper milk chocolate!

You’re welcome to use your favourite method for tempering chocolate, but this is what I do:

Roughly chop all of the chocolate (milk and dark). Transfer about 4/5 of the chocolate to a heatproof bowl and microwave on the lowest setting for 1 minute (if you don’t have a microwave, you can do this over a pan of barely simmering water on the hob).

While the chocolate is in the microwave, continue chopping the remaining 1/5 of the chocolate so that it is super fine. We’ll use this later to help with the tempering process.

After 1 minute, give the chocolate a stir. It won’t look very different at this stage, so put it back in for another minute (don’t be tempted to skip the stirring step, though: chocolate can burn very easily, so you want to take it slow and steady).

Keep microwaving the chocolate in 30 second – 1 minute bursts, stirring in between each burst, until it is completely melted. Check the temperature as you go, using a probe thermometer: you want it to reach 45-47°C. Don’t let the chocolate go any higher than 50°C.

Once the chocolate has melted and is at the correct temperature, add a small amount of the finely chopped, reserved chocolate and stir it in well until it has melted into the rest of the chocolate. The additional chocolate is known as ‘seed chocolate’ and helps the melted chocolate to cool the right way. This, along with the stirring motion, is the key to perfectly tempered chocolate!

Keep adding seed chocolate and stirring, keeping an eye on the temperature of the chocolate, until it reaches 26-27°C. If you run out of seed chocolate, just keep stirring the chocolate until it comes down to temperature (or chop up a little more chocolate, if you have it!).

Next, return the chocolate to the microwave and heat it very gently (5-10 second bursts on the lowest setting) until it reaches 30-32°C. The chocolate is now in temper and is ready to use! You’ll want to work fast at this stage, because it will start to set quite quickly.

Assembling the Bark

Tip the broken up digestives into the bowl with the tempered chocolate. Mix them together quickly, but thoroughly, so that all of the digestives are covered in the chocolate. This helps to keep the biscuits slightly fresher and crunchier than if they were just scattered over the top of the chocolate, so your bark will last longer.

Tip the chocolate mixture onto the prepared baking tray and spread it out into a thin layer using an offset palette knife, or the back of a spoon/spatula.

Sprinkle over the raisins and marshmallows, pressing them down gently as you go to ensure that they stick to the chocolate. Continue to work quickly at this point, because if the chocolate sets too hard before the raisins/marshmallows are added, they won’t stick!

Set the bark aside at room temperature to harden completely (about 30 minutes).

Once firm, break the bark up into pieces and enjoy!

The bark can be stored at room temperature, but it’s important to keep it in an airtight jar/tin to keep the biscuits super crunchy. It can also be packaged up in little bags and given to your friends and family as gifts!

Recipe

Print

Rocky Road Bark (Amy’s Bark)

A 50/50 blend of dark and milk chocolate, digestive biscuits, raisins and marshmallows all combined into a fun bark, perfect for snacking on and gifting this festive season!

Course Snack

Cuisine British

Keyword 5 ingredient, Chocolate, Rocky Road

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Setting Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Equipment

• 1 Baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
• Thermometer

Ingredients

• 3 digestive biscuits
• 180 g dark chocolate
• 180 g milk chocolate
• 50 g raisins
• 25 g mini marshmallows

Instructions

• Break the digestive biscuits into very small pieces. Set them aside. Weigh out the raisins and mini marshmallows and set them aside too, ready for later.
• Melt and temper the chocolate (both the dark and milk, together). See post above for detailed instructions on how to do this.
• Working quickly, mix the broken digestives into the chocolate until completely coated.
• Tip the chocolate/biscuit mixture onto the lined baking tray and use an offset spatula/the back of a spoon to spread it out quickly into a thin layer.
• Sprinkle over the raisins and mini marshmallows, pressing them down gently into the chocolate to make sure they stick.
• Set the bark aside at room temperature until hardened (about 30 minutes) before breaking into pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

It’s time to introduce you to the delight that is the Chocolate Puddle!

What is a Chocolate Puddle, you ask? It’s exactly what it sounds like: a literal puddle (i.e., bigger than a drop, (much) smaller than a pond) of chocolate, topped with whatever delicious additions your heart desires. Chocolate puddles are one of the easiest candies to make and are super customisable (so they’re particularly good for families that can’t quite agree on the ideal, chocolate-y treat!). You can make them look (and taste) super elegant & fancy, or super fun & frivolous: it all depends on what you choose to top them with!

Keep these puddles in a jar for your family to snack on this festive season. Pile them into cellophane bags and give them to your friends as gifts. Host a Puddle Party and make hundreds of them, letting all of your guests sprinkle over their favourite additions and create custom puddles. The puddle possibilities are endless. That is the joy of the Chocolate Puddle!

Today, I’m sharing the recipe for two varieties of Cherry & Almond Chocolate Puddles, which will hopefully provide you with a) a blueprint for a delicious, cherry & almond snack and b) a starting point for any future puddle ventures. Let the puddles begin!

Table of Contents

• The Chocolate Puddle: Explained
• Tempering Chocolate
  • Equipment
  • The Seeding Method
  • Chocolate Tempering Temperatures
• Making Chocolate Puddles
  • Milk Chocolate, Cherry & Almond Puddles
  • Dark Chocolate, Cherry & Almond Puddles
• Cherry & Almond Chocolate Puddles Recipe

The Chocolate Puddle: Explained

At its core, the Chocolate Puddle is just a scant teaspoon of tempered chocolate (white, milk, dark etc., the choice is yours!), sprinkled with delicious toppings and left to set at room temperature until it solidifies into a delicious, chocolate-y treat.

You can make puddles by simply melting the chocolate, skipping the tempering stage and leaving them to set in the fridge but a) you’ll have to store them in the fridge and b) they’ll be messier to eat (untempered chocolate is absolutely going to melt the second it hits your fingers, so hello sticky fingerprints all over your Christmas wrapping!).

Tempering the chocolate means that the chocolate will set at room temperature, so you can store the puddles in a jar on the counter (for optimal snacking!). It also makes it easier to give the puddles as gifts and ensures they have the perfect snap and shine (though, admittedly, the shine is the hardest part to get, as you can tell by the unfortunate bloom on my puddles this year… let this be a tempering lesson to you: don’t let your chocolate go above the ‘melting’ temperature range!).

You can use any type of chocolate and any topping you want to make puddles. Pick your favourite ingredients and flavour combinations: mini marshmallows, nuts and dried fruit are all delicious, but the possibilities are endless. Today, I’m making cherry & almond puddles, so I’m using a combination of dried cherries, whole almonds and flaked almonds, along with milk and dark chocolate.

Tempering Chocolate

I do already have a post on the blog where I talk about tempering chocolate (you can find it here), but I thought I’d re-share my method in this post to make it super easy for you guys to follow along! I’ve also updated my tempering technique a little since that first post to make the whole process a little quicker & easier (woohoo!).

Equipment

To temper chocolate, you will need:

• Heatproof bowl

I melt chocolate using the microwave, but you can also do it by placing the chocolate into a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Either way, you’ll need a bowl that can withstand the heat!

• Spatula

I like to use a silicone spatula (particularly one with a flat edge) for stirring the chocolate, because you can really scrape down the sides of the bowl with it: chocolate gets messy and you don’t want to waste any!

• Large knife

You’ll need to finely chop some of the chocolate and a large knife is the best tool for this.

• Chopping board

A large knife requires a sturdy chopping board!

• Digital thermometer

You’ll need to be able to monitor the temperature of your chocolate as you go. There are all sorts of candy thermometers available that will work perfectly well for this, but I like to use an infrared one (like this), because it means the thermometer stays clean and chocolate-free! I do recommend using a digital thermometer of some sort though, because the temperatures that you need to watch out for are very specific!

The Seeding Method

The method that I use for tempering chocolate is called the ‘Seeding Method‘. It involves introducing finely chopped, unmelted chocolate to the melted chocolate to encourage the latter to recrystallise in the correct way. It sounds complicated, but it’s not too crazy (it’s basically just a lot of stirring).

The first step is to prepare the ‘seed’ chocolate. Take about 1/5 of the chocolate you plan to temper and, using a large knife, chop it up very finely. Set this aside for now.

The next step is to melt the chocolate. Place the remaining 4/5 of the chocolate into your heatproof bowl and melt it using your preferred method. For me, this is 30-60 second bursts on the lowest setting in my microwave, stirring in between each burst.

Monitor the temperature of the chocolate as you do this. It’s important that the chocolate reaches a particular temperature (this varies based on the type of chocolate you use: see the ‘melting’ range in the ‘Chocolate Tempering Temperatures‘ table below), but does not go above the upper limit, or it won’t temper properly (see the bloom on my puddles for evidence of this… a definite case of ‘do as I say, not as I do’ here!).

Now, it’s time to add the seed chocolate! Add the finely chopped chocolate to the melted chocolate a little at a time, stirring between each addition until the seed chocolate has completely melted into the rest of the mass.

Monitor the temperature of the chocolate as you go. The aim is to get it down to within the ‘cooling’ range (see table below). If you run out of seed chocolate before the temperature falls within that range, just keep stirring the chocolate, allowing it to cool further, until it does. Conversely, if you reach the correct temperature range before you’ve used all of your seed chocolate, don’t add any more! You can always transfer the leftover seed chocolate to an airtight container for next time you’re tempering.

Next, you need to very carefully warm the chocolate back up a little. The required temperature increase at this stage is only very slight, so you won’t need to heat it for long. Start small (about 10 seconds on the lowest setting in the microwave), then give it additional 3-5 second bursts if needed.

Once your chocolate has reached its final temperature, your chocolate is officially ‘in temper’ and is ready to use to make your Chocolate Puddles! It’s important to work quickly at this stage, because the chocolate will begin to set straightaway at room temperature (that is, after all, the whole point of tempering!).

Chocolate Tempering Temperatures

Making Chocolate Puddles

Once you have your tempered chocolate, its time to turn it into puddles!

Use a teaspoon to place small dollops of the tempered chocolate onto a tray, lined with baking paper. Aim to make all of the puddles a similar size, but don’t worry too much: any variation just shows they’re homemade!

Give the tray a little wiggle or tap it gently on the work surface. This helps the chocolate to settle out and makes the puddles super smooth.

Scatter over your chosen toppings (think nuts, marshmallows, dried fruit— whatever you want!) while the chocolate is still wet (remember to work quickly!). If you have any larger toppings, it might be easier to press them into the chocolate individually instead.

Set the tray aside for about an hour, until the puddles are completely set and you can peel them off the baking paper easily.

Milk Chocolate, Cherry & Almond Puddles

To make these puddles, I used tempered milk chocolate, then scattered over flaked almonds and finely chopped dried cherries.

Dark Chocolate, Cherry & Almond Puddles

To make these puddles, I used tempered dark chocolate, then pressed one whole almond and one dried cherry into each puddle.

Cherry & Almond Chocolate Puddles Recipe

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Cherry & Almond Chocolate Puddles

Chocolate Puddles are a super easy, delicious treat to make, either for snacking on or for giving as gifts. They can be easily customised to include your favourite flavours, but these ones feature dried cherries and almonds.

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword 3 ingredient, Chocolate

Prep Time 45 minutes minutes

Setting Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 34 minutes minutes

Servings 60 puddles

Equipment

• candy thermometer (see Note 1).

Ingredients

To make the dark chocolate puddles:

• 100 g dark chocolate (I used 54% dark chocolate).
• 30 dried cherries
• 30 whole almonds

To make the milk chocolate puddles:

• 100 g milk chocolate (I used 32% milk chocolate).
• 1 small handful dried cherries, finely chopped.
• 1 small handful flaked almonds

Instructions

To make the dark chocolate puddles:

• Temper the dark chocolate using your favourite method (or the method detailed in the post above).
• Place small spoonfuls of the chocolate onto a tray lined with baking paper, leaving about 2-3cm between each dollop.
• Once you've used up all of the chocolate, give the whole tray a little jiggle, or tap it gently on the work surface to smooth out the surface of the puddles.
• Quickly press one almond and one dried cherry onto each chocolate puddle.
• Set the tray aside at room temperature for about an hour, until the puddles are completely set and you can easily peel them off the baking paper. Enjoy immediately, or transfer to an airtight container and store at room temperature.

To make the milk chocolate puddles:

• Temper the milk chocolate using your favourite method (or the method detailed in the post above).
• Place small spoonfuls of the chocolate onto a tray lined with baking paper, leaving about 2-3cm between each dollop.
• Once you've used up all of the chocolate, give the whole tray a little jiggle, or tap it gently on the work surface, to smooth out the surface of the puddles.
• Working quickly, scatter the chopped, dried cherries and the flaked almonds over the chocolate puddles, making sure each puddle has a bit of cherry and almond.
• Set the tray aside at room temperature for about an hour, until the puddles are completely set and you can easily peel them off the baking paper. Enjoy immediately, or transfer to an airtight container and store at room temperature.

Notes

1. I like to use an infrared thermometer for this, because it stays clean and chocolate-free, which makes clean up a lot easier, but you can use your favourite candy thermometer.

If you missed yesterday’s post, I made the cake for my brother’s wedding last month and, over the next week, I’ll be sharing all of the recipes that I developed for it (as well as some fun, behind-the-scenes content too)!

Today, we’re starting with the largest tier of the cake itself: the Chocolate Tier. This 10-inch tier was made up of three layers of a deep, rich chocolate sponge and copious amounts of chocolate-y, American-style buttercream. This was a super popular tier at the wedding (which is good, because there was a lot of it!), so I’m really excited to share the recipe with you!

Table of Contents

• A Bit of Recipe Backstory
• Making the Cake Layers
  • Photo Tutorial: Chocolate Cake Layers
• Making the Chocolate Buttercream
  • Photo Tutorial: Chocolate Buttercream
• Assembling the Chocolate Cake
• Decorating the Chocolate Cake
• Scaling Down the Recipe
• Recipe

A Bit of Recipe Backstory

As you’ll have seen in the intro post to this series, I’ll be sharing a whole post on how I went about developing these recipes on Saturday, but I did want to share a little bit of chocolate cake-specific backstory here too!

I started out with a recipe that I had used in the past, which vaguely resembled the style of chocolate cake I wanted for this. However, when I made that, it just… wasn’t good, like, at all? The bake was bad and the flavour was significantly un-chocolate-y. It was… a bad start (to say the least!) and it did throw me a little bit, but it also made me more determined to get this cake right.

A few iterations later, after trying a plethora of adaptations to inject some more chocolate flavour into that sad, sad sponge, I decided to go back to square one and do some more research into different recipes.

In the end, I started working from the chocolate cake recipe in the Crumbs & Doilies Cookbook (which was, coincidentally enough, bought for me as a present by my new sister-in-law: a fun, full-circle moment that I have only just realised!).

Using that recipe as my starting point, I tweaked and changed and basically pretended I was a mad chocolate cake scientist, until I had (what was, by that point, essentially a brand new), ultimate chocolate cake recipe. Also, I discovered that good-quality cocoa powder actually does make a difference (who knew?), so I decided to splurge and use fancy, Valrhona cocoa for this cake for the best, richest chocolate flavour (I mean, if you can’t go all out for a wedding, when can you?)!

It was, if I do say myself, perfect.

And, as a bonus, it was incredibly easy to make!

Making the Cake Layers

Once I had my recipe nailed down, (multiple) practices made and fancy cocoa powder obtained, it was time to make the final cake. The chocolate cake was the moistest (so sorry for the use of that uncomfortable word— but it was!) of the three sponges and I actually felt that it improved with age, so I decided to make it first.

For reference, the wedding took place on a Saturday and I made the whole chocolate cake (layers, assembly, and final icing) on the Wednesday.

If you’re making the cake ahead, you do need to cover the whole thing in icing as soon as you’ve assembled it, because any cake that is exposed to the air will start to dry out (not the vibe). If you want to make the cake layers the day before you ice it, you can, but I would recommend wrapping each cooled layer individually in clingfilm to protect it from the air overnight.

I only had one 10-inch tin (and I could only fit one 10-inch tin at a time in my oven!), so I baked each layer separately. Cake batter doesn’t like to be left sitting around for too long before it is baked (and these cakes take a good while to bake), so I made the batter for each individual cake separately too. Honestly, this batter is so easy to make that it wasn’t that labour-intensive, just a little repetitive! While a bit of a faff, doing it this way was quite handy because it did ensure that all of my cake layers were exactly the same size, which made the finished cake feel very perfect.

Photo Tutorial: Chocolate Cake Layers

After a whole load of waffle then, we finally get to the recipe! Here’s how you make the cake layers for the chocolate cake tier…

Start by greasing a 10-inch sandwich tin with softened butter. Line the base of the tin with a circle of greaseproof paper, then set aside. Preheat the oven to 165°C (conventional setting, not fan-assisted).

Dissolve the instant coffee granules in the boiling water.

Add the cocoa powder and whisk until the mixture is smooth. The hot water will bloom the cocoa and helps make the cake taste extra chocolate-y.

Gradually add the diced, salted butter to the hot cocoa mixture, stirring each addition in until it has melted before adding more. Keep going until all of the butter has been added and everything is melted and smooth.

Next, add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract. Whisk again to incorporate.

By this point, the hot mixture will have cooled down to room temperature (the addition of all those cool ingredients really speeds this along), so you can add the egg without risk of scrambling! Add the egg and whisk one final time until you have a homogenous, chocolate-y mixture. As delicious as it looks, you shouldn’t eat this (if not for the raw egg, for the fact that there’s no sugar in it at this stage, so it will definitely not taste as good as it looks!).

Sift the flour, sugar (here it is!) and bicarbonate of soda together into a large bowl. Whisk briefly to combine everything.

Pour the wet ingredients (i.e. the forbidden chocolate mixture) into the dry ingredients, whisking as you go, until all of the chocolate mixture has been added and you have a smooth, liquid batter.

Use a spatula to stir through the batter one final time, just to make sure that there are no lumps of flour. If there are any lumps, they will bake into the cake as little flour-y pockets, which is not the vibe, so don’t skip this step!

Once you’re happy with the batter, pour it into the prepared tin. The tin will be quite full, but it shouldn’t overflow in the oven (though, if you want, feel free to place the tin on a cold baking tray on the oven shelf, just in case).

At this point, give the filled tin a few taps on the work surface, just to get rid of any large air bubbles. I don’t usually condone this with cakes, but this particular recipe does seem to end up with some large crater-ish holes if you don’t do this!

Bake the layer in the preheated oven for 55-60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin completely, then use a large, serrated palette knife to level off the cake, using the rim of the baking tin as a guide. It’s easier to cut a cooler cake, so don’t do this while it is still hot from the oven. I like to do it this way because it ensures that all of the cake layers are the same height, but you can level the cakes using your favourite method.

If you are using the tin method, I recommend keeping the flat of the palette knife pressed gently against the top of the tin as you gently ‘saw’ your way around the whole circumference of the cake before carefully sawing back and forth right across the surface. This will make it easier to cut through the crust of the cake and get a neat, even finish.

Once levelled, turn the cake out onto a wire rack (the cake is so large that there might still be a bit of warmth in the centre of the underside and you don’t want it to sweat if you turn it out onto a solid surface!), making sure to peel off the baking paper circle from the bottom.

Wash out the tin and dry it thoroughly, then repeat the whole process twice more, until you have three, perfectly even, levelled and cooled, chocolate cake layers.

Making the Chocolate Buttercream

Once the cakes are baked and cooled completely, you can make the buttercream. This is a super easy buttercream to make: it really is just a basic, American-style, chocolate buttercream, with the chocolate-y flavour turned up a notch through some extra little additions (and made extra smooth and creamy with a super simple technique!).

You need a lot of buttercream for this cake! I recommend making it in (at least) 2 separate batches (unless you’re using an industrial-sized stand mixer, which, who is?), just to make things easier on yourself.

You’re always supposed to use ‘room temperature’ butter for icing, but I must confess, I always microwave it gently to ‘soften’ it instead. My house isn’t the warmest, so ‘room temperature’ for me isn’t really warm enough!

To soften the butter (and this is specifically for a large amount of butter like this), weigh it out beforehand, then place the whole block in a heatproof bowl in the microwave and warm it for about 30 seconds on the medium heat setting. You should be able to press your finger into the surface quite easily (and, if it’s slightly over-softened, don’t worry: the beating stage will bring it back to a smooth and cohesive consistency!).

Photo Tutorial: Chocolate Buttercream

Now to make the chocolate buttercream!

Fit an electric stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the softened butter and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, significantly paler in colour and super creamy, pausing every now and then to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

This will take about 3-5 minutes— you can’t really over-mix it at this stage, so I like to just leave the mixer running while I prepare the other ingredients.

While the butter is mixing, sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder together to remove any lumps. I also like to give these dry ingredients a little whisk at this stage, just to ensure that they are nicely combined, so that the cocoa flavour/colour distributes evenly throughout the icing later on.

Warm the milk gently, just enough so that you can dissolve the instant coffee granules in it (I gave it about 20 seconds, on the high setting, in the microwave).

By this point, the butter should be looking super light and silky, so you can get on with the buttercream. Turn the mixer down to low, then start adding the icing sugar/cocoa powder mixture, a spoonful at a time, until you’ve incorporated about half of it. This may sound tedious, but it’s just to protect you and your kitchen from an icing sugar mushroom cloud! It also helps to ensure that the icing is completely combined, with no sneaky patches of unincorporated ingredients.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then turn the mixer back to low and add all of the milk/coffee mixture, as well as the vanilla extract.

With the mixer still on low, add the remaining icing sugar mixture, still going a spoonful at a time.

Once everything has been incorporated, scrape down the sides of the bowl again, then turn the mixer back up to high and beat the icing for about 1 minute, until fluffy and well-mixed.

Take a generous amount of the icing (about 2-3 dessertspoon’s worth) and put it into a small, microwavable bowl.

Melt this in the microwave (on high heat, this will only take about 10-15 seconds), until it is super runny.

Give this a quick stir, then use a spatula to mix it back into the rest of the icing by hand.

This sounds like a weird step, but it really does help to smooth out the icing (which is particularly important if, like I was, you’re aiming for smooth sides on your cakes!). Additionally, it also helps to bloom the cocoa powder a little, which darkens up the icing and intensifies the chocolate flavour (it’s a win-win!).

If you’ve split the icing into two batches, you will need to repeat the whole process again once you’ve used up the first lot. The first half will be enough to fill the cake, but there won’t be quite enough to finish the crumb coat, so you’ll need to make the second batch before moving onto that stage.

Assembling the Chocolate Cake

With the cake layers and buttercream made and ready, it’s time to assemble! I’ll be sharing a detailed tutorial for how I assembled these layer cakes on Thursday, so be sure to check that out then!

To assemble this, particular cake, I used the following equipment:

• Cake lifter.
• Cake turntable.
• Piping bag and large round piping tip (I used a #1A tip).
• Offset palette knives (I used an 8-inch AND a 4-inch one, but you could get away with just one or the other).
• Cake dowels (I used these ones).
• Icing smoother (I used this one by Wilton).

Because I knew I would need to transport this cake to the venue, I assembled it directly I onto a cake drum (a thick cake board that could withstand the weight of the cake), which was the exact same size/shape as the cake. This meant that I could move the cake around more easily.

To keep the cake from sliding about in the transport box in transit, I temporarily adhered the cake drum to a thinner, square cake board that fit exactly into the box. When I arrived at the venue, I just slid my cake lifter (though you could also use a palette knife) between the boards, cutting through the adhesives in the process and separating them.

If you want to do this too, you’ll also need the following equipment:

• 10-inch, circular cake drum (the same size/shape as the cake layers).
• 12-inch, square cake board (the same size/shape as the cake box I planned to transport the cake in).
• Adhesive paper stickers (I used these, folded in half to make them ‘double-sided’ and easy to cut through with a cake lifter, but any thin, temporary adhesives will work).
• 12-inch, heavy duty cake box.

To assemble the cake, I spread a thick layer of chocolate buttercream in between the cake layers, added 4 cake dowels (for extra stability), applied a crumb coat and, finally, added a smooth layer of buttercream all over the top and sides of the cake (including the cake drum, for a clean, seamless look). As I mentioned, a detailed tutorial for this will be coming on Thursday, so keep an eye out for that!

Then, the cake was done! I set the cake aside at a cool room temperature until it was time to transport it. As I mentioned, I made this cake on the Wednesday, transported it on the Friday, then set it up at the venue on the Saturday (the day of the wedding!), so it can definitely be made in advance.

Decorating the Chocolate Cake

My brother and sister-in-law wanted very little in terms of decoration on the cake: aside from the gingerbread toppers on the coffee tier, the only extra adornment on each cake was a little arc of dried & pressed edible violas on the top. I used these ones, from Nurtured in Norfolk (in the shades: ‘Cream’ and ‘Midnight Blue and Cream’).

I didn’t want the violas to re-hydrate too much and look limp and sad, so I opted to put them on the cake at the venue, on the morning of the wedding. Once I had manoeuvred the tier onto the cake stand, I laid the flowers out on top of the hardened icing. This was actually really handy, as it meant that I could rearrange them if needed, before committing to sticking them down.

Once I was happy with the layout, I used some extra chocolate buttercream on the end of a skewer to attach each flower individually to the cake. I brought the icing to the venue in a piping bag, sealed using food bag clips back on Wednesday, when I made it, which worked really well. It did, however, need a little bit of warming up between my hands to bring it back to buttercream consistency!

Scaling Down the Recipe

This is a big cake: the biggest one I’ve ever made! If you’re not making it for a wedding/other event, you probably won’t need to make one this big. On the bright side, it’s quite an adaptable batter and icing, so you can easily scale the recipe down!

For reference, for 1 x 6-inch, round cake layer, the batter ingredient quantities are as follows:

• 3/4 tsp instant coffee granules
• 75ml boiling water
• 25g cocoa powder
• 35g salted butter
• 75g buttermilk
• 30g oil
• 1 egg
• 1 splash vanilla extract
• 100g plain flour
• 115g caster sugar
• 1/3 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For this size cake, you can bake it at a slightly higher temperature (170°C), for 45-50 minutes, or, again, until a skewer comes out clean.

To make enough icing to frost the top and sides of this single, smaller cake layer, use the following quantities:

• 55g unsalted butter
• 105g icing sugar
• 10g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp milk
• 1 generous pinch instant coffee granules
• 1 splash vanilla extract

If you want to make a multi-layered 6-inch cake, simply multiply both the batter and icing ingredients by the number of tiers you want.

Recipe

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The Chocolate Tier (Wedding Cake Week)

The full recipe for the 10-inch, 3-layer chocolate cake tier of my brother's wedding cake!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword American buttercream, Chocolate, Chocolate cake, Wedding cake

Prep Time 4 hours hours

Cook Time 3 hours hours

Chill time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 7 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 57 wedding portions

Equipment

• 10-inch, circular cake tin (see Note 1).
• 1 piping bag
• #1A piping tip (or similar, large, round nozzle).
• 10-inch, circular cake drum
• 12-inch, square cake board (see Note 2).
• Temporary adhesives (I used paper adhesive stickers) (see Note 2).
• Cake lifter
• 4 cake dowels
• Icing smoother (see Note 3).
• Offset palette knife

Ingredients

For the 3 cake layers (quantities for 1 layer in italics):

• 2 tbsp + 3/4 tsp instant coffee granules, decaf (2 1/4 tsp).
• 675 ml boiling water (225ml).
• 225 g Valrhona cocoa powder (75g) (see Note 4).
• 315 g salted butter, diced (105g), plus extra for greasing (see Note 5).
• 900 g plain flour (300g).
• 1035 g golden caster sugar (345g).
• 3 tsp bicarbonate of soda (1 tsp).
• 675 g buttermilk (225g).
• 270 g sunflower oil (90g).
• 3 splashes vanilla extract (1 splash).
• 9 eggs (3).

For the chocolate buttercream (quantities for half batch in italics):

• 600 g unsalted butter, softened (300g).
• 1200 g icing sugar, sifted (600g).
• 110 g Valrhona cocoa powder (55g) (see Note 4).
• 110 ml whole milk (55ml).
• 1/4 tsp instant coffee granules, decaf (1/8 tsp).
• 2 splashes vanilla extract (1 splash).

To decorate:

• Pressed, edible violas (see Note 6).

Instructions

Make the first cake layer:

• Preheat the oven to 165°C (conventional, not fan-assisted). Grease a 10-inch round sandwich tin with butter and line the base with a circle of greaseproof paper. Set aside.
• Make the batter for one cake layer at a time, using the single layer quantities listed in italics in the ingredients list.
• Place the instant coffee granules (2 1/4 tsp) into a large jug. Cover with the boiling water (225ml), then stir to dissolve. Add the cocoa powder (75g) and whisk until smooth. 
• Gradually add the diced butter (105g) to the hot cocoa mixture, stirring in each addition until all the butter has been added and everything is melted and smooth.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour (300g), caster sugar (345g) and bicarbonate of soda (1 tsp) to combine. Set aside.
• Add the buttermilk (225g), oil (90g) and vanilla extract (1 splash) to the cocoa mixture. Whisk until incorporated.
• Add the eggs (3) to the wet ingredients and whisk again until completely incorporated. 
• Pour the cocoa mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk until fully combined and you have a smooth batter. Stir with a spatula to make sure everything has been incorporated.
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin (it will be quite full, but it shouldn’t overflow. Place on a cold baking tray on the oven shelf just in case), then bake in preheated oven for 55-60 minutes, until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs. 
• Leave baked cake to cool completely in tin, then run a knife around the edge of the the tin to loosen the cake before levelling and flipping out onto a wire rack.

Make the chocolate buttercream:

• I recommend making the buttercream in two separate batches (use the half quantities listed in italics in the ingredients list).
• Fit mixer with paddle attachment. Beat butter (300g) until smooth, pale and creamy (about 3-5 mins), scraping down the sides when necessary.
• While the butter is beating, sift together the icing sugar (600g) and cocoa powder (55g) to remove any lumps. Whisk to ensure evenly combined. Warm the milk (55ml) in the microwave (20 seconds on high), then add the coffee granules (1/8 tsp) and stir to dissolve.
• With mixer on low, add half of the icing sugar mixture to the butter, a spoonful at a time, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.
• With mixer on low, pour milk mixture into buttercream, then add vanilla extract (1 splash) and mix until incorporated.
• Add the rest of the icing sugar with the mixer still running, a spoonful at a time. 
• Once everything has been added, turn the mixer up to high and beat until fluffy and fully mixed (about 1 minute). Add a little more milk if icing is too stiff.
• Remove a spoonful of icing and microwave on high for 10-15 seconds to melt. Stir to ensure evenly melted, then mix into the rest of the icing by hand to smooth and darken (this also helps to bloom the cocoa powder slightly). 

Assemble the cake:

• Secure the 10-inch cake drum to the 12-inch cake board (if using) with paper adhesive stickers (or other similar, temporary adhesive). Set on a turntable, with a layer of non-slip fabric in-between the turntable and the boards.
• Spread a dollop of icing onto the cake drum, then set the first, cooled cake layer on top, making sure it is level and centred on the drum. It should line up with the sides of the drum.
• Place some buttercream into the piping bag, fitted with the large, round nozzle. Pipe an even layer of chocolate icing all over the surface of the cake layer, making sure to go right to the edges. Use an offset palette knife to spread the icing out evenly, ensuring there is some overhanging icing at the edges.
• Place the next layer of cake on top, making sure it is centred and level. Repeat the icing process, adding another even layer of icing on top, then topping with the final layer of cake.
• Smooth the excess icing around the sides with a palette knife/icing smoother, then chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
• Insert 4 cake dowels, if using.
• Apply a thin crumb coat, then chill again for 15 minutes.
• Apply a generous layer of icing all over the top and sides of the cake. At this stage, cover the sides of the cake drum with icing too. Smooth out the top, making sure to leave some overhanging icing all around the top edge, then use the icing smoother to smooth out the sides, moving the turntable, rather than the smoother, for best results. The overhanging icing should be pushed upwards and inwards during this process, forming a nice 'lip' around the top of the cake.
• If needed, apply more icing to any uneven sections and smooth again.
• Once happy with the finished cake, set aside at cool room temperature to firm up, until ready to eat/transport.

Decorating the cake with pressed flowers:

• As close to serving as possible, lay the pressed flowers onto the surface of the cake (on which the buttercream has hardened), making sure you are happy with the arrangement before sticking them down. Use a small amount of icing on the end of skewer to stick down each flower individually.

Notes

Notes:

1. I use the Silverwood 10-inch sandwich tin.
2. You can skip the extra board/adhesive if you don’t need to transport the cake— these just make it easier to manoeuvre the cake without worrying about it slipping/sliding.
3. If you want smooth sides on a cake, you really need to invest in an icing smoother.  I use this one by Wilton.
4. The cocoa powder you use makes a huge difference to the taste/chocolatiness of the finished cake, so, if you can afford to, I definitely recommend splashing out on the fancy stuff (I used this one, by Valrhona)!
5. I’ve used salted butter here, because salt really brings out the flavour of the chocolate, but you can use unsalted butter and add some fine sea salt separately, if you prefer.
6. I purchased the violas from Nurtured in Norfolk. On this cake, I used the colourways ‘Cream’ and ‘Midnight Blue & Cream‘.

Cake recipe developed using the End of the World Chocolate Cake recipe from the Crumbs & Doilies cookbook as a starting point. 

Buttercream recipe developed using the Favorite Chocolate Buttercream recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction as a starting point. 

This is such a simple bake that it barely even warrants a recipe (truthfully, we never used to use one and just did everything by eye), but I do like knowing the exact ratios, so I wanted to share the exact recipe here anyway.

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• How to Make Easter Nests
• Substitutions & Variations
• Recipe

Ingredients

You only need 3 ingredients to make these Easter Nests:

• Milk chocolate
• Rice crispies
• Mini Eggs

After a bit of trial and error, I found that the ideal ratio for these nests was a 2:1 ratio of chocolate to rice crispies (i.e. half the weight of rice crispies to that of the chocolate). With this combination, there’s enough chocolate to hold the nests together, but not so much that the nests set super hard (and are, as a result, super tricky to eat!).

You can absolutely tailor these nests to your preferences by changing up these basic ingredients. Check out the Substitutions & Variations section below for some ideas!

How to Make Easter Nests

Line a 12-hole fairy cake tin with paper cases and set it aside while you make the nest mixture.

You can serve the nests in the paper cases (handy for bake sales and keeping little fingers slightly less messy) or you can take them out of the cases before serving them (for maximum nest-iness), but definitely don’t skip the paper cases, or the nests will be a nightmare to get out of the tin!

For the nest mixture, start by melting the chocolate in a large, heatproof bowl. I do this in the microwave (on the lowest heat setting for 1 minute bursts at a time, stirring between each burst, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth), but you can also do it on the hob, by setting the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and stirring frequently until the chocolate is melted, if you prefer.

As soon as the chocolate is completely melted, add the rice crispies and mix everything together thoroughly.

You want every bit of cereal to be nicely coated in the chocolate. Make sure you work quickly though, because you don’t want the mixture to set at this point!

Once everything is well-combined, divide the mixture between the 12 paper cases in the fairy cake tin (about 1 heaped dessertspoon of mixture per case).

Use a spoon to gently push the mixture to the edges of each case. This will create a slight dip in the centre of each one, which gives the treats a more nest-like shape (and makes the perfect little space for the Mini Eggs!).

Press 3 Mini Eggs into each nest, placing them in the little dip you just made. Make sure to press them in gently, rather than just setting them on top, so that they stick to the chocolate and won’t fall out later.

Then, set the nests aside at room temperature for 1-2 hours, until the chocolate has completely set and the nests have firmed up, before serving. You can speed this process up by putting the nests into the fridge to harden, but I prefer to leave them at room temperature, because the chocolate can sometimes bloom in the fridge, which isn’t very pretty!

Substitutions & Variations

It’s super simple to customise this recipe to suit your personal preferences! Each element can be easily swapped/adapted, so you can make any kind of Easter Nest you feel like:

• Chocolate

Swap the milk chocolate for dark chocolate, or a 50:50 mix of milk and dark for a slightly less sweet version (you could also use white chocolate, but it wouldn’t look quite so nest-like!).

• Rice Crispies

You can also swap the rice crispies for another type of cereal: Shredded Wheat, cornflakes and cocoa pops are all popular alternatives (Shredded Wheat, in particular, gives a very nest-like appearance, though I don’t think the finished nests taste quite as nice as the rice crispy ones!). Just remember that different cereals have different surface areas, so you might need to increase/decrease the amount of cereal you use. I’d recommend starting with less cereal than you think you’ll need, then gradually adding more as needed, while you stir it into the chocolate, until you have a good balance of chocolate to cereal.

• Mini Eggs

I’ve used Mini Eggs here, because a) they’re delicious and b) they really help drive home the whole nest vibe, but you can absolutely use different sweets on top. There are loads of other small egg-shaped sweets around these days (particularly this time of year), or, if you’re not too bothered about maintaining the nest-iness, you can use any shape of small sweet! You could even add some fun sprinkles, if you like.

And that is my not-really-a-recipe recipe for Easter Nests! Let me know if you try them out!

Gemma

xxx

Recipe

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Easter Nests

A super easy, no-bake, chocolate-y treat, perfect for making with kids this Easter!

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine British

Keyword 3 ingredient, Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Mini Eggs, Rice crispies

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Setting time 1 hour hour

Servings 12 nests

Equipment

• 1 12-hole fairy cake tin lined with paper cases.

Ingredients

• 180 g milk chocolate
• 90 g rice crispies
• 36 Cadbury Mini Eggs (approx. 120g).

Instructions

• Start by melting the chocolate in a large, heatproof bowl. You can do this in the microwave (heat for 1 minute bursts on the lowest temperature setting, stirring in between each burst, until chocolate is smooth) or by placing the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
• Once the chocolate is completely melted, add the rice crispies. Stir well until every bit of the cereal is coated in the chocolate, working quickly so that the chocolate doesn't set.
• Divide the mixture between the 12 paper cases in the prepared fairy cake tin (about 1 heaped dessertspoon of mixture per case). Use a spoon to make a slight dip in the centre of each nest.
• Before the chocolate sets, place 3 Mini Eggs into the central dip of each nest, making sure to press them in gently so that they stick.
• Set the nests aside at room temperature for 1-2 hours, until the chocolate has hardened. Once set, the Easter Nests are ready to be enjoyed!

I wanted to join in with the fun, so, today, I’m bringing you my chocolate muffin recipe, inspired by the ones from the Olympic Village. If you look closely at the muffins in the social media posts (and why wouldn’t you?), you’ll see that their stuffed with a soft, chocolate-y filling. Most of the recipes I’ve seen online opted to use chocolate ganache for this, but I wanted to do something a little different. For these muffins, I’ve created a chocolate fudge filling- the flavour is reminiscent of a traditional hot fudge sauce, but the texture is thicker and the filling doesn’t need to be served warm, making these muffins the perfect snacks for any time of day. These, then, are my Chocolate Fudge Muffins.

Table of Contents

• Making the Chocolate Fudge Filling
  • Ingredients
  • Method
• Making the Chocolate Muffins
  • Ingredients
  • Method
• Tips for Making Bakery-Style Muffins
• Filling the Muffins
• Recipe

Making the Chocolate Fudge Filling

This chocolate fudge filling is easy to make, but so delicious and really elevates these muffins- taking them from standard chocolate muffins to Olympic-standard Chocolate Fudge Muffins! However, you can absolutely make these muffins without the filling and they’ll still be delicious!

Ingredients

To make the chocolate fudge filling, you will need the following ingredients:

• Dark chocolate

This adds chocolate flavour (obviously) and helps the filling to firm up into the perfect, fudgy consistency.

• Cocoa powder

Cocoa powder adds extra chocolate flavour and gives the filling a deep, rich colour.

• Salt

A small pinch of salt is added to the filling, to bring out the chocolate flavour and temper the sweetness of the sugar.

• Evaporated milk

Evaporated milk is used to give a thick, creamy consistency. Because evaporated milk has a lower water content than regular milk, it helps to keep the filling thick and fudgy.

• Caster sugar

Caster sugar is used to bring sweetness to the fudge sauce.

• Golden syrup

Golden syrup is used in conjunction with regular sugar to bring sweetness, while also adding a lovely shine to the fudge filling. The syrup also helps to keep the filling soft and spreadable.

• Unsalted butter

Butter adds a creamy richness to the filling, while also helping it to firm up a little when cooled.

• Vanilla extract

Vanilla not only draws out the chocolate flavour, it also helps to give the filling its iconic, ‘hot fudge’ flavour.

Method

Start by chopping the dark chocolate. You want it to be finely chopped so that it melts easily in the heat of the milk mixture later.

Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl, along with the sifted cocoa powder and the salt. Set aside for later.

Place the evaporated milk, caster sugar, golden syrup and butter into a saucepan.

Place over medium-low heat and stir frequently until the butter has melted, the sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture has come to just below a simmer. The mixture will be very hot at this stage, so be careful!

Immediately pour the milk mixture over the chopped chocolate and allow to sit undisturbed for 5 minutes. This will allow the chocolate to start melting in the heat of the milk.

After 5 minutes, you can start to stir the mixture. Mix until the chocolate has completely melted and the mixture is smooth and even.

If the mixture still has some lumps of chocolate at this point, you can gently heat the whole lot (either in the microwave or over a pan of barely simmering water), stirring frequently, until smooth.

Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature, then cover the surface directly with clingfilm and place in the fridge for at least 3 hours to firm up, before using to fill the muffins.

Making the Chocolate Muffins

These easy double chocolate muffins are flavoured with cocoa powder and studded with chocolate chunks. They’re quick to make (you don’t even need a mixer!) but super delicious.

Ingredients

• Milk

Whole milk is best, but semi-skimmed/skimmed will also work.

• Unsalted butter

I like to use unsalted butter, so that I am in control of how much salt I am adding to my bakes. If you only have salted butter, just omit the salt in the recipe.

• Instant coffee granules

Coffee helps to bring out the chocolate-y flavour of the cocoa, so I like to add a small amount of instant coffee granules, which we’ll dissolve in the milk/butter, to these muffins.

• Cocoa powder

This brings the chocolate-y flavour to the muffins. Cocoa powder is quite a drying ingredient, so other ingredients are added to the batter alongside the cocoa to increase the moisture content of the muffins.

• Plain flour

Also known as all-purpose flour in the US, this flour contains no raising agents.

• Caster sugar

I prefer to use caster sugar in my baking, because it incorporates into batters more easily.

• Bicarbonate of soda

This is the raising agent for the muffins, which makes them puff up and become nice and fluffy.

• Salt

A small amount of salt is added to the batter to enhance the chocolate flavour and balance the sweetness.

• Chocolate chunks

Chocolate chunks are both mixed directly into the batter and sprinkled on top of each muffin before baking, for maximum flavour and prettiness. I’ve used milk chocolate chunks for my muffins, but you could dark or white chocolate chunks, if you prefer.

• Eggs

I always use large eggs in my baking.

• Sour cream

Sour cream adds extra moisture to the muffins, which helps to counter any cocoa-induced dryness.

• Oil

I use a 50:50 combination of oil and butter for the fat in these muffins. This way, you get the added moisture provided by the oil, while still getting the nicer flavour of the butter. Make sure to use a flavourless oil, like sunflower oil.

• Vanilla extract

Much like with the fudge filling, a small amount of vanilla extract helps to bring out the chocolate flavour in these muffins.

Method

Line 2 muffin trays with 12 muffin cases, placing one case in every other cavity, as pictured (this gives the muffins plenty of space to puff up). Preheat the oven to 200°C fan.

Start by heating the butter and milk together until the butter has completely melted and the mixture is hot. You can either do this in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stove.

Add the instant coffee granules to the hot milk mixture and whisk until dissolved.

Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Set the mixture aside to cool to room temperature while you prepare the dry ingredients.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, caster sugar, baking soda and salt until combined.

Add 2/3 of the chocolate chunks to the dry ingredients and toss to combine, making sure the chunks are thoroughly coated in the flour mixture.

Add the eggs, sour cream, sunflower oil and vanilla extract to the cooled milk mixture.

Whisk the wet ingredients together until smooth.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and, using a spatula, mix briefly until just combined.

Divide the batter between the 12 cupcake cases. Each case will be pretty full- I used a regular-sized ice cream scoop for this and filled each case with two whole scoops of batter!

Sprinkle the muffins with the remaining chocolate chunks, then place into the preheated oven to bake for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, turn the oven temperature down to 150°C fan and continue baking the muffins for 15 minutes. When the muffins are ready, a skewer should come out mainly clean, with a few moist crumbs stuck to it. Be careful, though, because if you happen to pierce a chocolate chip you might end up overbaking the muffins!

Once the muffins are cooked, you can remove them from the oven. I like to remove the muffins from the baking tin immediately, so that the cases do not get too greasy, and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely before filling with the fudge filling (if using).

Tips for Making Bakery-Style Muffins

Recently, there’s been a lot of content on social media surrounding the ‘bakery-style’ muffin: that is, a beautiful, fluffy muffin with a big, domed muffin-top. I thought it would be fun to try out some of the techniques I’ve seen that are supposed to help you achieve this effect with this recipe and the results were… magical. Here’s what I learned:

• Don’t over-mix the batter.

This is Muffin-Making 101, but you should never over-mix a muffin batter. Doing so can lead to your finished muffins being tough, dense and oddly shaped. Don’t worry if you have a few lumps of flour here and there after mixing in the dry ingredients- just go with it!

• Bake the muffins in every other cavity in the muffin tin.

This gives the muffins plenty of space to grow and form a lovely, domed top. If the muffins are overcrowded in the pan, they won’t cook as evenly and the muffin tops might merge together and become misshapen. This does mean that you’ll only be able to bake 6 muffins at a time, which is a bit of a drag, but it makes such a difference to the finished muffins.

• Fill the muffin cases right to the top.

Usually, when I make cupcakes/muffins, I use a regular-sized ice cream scoop to portion out the batter, filling each cavity with one scoop’s worth. For the biggest, best muffins though, with perfectly domed tops, you need to fill the cases extra full. For these muffins, I filled each case with two scoop’s worth of batter, which worked perfectly.

• Save some of the chocolate chunks to sprinkle on top of the muffins:

To make the muffins extra pretty, keep some of the chocolate chunks back when mixing them into the batter. That way, you can sprinkle each muffin with some chocolate chunks just before baking them, to mimic those pretty, bakery-style muffins.

• Bake the muffins using the fan setting on your oven.

Muffins are best baked quickly and at a high heat (at least, to begin with- more on that in a sec!), so the fan setting is your friend.

• Use a higher oven temperature for the first 5 minutes of the baking time.

Bake the muffins at a high temperature (200°C fan, in this recipe) for 5 minutes. Then, turn the oven down to a more regular temperature (150°C fan) for a further 15 minutes, to finish off the baking process. The initial high temperature helps to activate the raising agent in the muffins, which helps them to rise up and become big and fluffy, then the lower temperature helps to ensure that the muffins are fully and evenly cooked through.

Filling the Muffins

Filling the muffins with the fudge filling is super easy- you just need a piping bag! I happen to have this fancy doughnut-filling piping tip, so I used that, but it’s not a necessity.

If you have a long piping tip like mine, you can pipe the filling directly into the muffins, inserting the piping tip into the centre of each muffin from above and applying gentle pressure. Once the muffin is nicely filled, lift the piping bag up and finish off the muffin by piping extra fudge filling on the surface of the muffin, to cover where you inserted the piping tip (and mimic the muffins from the Olympic Village!).

If you don’t have the fancy piping tip, you can still fill the muffins! You can either poke the centre of each muffin with the handle of a wooden spoon, or use an apple corer to remove a small amount of muffin. Then, fill the space with fudge filling and decorate the top in the same way as before. That’s it!

Recipe

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Chocolate Fudge Muffins

Inspired by the viral Chocolate Muffins from the 2024 Olympic Village, these double chocolate muffins are filled with a homemade chocolate fudge filling.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword Chocolate, Fudge, Muffin

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Chill Time 3 hours hours

Total Time 4 hours hours 7 minutes minutes

Servings 12 muffins

Ingredients

For the Chocolate Fudge Filling:

• 170 g dark chocolate, finely chopped.
• 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted.
• 1 pinch fine sea salt
• 190 g evaporated milk
• 60 g caster sugar
• 2 1/2 tbsp golden syrup
• 15 g unsalted butter
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

For the Double Chocolate Muffins:

• 180 ml milk
• 90 g unsalted butter
• 1/4 tsp instant coffee granules
• 60 g cocoa powder
• 375 g plain flour
• 300 g caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 pinch fine sea salt
• 450 g chocolate chunks (see Note 1).
• 3 eggs
• 285 g sour cream
• 90 ml sunflower oil
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Make the Chocolate Fudge Filling:

• Place the chopped dark chocolate, cocoa powder and salt in a medium, heatproof bowl.
• Place the evaporated milk, caster sugar, golden syrup and butter into a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir every now and then until the butter has melted, the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has come to just below a simmer.
• Pour the hot milk mixture over the chocolate and allow to sit for 5 minutes undisturbed. Then, stir vigorously until the chocolate has completely melted and the mixture is smooth.
• Allow the fudge filling to come to room temperature, then cover the surface directly with clingfilm and place into the fridge for at least 3 hours to firm up.

Make the Double Chocolate Muffins:

• Line 2 muffin trays with 12 muffin liners, placing one liner in every other cavity. Preheat the oven to 200°C fan.
• Heat the milk and butter together (in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stove) until the butter has melted and the mixture is hot. Whisk in the instant coffee granules until dissolved, then add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add 2/3 of the chocolate chunks and mix until the chunks are nicely coated in the dry ingredients.
• Add the eggs, sour cream, sunflower oil and vanilla extract to the cooled milk mixture and whisk until combined.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix briefly with a spatula until just combined.
• Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cases (I filled each case with 2 regular-sized ice cream scoop's worth of batter). Sprinkle the muffins with the remaining chocolate chunks, then place into the preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn the temperature down to 150°C fan and bake for a further 15 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs. Bake the two trays separately, one after the other, for best results.
• Immediately after the muffins have baked, remove them from the tin and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely before filling.

Fill the muffins:

• Transfer the chilled fudge filling to a piping bag and fill each muffin with a generous amount of filling. Top each cupcake with extra filling, then serve. The muffins are best eaten on the day they are made, but will keep for a day or so at room temperature, as long as they are stored in an airtight container.

Notes

1. I used milk chocolate chunks, but you can use whatever type of chocolate you prefer.

Muffin recipe adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction.

Table of Contents

• The Question…? Cupcake: Explained
• Roasting the Hazelnuts
• Making the Chocolate & Hazelnut Cupcakes
• Making the Hazelnut Praline
• Preparing the Ferrero Rocher Chocolates
• Making the Chocolate & Hazelnut Whipped Cream Icing
• Decorating the Cupcakes
• Recipe

The Question…? Cupcake: Explained

The Question…? Cupcake is comprised of 4 main elements:

• Chocolate & hazelnut cake
• Amaretto, chocolate & hazelnut whipped cream icing
• Hazelnut praline
• Gold Ferrero Rocher ‘meteor’

There’s not a huge amount of food-related inspiration to draw on in this particular song, so I had to use a little bit of artistic license when creating this cupcake. I’ve mainly drawn on two specific lines from the lyrics:

‘It was one drink after another‘

and

‘Does it feel like everything’s just like second-best after that meteor strike?‘.

I was brainstorming ways to decorate the cupcake to reflect the concept of a meteor strike and I kept coming back to Ferrero Rocher chocolates. If you’ve never seen these before, they’re these (expensive- WHY SO EXPENSIVE?!) chocolate & hazelnut truffles, that come individually wrapped in gold foil. Once unwrapped, they have a pretty distinctive, knobbly (for lack of a better word) appearance, which comes from the chopped hazelnuts that the truffles are covered in, before their final dunking in chocolate. They’ve always reminded me a little of space rocks, so I figured they’d make a great ‘meteor’ for this cupcake.

I decided to run with the flavours of the Ferrero Rocher (i.e. chocolate and hazelnut) and use that combination as the basis for these cupcakes. I also added some alcohol, even though I’m usually not a huge fan of alcohol in bakes (but it actually really works here- amaretto is one of the few spirits I actually like, so it all works out!), to reflect the reference to alcohol in the song.

Essentially then, the cupcakes are standard chocolate cupcakes, studded with tiny pieces of freshly roasted hazelnuts. The whipped cream icing is combined with warmed chocolate hazelnut spread and Amaretto liqueur (a combination I first came across in this Yule Log recipe, by Edd Kimber, of Great British Bake Off fame, and which I have been obssessed with ever since). The Ferrero Rocher chocolates are painted gold using edible lustre dust (because, of course), then shards of homemade hazelnut praline are also adorned with gold and arranged to look like the fiery path of the meteor as it falls.

Roasting the Hazelnuts

To get the maximum amount of flavour out of the hazelnuts, which we’ll be using in both the cupcakes and the praline, you need to roast (or toast) them. There are a few different ways you can do this:

• On the hob:

This is the fastest method, but the nuts won’t be quite as evenly roasted all the way through- so the flavour won’t be quite as deep. Place the nuts into a dry pan over medium-high heat and shake every now and then until golden and smelling super nutty. Tip them out onto a clean plate and allow them to cool completely before chopping/grinding as needed.

• In the oven:

This takes a little longer, but produces perfectly, evenly roasted nuts with an intensely nutty flavour. Spread the nuts onto a baking tray, in an even layer and place into a 180°C oven (conventional oven). Allow to roast for 6-8 minutes, until evenly golden. Again, allow to cool completely before chopping/grinding as needed.

• In an airfryer:

This one’s a bit rogue, but airfryers are actually amazing at roasting nuts- you get the same effect as roasting them in the oven, but it’s faster, because you don’t need to wait for the airfryer to come to temperature beforehand. Simply tip the nuts into the airfryer, then fry (airfry? bake? I don’t know…) for 6-8 minutes at 180°C, until evenly golden and smelling delicious. As with the other two methods, allow the nuts to cool completely before chopping/grinding as needed.

In total, for this recipe, you’ll need 100g of roasted hazelnuts (50g for the cupcakes, 50g for the praline). I like to roast all the hazelnuts at the start of the process, so they have plenty of time to cool before I need them.

Making the Chocolate & Hazelnut Cupcakes

To make the cupcakes, start by finely grinding half of the roasted hazelnuts in a food processor. Aim for a texture similar to that of the ground almonds that you would buy in the supermarket (like in the above photo), but be careful not to overdo it- if you grind the hazelnuts for too long, they will release their oils and you’ll end up with hazelnut butter- fun and delicious, but not what we want here. Don’t worry if you have a few slightly bigger pieces of hazelnut- it will just add a bit more texture!

I used my favourite All-In-One Method to make the chocolate cake batter. This method is great because it’s so quick and easy- perfect for if you’re in a hurry, are feeling low on energy or just want to focus on the other elements of your cake. You can read more about this method in this post– which includes a detailed step-by-step walkthrough of how to make the perfect cake batter using this technique.

Essentially, all you need to do is put all of the cake batter ingredients (bar the ground hazelnuts) into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix everything together on medium-low speed until the dry ingredients are incorporated, then turn the speed up to full power and whisk until you have a smooth, fluffy batter.

Once the cake batter is ready, you can fold in the hazelnuts.

Adding the hazelnuts with the initial ingredients can interfere with how the batter whips up, so it’s best to wait until the end and fold them in by hand.

Once the batter is ready, it’s time to fill the cupcake cases. Divide the batter equally between the 12 cases (I like to use a regular-sized ice cream scoop to ensure all of the cupcakes are the same size), then bake the cupcakes at 170°C (conventional oven) for 25-30 minutes, or until the cupcakes spring back when touched gently.

As soon as the cupcakes come out of the oven, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating. Removing them from the tray immediately after they come out of the oven will prevent the bottoms of the cases from becoming oily- just be careful not to burn your fingers!

Making the Hazelnut Praline

To make the praline, start by roughly chopping the remaining half of the roasted hazelnuts.

Spread the chopped hazelnuts onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, and set aside somewhere near the stove, ready for later.

Place the sugar into a saucepan and place over medium-low heat. Without stirring, allow the sugar to melt over the heat and begin to turn a deep caramel colour.

Once the sugar has completely melted and the caramel is a deep golden colour, take it off the heat. The caramel will be super hot at this stage, so be very careful!

Immediately pour the hot caramel over the nuts, aiming to cover as many of the nuts as possible.

Allow the praline to sit at room temperature until completely cool. It will harden as it cools, so, once cold, you’ll be able to snap it into little shards, ready to decorate the cupcakes with. Don’t be tempted to put the praline into the fridge to speed up the process- sugar gets super sticky if you leave it into a cold, humid environment like the fridge! If you want to make the praline ahead of time, place the cooled shards into an airtight container and leave at room temperature until you’re ready to use them.

Preparing the Ferrero Rocher Chocolates

While the cupcakes are cooling and the praline is setting, you can prepare the Ferrero Rocher chocolates, by painting them with gold lustre dust. This is optional, but it adds a bit of pizzazz to the cupcakes and helps to give the chocolates more of a ‘meteor’ look.

Unwrap the chocolates and set them on a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper.

In a small bowl or cup, mix some gold lustre dust with a splash of vanilla extract, until you have a similar consistency to a watercolour paint. Don’t bother using a really good quality vanilla extract here- we’re not using it for taste at this point, so a cheap one will work just as well.

Using a clean, food-safe paintbrush, paint each chocolate all over with the gold ‘paint’. Leave them to set at room temperature while you prepare the icing.

If, like me, you’re feeling a bit extra and have some lustre dust ‘paint’ leftover, you can also add little streaks of gold to the praline shards, to tie everything together. Just paint directly onto the cooled shards and set them aside with the chocolates to set before assembling the cakes.

Making the Chocolate & Hazelnut Whipped Cream Icing

This whipped cream icing is SO easy to make, but incredibly delicious. As I mentioned, this is an adapted version of the icing used in Edd Kimber’s Chocolate Hazelnut Bûche De Noël recipe, which I actually made last year and LOVED, so it seemed like the perfect icing to use here. It does include a little bit of alcohol (specifically, amaretto), but, if you would prefer to make these alcohol-free, just leave it out! The icing will still taste delicious without it.

To make the icing, place the cream, sugar and vanilla bean paste into a large bowl and whisk to soft peaks.

Add the amaretto (if using) and continue whisking until the cream reaches medium peaks.

Gently warm the chocolate hazelnut spread to loosen it- this will help you incorporate it into the cream. I do this in the microwave, on the lowest temperature setting, in 15 second increments, until the spread is nice and fluid, but not hot. If the spread is too hot, it will melt the cream- not the vibe!

Fold the warmed hazelnut spread into the cream.

Once everything is completely incorporated and you have a smooth, pale brown icing, transfer it to a piping bag, fitted with a large, open star tip, ready to pipe onto the cupcakes.

Decorating the Cupcakes

To assemble the cupcakes, start by piping on the whipped cream icing. I went for this double-height swirl, which looks impressive but is super easy to create.

Just start in the middle of the cupcake, applying gentle pressure, then work your way out to the edge and continue all around the edge of the cake. Without releasing the pressure, continue up on top of the layer of icing you just piped, in a spiral. Work around the outer edge, then come inwards, finishing up in the centre by gently releasing your pressure on the bag.

To finish off the cakes, add a gold Ferrero Rocher ‘meteor’ to the top of each cupcake, placing it slightly off centre to leave room for the praline.

Nestle a couple of praline shards in next to each chocolate to mimic the fiery meteor trail and you’re done! ‘Question…?’ Cupcakes, ready to be enjoyed.

The cupcakes are best served immediately, because of the cream icing and the sugary praline. However, they will keep in the fridge for a couple of days if needed. If you plan to store them in the fridge, I would recommend leaving the praline off and adding the shards just before you serve the cakes, so that the sugar doesn’t become sticky.

Recipe

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‘Question…?’ Cupcakes

Inspired by Taylor Swift's song 'Question…?', these chocolate & hazelnut cupcakes are topped with a boozy chocolate whipped cream icing and decorated with a gold Ferrero Rocher and homemade hazelnut praline 'meteor'.

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Amaretto, Chocolate, Ferrero Rocher, Hazelnut, Praline, Whipped cream

Prep Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 12 cupcakes

Equipment

• 1 piping bag
• 1 large open star piping tip

Ingredients

For the chocolate & hazelnut cupcakes:

• 50 g blanched hazelnuts, roasted, cooled and finely ground (see Note 1).
• 150 g Stork (see Note 2).
• 150 g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 100 g self-raising flour
• 40 g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch fine sea salt
• 1 tbsp brewed coffee, cooled (see Note 3).
• 1 splash vanilla extract

For the hazelnut praline:

• 50 g blanched hazelnuts, roasted and roughly chopped (see Note 1).
• 150 g caster sugar.

For the chocolate & hazelnut whipped cream icing:

• 200 g chocolate hazelnut spread
• 600 ml double cream
• 50 g light brown soft sugar
• 1/8 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1-2 tbsp amaretto liqueur, to taste (optional).

To decorate:

• 12 Ferrero Rocher chocolates, unwrapped.
• Gold lustre dust
• Vanilla extract (see Note 4).

Instructions

Make the chocolate & hazelnut cupcakes:

• Preheat the oven to 170°C (conventional oven). Line a 12-hole cupcake tray with brown cupcake cases and set aside.
• Place all of the ingredients, bar the ground hazelnuts, into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on medium-low speed until the dry ingredients are mostly incorporated, then turn the speed up to full power and whisk until you have a smooth, light and fluffy batter- about 1 minute.
• Fold the ground hazelnuts into the batter by hand, then divide the batter evenly between the 12 cupcake cases.
• Bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the cakes spring back when touched gently. As soon as the cakes come out of the oven, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

Make the hazelnut praline:

• Spread the chopped hazelnuts into a single, even layer on a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper.
• Place the sugar into a saucepan and set over medium-low heat. Leave over the heat, without stirring, until the sugar has completely melted and has turned a deep caramel colour.
• Remove the caramel from the heat and immediately pour over the chopped hazelnuts. Set aside at room temperature until hardened and completely cool.
• Break the praline into small shards and set aside at room temperature until ready to decorate the cakes.

Prepare the Ferrero Rocher chocolates:

• Unwrap 12 Ferrero Rocher chocolates and place them on a baking tray, line with greaseproof paper.
• Mix a small amount of gold lustre dust with enough vanilla extract to give a watercolour-like consistency. Use a clean, food-safe paintbrush to brush the gold 'paint' all over the surface of each chocolate, then set aside on the tray to set.
• If desired, paint a small amount of gold onto the praline shards as well, and allow them to set alongside the chocolates.

Make the chocolate & hazelnut whipped cream icing:

• Place the cream, brown sugar and vanilla bean paste into a large bowl and whisk to soft peaks. Add the amaretto (if using) and whisk again, until the mixture reaches medium peaks.
• Gently warm the chocolate hazelnut spread (I do this in the microwave, on the lowest temperature setting, in 15 second bursts) until fluid, but not hot. Fold the warmed spread into the whipped cream mixture.
• Once you have a smooth, evenly chocolate-y cream, transfer the icing to a piping bag, fitted with a large, open star tip, ready for piping onto the cupcakes.

Assemble the cupcakes:

• Pipe a double-height swirl of icing onto each cupcake. Top each cake with a gold Ferrero Rocher 'meteor', placed slightly off centre, along with a couple of shards of praline, to mimic a fiery meteor trail.
• Serve the cakes immediately. If necessary, the cakes will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, but I would recommend leaving the praline off and adding it just before serving, as the sugar will become sticky in the fridge.

Notes

1. You can either roast the hazelnuts in an oven or an air fryer (both at 180°C, for 6-8 minutes). If you’re short on time, you can also toast the nuts in a dry pan on the hob, over medium-high heat (although this won’t yield the same depth of flavour as the roasting methods). Roast all the nuts needed for the recipe before you start baking, then allow them to cool before grinding/chopping as needed. To grind the nuts, transfer the cooled nuts to a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Be careful not to overdo it though, or the nuts will release their oils and you’ll end up with hazelnut butter!
2. As always, I like to use Stork in place of butter when I make cakes, because I think it gives them a fluffier, moister crumb. If you would prefer to use butter, you can use an equal amount of softened, unsalted butter in place of the Stork.
3. You can either use coffee straight from a coffee machine, or you can make it using instant coffee granules: place 1/8 tsp instant coffee granules into a small bowl, then add 1 tbsp of boiling water and stir to dissolve. 
4. This doesn’t need to be a good quality vanilla extract- it is just mixed with the lustre dust to create a ‘paint’ that can be brushed onto the chocolates/praline shards.

Full disclosure: these Christmas Pudding Macarons have absolutely NO Christmas Pudding in them- sorry, is that false advertising? They’re actually just plain old chocolate macarons, decorated to look like mini Christmas Puddings. Then again, I cannot in good conscience apologise for anything to do with these macarons because they are THAT delicious, so consider my previous apology revoked.

I’ve already posted a recipe for plain macarons, filled with milk chocolate ganache, on the blog- you can find that here. hile these may be chocolate macarons, the process is super similar, so you might notice a lot of overlap from that post. No matter though, chocolate macarons are next LEVEL, so chocolate macarons I must show you how to make.

I always make Italian Macarons (no, I STILL have not managed to conquer the elusive French Macaron…), which involve making a sugar syrup. This sounds scary, but I find it SO much easier to achieve successful macarons with this method. You can read more about the difference between the macaron types on that previous post.

Here we go!

Table of Contents

• Christmas Pudding Macarons: Explained
• Ingredients
• How to Make Dark Chocolate Ganache
• How to Make Chocolate Macarons
• How to Decorate the Macarons
• How to Assemble the Macarons
• Macaron-Making 101: Tips and Tricks for Perfect Macarons
• How to Store Macarons
• Recipe

Christmas Pudding Macarons: Explained

Like I said, these macarons are just basic chocolate macarons. Making chocolate macarons is super easy- they just need one extra ingredient: cocoa powder.

To make the macarons look like Christmas puddings, you decorate half of the baked and cooled macaron shells with white chocolate and festive sprinkles. Totally doable, right?

I opted to fill these macarons with dark chocolate ganache, as opposed to my preferred milk chocolate ganache. The main reason for this was the layer of white chocolate on top- I figured the bitter dark chocolate would contrast nicely with the sweet decoration. Let me tell you, I’m not a big dark chocolate person- it’s typically much too bitter for me, but, somehow, in the middle of these macarons, it’s absolutely delicious! Don’t get me wrong- I’m still a milk chocolate ganache girl through AND through, but honestly, I like the dark chocolate ganache-filled macarons too (and, more importantly, I could eat them without coughing and spluttering from the bitterness, so take from that what you will).

Ingredients

To make these Christmas Pudding macarons, you will need:

• Dark chocolate

This is for the ganache. You can use milk chocolate, if you prefer, but you would need to use 150g of chocolate and 150ml of cream, to make the same amount (and same consistency) of ganache.

• Double cream

Also for the ganache. If you are in the US, use heavy cream.

• Ground almonds

Macarons are, at heart, an almond cookie, so almonds you must have.

• Icing sugar

One of the two types of sugar in this recipe- this icing sugar will be mixed with the almonds, cocoa powder and half of the egg whites to form a paste.

• Cocoa powder

The ingredient that makes these macarons chocolate-y. Use a good quality cocoa powder (not a drinking chocolate- they aren’t the same thing!).

• Egg whites

You don’t need the yolks for this recipe, so save them for another bake. For the amount listed in this recipe, I typically need just under 2 eggs’ worth of white.

I know the measurements for the egg whites sound super weird and specific, but it’s really important that the ingredient ratios for this recipe are correct, because macarons are notoriously finicky. I find that the best way to weight out egg whites is to crack (and separate, at the same time) the egg directly into a bowl that is set over a digital scale- that way, you can weigh the white as it drips out and don’t have to mess around with trying to scoop some out afterwards. Make sure you don’t get any yolk in the white at this stage, because this will prevent the whites from whipping up properly.

• Caster sugar

The second of the two sugars- the caster sugar is made into a sugar syrup and added to the egg whites to form a meringue.

• Water

I nearly didn’t mention this here because, well, it’s water, but it’s an important part of the recipe, so I didn’t want to risk anyone skipping over it! Perhaps I am just projecting- I have a tendency to forget water when it is added to recipes. The water is added to the caster sugar to make the syrup.

You will also need the following, for decorating the macaron shells:

• White chocolate

You don’t need a lot, so make sure you use a good quality one for maximum flavour.

• Holly leaf & berry sprinkles

This one is niche, I know, but it makes decorating these macarons SO much easier. I found mine at Waitrose, but you could also use some icing or extra chocolate, dyed red/green, or even red/green writing icing (which I have used before) to pipe little berries and leaves, if you cannot find any similar sprinkles.

How to Make Dark Chocolate Ganache

Make the ganache filling the day before you plan to assemble the macarons, so that it has time to firm up in the fridge. Start by finely chopping the dark chocolate and placing it into a heatproof bowl.

Place the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat, and allow to come to just below a simmer- you will see small bubbles starting to form around the edge of the pan. When the cream is hot, pour it over the chopped chocolate.

Allow to stand for a minute or two, then stir until all of the chocolate has melted and a smooth, homogenous ganache has formed. It’s important to let the ingredients stand, unstirred, for a couple of minutes before stirring, otherwise the cream will cool down too quickly and not melt the chocolate properly. If this does happen, gently heat the ganache, stirring frequently, until it is smooth.

Cover the ganache with cling film, pressing it directly onto the surface so a skin does not form. Allow the ganache to cool slightly before putting it into the fridge to chill and firm up overnight.

How to Make Chocolate Macarons

Start out by lining 2 baking trays with baking paper. You don’t need to preheat the oven yet, because the macarons will need to sit for a while to form a skin before they can be baked.

Next up, you need to weigh out your egg whites. As I said, I know it seems a bit extra to have to weigh out such specific measurements of egg white, but macarons require extra attention! It’s super important that all of the ratios are spot on, to get the perfect bake. This recipe calls for 72g of egg whites, separated into two equal portions of 36g each- if you measure the white out as you separate the egg, using a bowl set on a digital scale, you can measure it exactly.

Transfer one of the 36g portions of egg white into the metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment. A metal bowl will help your whites whip up fully, but it will also conduct heat, unlike a glass or ceramic bowl. Because you’ll be using the temperature of the bowl to identify when the meringue is ready, a metal bowl is preferable. Leave the egg white in the bowl while you get on with the other ingredients.

Place the ground almonds, icing sugar and cocoa powder into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 10 times and sift into a large bowl, discarding any big pieces of almond that do not easily pass through the sieve. Repeat the whole process once more, to get the dry ingredients super fine. This will a) make sure your macarons bake up properly and b) make the tops of your macarons super smooth. Just don’t blitz the ingredients anymore than this, or the almonds will start to release their oils, which will ruin your macarons.

Add the remaining 36g portion of egg white to the sifted dry ingredients and mix, using a strong utensil, into a paste. It will be quite stiff- this is how it is supposed to be! Set this aside while you make the sugar syrup.

Place the sugar and water into a small saucepan (preferably with a spout, for easy pouring later) over medium heat. Allow to melt, swirling occasionally if needed, until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil, and allow it to bubble until it reaches 118°C.

Meanwhile, when the sugar syrup has reached 112-114°C, start whipping the egg whites in the stand mixer bowl on high speed. This will give them enough time to whip up into soft peaks before the sugar syrup is ready- exactly what you are looking for.

When the sugar syrup has reached 118°C and the egg whites have reached soft peaks, you can add the syrup to the mixer. With the mixer still on high, pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream, until you have added the whole lot. Then, turn the mixer up to full speed and whip the meringue for about 5 minutes, until stiff peaks are achieved and the bowl has come down to room temperature.

When the meringue is ready, it’s time to add it to the chocolate and almond paste. Start by adding about a third of the meringue to the paste and mixing it in vigorously, until it is completely incorporated. At this stage, you’re just trying to loosen up the mixture.

Once the first lot of meringue has been incorporated, you can add the rest of the meringue. Use a rubber spatula to fold the mixture together using a figure of eight motion, until it is cohesive and there are no visible streaks. Keep folding until the batter falls off the spatula in ribbons, which settle back into the rest of the batter when left for 30 seconds. This process is called ‘macaronage’ and is notoriously finicky, but you’ll get used to it!

When the batter is ready, transfer it to a piping bag, fitted with a medium round nozzle. Holding the piping bag vertically to the tray, pipe a macaron onto the lined baking trays by applying gentle pressure in one spot, until the macaron is about 4cm in diameter. Repeat this process for the rest of the batter.

Once the macarons are all piped, tap the trays firmly on the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Then, using a cocktail stick, skewer or sharp knife, pop the bubbles, allowing the macaron batter to fall back on itself as you do, giving you perfectly smooth shells. 

Leave the macarons to rest at room temperature for about 30-40 minutes, until they form a skin. That skin is what ultimately leads to the macarons developing their iconic ‘feet’. Macarons will form a skin more quickly on hot, dry days, but will take much longer on humid, rainy or cold days. If you can, it’s best to make macarons on dry days, but, obviously, that isn’t always possible. I have had success making macarons from this recipe on rainy days, but they did take a lot longer to form a skin. You’ll know the macarons are ready to bake when you can lightly touch the surfaces without any batter sticking to your finger. 

When the macarons are almost ready, set the oven to 160°C (fan- I don’t usually use a fan oven, but I do for these. Like I said, macarons are finicky). When the macarons are ready and the oven is up to temperature, bake one tray at time for 11 minutes. When they are ready, you should be able to gently wiggle the top of a macaron shell with your finger and it shouldn’t wobble.

Using a fan oven usually means you can bake more than one tray at a time. Alas, macarons are high-maintenance and, any time I have tried to do this, the lower tray always seems to bake unevenly, erupt into tiny almond-y volcanoes or crack along the top. Save yourself the inevitable distress and allow for an extra 11 minutes to bake that second tray. 

Once the macarons have baked, allow them to cool on the trays completely before filling.

How to Decorate the Macarons

Pair up the cooled macaron shells- try to put shells of a similar size together for a more even look.

Melt the white chocolate and transfer it to a piping bag, fitted with a fine round nozzle. Pipe the outline of some icing onto one of the macaron shells.

Add a little more chocolate within the outline, then use a cocktail stick/small sharp knife to ‘wiggle’ the chocolate around and smooth it out.

You can also gently tap the macaron on a surface to even out the layer.

Add a few holly sprinkles to the top of the white chocolate before it sets. It might be helpful to use a pair of tweezers to pick up the small sprinkles!

Repeat this process for half of the macaron shells (these will be the tops of each filled macaron), then allow them to set for about an hour before filling.

How to Assemble the Macarons

To assemble the macarons, place some chilled dark chocolate ganache onto the bottom shell of each macaron pair. You can use a piping bag, fitted with a medium/large piping tip for a polished look, or simply spoon/spread some ganache on freehand! Carefully press the top macaron shell (with the Christmas pudding decoration) on top, and the macarons are ready to serve!

Macaron-Making 101: Tips and Tricks for Perfect Macarons

In my last macaron post, I provided a full list of tips and tricks for making perfect macarons. It was… extensive, and I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed by it, so I’ve cut it down for this post. I’ve only included the things that aren’t otherwise referred to in the method sections above. If you would like to see the full list, check out the other post!

• Make sure both your bowl and the whisk attachment for your mixer are completely clean. Any traces of fat/residue will prevent your egg whites from whipping up. Wipe out both the whisk attachment and the bowl with a little white wine vinegar to ensure there are no traces of grease.
• Use a digital scale. Macarons require very specific measurements of ingredients- mechanical scales are not accurate enough for this purpose.
• Use an accurate (digital) sugar thermometer. You need to bring the sugar syrup up to 118°C, which is a very specific (but very necessary!) value- having to eyeball this will make your job so much harder and the success of your macarons so much less certain. 
• Use a macaron template. Making identical macaron shells is one of the biggest challenges of making macarons at home- using a template as a guide can make the process much easier. To make a template, take a sheet of A3 paper, and draw circles at intervals across the whole sheet- I like my macarons to be about 4cm in diameter, but you can make your macarons any size (just be aware that making smaller/larger shells will affect the number of macarons this recipe makes/the cooking time). Place this template under the baking paper on your baking tray and pipe into the circle guides. Remember to carefully slide out the template before baking, then store it away for when you next make macarons!

How to Store Macarons

Filled macarons are best kept in an airtight container and stored in the fridge, where they will keep for about 5 days, but they can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 days, if needed.

Unfilled macaron shells can be kept in an airtight container for about 5 days, but will start becoming more brittle and less chewy if left for too long.

Recipe

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Christmas Pudding Macarons

Chocolate Italian macarons, filled with dark chocolate ganache and decorated to look like little Christmas puddings 🎄

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Chocolate, chocolate ganache, Chocolate macaron, Christmas pudding, Italian macarons, macaron

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

Setting time 12 hours hours

Servings 15 macarons

Ingredients

For the dark chocolate ganache:

• 120 g dark chocolate
• 180 ml double cream

For the chocolate macarons:

• 85 g ground almonds
• 80 g icing sugar
• 23 g cocoa powder
• 72 g egg whites, split into 2x36g portions.
• 105 g caster sugar
• 30 ml water

To decorate:

• 80 g white chocolate
• Holly sprinkles (see Note 1).

Instructions

Make the dark chocolate ganache:

• Finely chop the chocolate and put it into a small, heatproof bowl.
• Place the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stirring frequently, allow it to come to just below a simmer (you will see small bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan), before pouring it over the chopped chocolate.
• Allow to stand for 1-2 minutes, then stir until the chocolate has completely melted and you have a smooth mixture. Cover the surface directly with clingfilm (to prevent the ganache from forming a skin), then allow to cool slightly before putting into the fridge to set overnight.

Make the chocolate macarons:

• Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Fit a piping bag with a medium-sized, round nozzle and set aside.
• Place the ground almonds, icing sugar and cocoa powder into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any large lumps. Repeat this process once more, so that you are left with a very fine powder.
• Add one of the 36g portions of egg white to the dry ingredients. Mix well to form a paste, then set aside.
• Place the remaining 36g of egg white into the clean, metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Set aside while you make the sugar syrup.
• Place the caster sugar into a small saucepan with the 30ml of water. Place over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Do not stir- swirl gently if necessary. Allow the syrup to continue bubbling, monitoring the temperature with a digital sugar thermometer.
• When the syrup has reached 114°C, turn the stand mixer to high speed and begin to whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Keep the syrup over the heat.
• When the sugar syrup has reached 118°C and the egg whites have reached soft peaks, with the mixer still on high, pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Once all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer up to full speed and beat for 5 minutes, or until stiff peaks are achieved and the metal bowl has come to room temperature.
• When the meringue is ready, add 1/3 of it to the cocoa and almond mixture. Mix vigorously to combine the two mixtures and loosen the thick paste.
• Add the rest of the meringue and fold it in, using a figure of eight motion, until the mixture is cohesive and comes off the spatula in ribbons- if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds, they should level themselves out into the rest of the mixture.
• Transfer the macaron batter to the prepared piping bag. Holding the bag vertically to the baking tray, apply gentle pressure to pipe circular 'blobs' that are about 4cm in diameter.
• Once the macarons are piped, lift the whole tray and drop it down onto the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to burst any remaining bubbles, letting the mixture fall back on itself.
• Set the macarons aside at room temperature to form a skin- on a relatively dry day, this should take about 30-40 minutes, but can take less time on drier, warmer days and more time on cold, humid days. Check on the macarons every 10-15 minutes or so, if unsure. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch their surfaces without any batter coming off on your finger.
• When the macarons are almost ready, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. Bake the macarons in the centre of the oven, one tray at a time, for 11 minutes. To check if they are done, place a finger on top of the shells and wiggle gently. When done, the tops of the macarons should not wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray.

To decorate:

• Once the macarons shells are cool, melt the white chocolate and place it into a piping bag, fitted with a fine round nozzle. Pipe the outline of some icing onto one shell, then add some more chocolate within that outline and spread it out, using a sharp knife/cocktail stick, so that you have a thin, even coating of chocolate. Add a couple of holly sprinkles to the top edge, to decorate. Repeat this process for half of the macaron shells.

To assemble:

• Place the chilled ganache into a piping bag, fitted with a large round tip.
• Pipe a dollop of ganache onto the underside of each of the undecorated macarons. Place a decorated macaron shell on top of each one and gently press the two halves together. The macarons are best eaten immediately, but can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can also keep the unfilled macaron shells in an airtight container, at room temperature for about 5 days, before filling.

Notes

1. I found these holly leaf & berry sprinkles at Waitrose, which made making these Christmas Pudding Macarons super easy. If you can’t find sprinkles, you could also use coloured icing/chocolate, or even tubes of red and green writing icing, to draw little leaves and berries. 

When I tell you that this recipe has been years in the making, I truly mean it. I literally have a document on my laptop called ‘Honeycomb Diaries’ that is just an extensive list of notes and records of different attempts and alterations, as well the super scientific inferences that I have drawn from those experiments (e.g. the extremely accurate ‘too shatter-y’), from the past 3 years (does that mean that mastering the art of honeycomb was my lockdown project? The banana breads of this world must feel very slighted). I just couldn’t seem to get honeycomb right. I have tried different recipes, different sugars, different tins, different methods, different EVERYTHING (at least it feels that way). Now, 3 years later, I have finally developed a honeycomb recipe that I am happy with- one that works reliably and isn’t insanely complicated.

Today, I’m sharing my hard-earned honeycomb expertise with you. I hope your blood sugar is ready.

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• Equipment
• Making the Honeycomb
• Storing the Honeycomb
• Recipe

Ingredients

For this honeycomb, you only need 4 ingredients (5, admittedly, if you intend to dip your honeycomb in chocolate, like I have done):

• Caster sugar

Don’t use granulated sugar, because it will take longer to dissolve, which could throw off the whole process. If you’re in the US, I would recommend using superfine sugar. Don’t use brown sugar- it has too much moisture and will affect the flavour of the finished honeycomb. You can use either white or golden caster sugar for this recipe (I used golden here).

• Golden syrup

One of the two liquid sugar ingredients in this recipe, golden syrup helps to give the honeycomb a deeper colour and its characteristic caramel-y flavour.

• Glucose syrup

While some recipes use all golden syrup, I like to use half golden syrup, half glucose syrup. Using all golden syrup can make the finished product a little sticky, so substituting half of it for glucose syrup makes for a more stable honeycomb. Using half glucose syrup will make the honeycomb a little paler- it will look a little anaemic at first, but it does darken up a little as it sets- you’ll basically end up with a similar internal colour to a Cadbury’s Crunchie, which I feel is the ultimate goal for all honeycomb, right?

These days, you can purchase glucose syrup at most supermarkets (usually in the baking aisle). Because I have been making so much honeycomb recently (see aforementioned Honeycomb Diaries), I like to buy mine in larger quantities online- I purchased this 325g tub of PME liquid glucose from The Cake Decorating Company (my go-to for specialist baking equipment/ingredients).

• Bicarbonate of soda

Bicarbonate of soda is what gives the honeycomb its characteristic spongey texture and appearance- the bicarb reacts with the hot sugar to form lots of air bubbles.

Equipment

You will need the following equipment for this recipe:

• Large, heavy-bottomed saucepan

The hot sugar will bubble up significantly once you’ve added the bicarbonate of soda. Make sure you use a large pan so that the sugar doesn’t bubble over the top and burn you.

It’s important to use a heavy-bottomed saucepan when working with sugar/caramel to ensure that everything heats up evenly- otherwise you might burn some spots before others have melted!

• Sugar thermometer

While you can get specially-made candy thermometers that clip onto the side of your saucepan, I prefer to use a handheld probe thermometer, like the one above, because I often make small quantities of toffee and find it easier to accurately read the temperature with them. Use whichever you prefer, but you do need some sort of sugar thermometer for this recipe, because you need to be super precise. You can find thermometers relatively cheaply online and you can use them for a number of recipes, so they are definitely a worthwhile investment.

• Sieve

I like to sieve the bicarbonate of soda after I have measured it out, to make sure it incorporates into the sugar properly. You want to avoid pockets of bicarbonate of soda, if you can, because they will be unpleasant to eat- sieving the bicarb and whisking it in really well helps to prevent those pockets.

• Heatproof whisk

I like to use a whisk to mix the bicarbonate of soda into the sugar, to make sure that it is thoroughly combined. The toffee will be very hot, though, so the whisk must be heatproof- either a metal or silicon whisk will be fine.

• Heatproof spatula

The toffee can get a bit sticky, so you’ll want to work quickly and have a good spatula at the ready for transferring it from the pan to the baking tin. Like the whisk, make sure your spatula can withstand the hot temperature of the toffee.

• 20cm square baking tin, lined with greaseproof paper

I like to use a tin for my toffee because I think it helps it to retain some height (though the toffee will always collapse a little bit as it cools- this is normal). Some recipes call for pouring the hot toffee onto a lined baking tray to cool, but I find my toffee ends up super thin if I do this. You want to make sure you use the right size tin though, because it’s important that the toffee fills the tin, but isn’t too deep, or it might be more likely to collapse. For the quantities listed in this recipe, I find a 20cm square tin is the perfect size. If you were to halve the recipe, I would recommend using a regular loaf tin (about half the size of a 20cm square tin), to achieve the same results.

It’s very important that you line the tin completely– sugar is inherently very sticky, and you don’t want your honeycomb to get stuck in the pan.

Making the Honeycomb

Honeycomb is one of those recipes where everything happens very quickly at the end of the process. Because of this, it’s important to get all of your ingredients and equipment laid out and ready before you start.

To start with, set the lined baking tin near the hob, so that it is easily accessible when it comes to pouring out the hot toffee.

Sift the bicarbonate of soda into a small bowl/measuring cup. Set that near the hob as well, so that it is at hand to tip into the hot sugar later.

Make sure your thermometer, whisk and spatula are all at hand, then place the caster sugar, golden syrup and glucose syrup into the saucepan. Put the saucepan over a medium-low heat and allow to melt. You can give it a brief mix if needed, to help it melt evenly, but try not to stir too much, to prevent any crystallisation.

Keep the pan over the heat as the sugar begins to bubble. Once the caster sugar has dissolved, make sure to keep an eye on the temperature of the toffee. When the syrup reaches 153°C (it won’t be overly dark at this stage, so it’s important to go by the temperature, rather than the appearance of the syrup), take the pan off the heat and quickly add the sifted bicarbonate of soda- whisking vigorously to incorporate it.

The toffee will bubble up aggressively, so be careful. Once the bicarbonate of soda is incorporated stop whisking and immediately pour the toffee into your lined tin, using a spatula to scrape down the saucepan as best as you can (though the toffee will already be setting, so you won’t be able to salvage every last bit).

Allow the honeycomb to cool in the tin- it might collapse slightly (this is normal!), but it should still retain some height and fluffiness.

Once it’s just about cool (about 10-15 minutes), remove it from the tin and break it up into chunks, using either your hands or a sharp knife.

If you let the toffee cool completely before doing this, it will be more prone to shattering- leaving you with a messy rubble of honeycomb, as opposed to tasty chunks. If you don’t let it cool enough, the toffee will bend rather than break. Once the toffee has cooled enough to touch, gently press the surface in a few places- if there are any soft areas, the toffee is not cool enough yet.

Storing the Honeycomb

Honeycomb is exceptionally sensitive to moisture so it’s very important to store it properly. It will start absorbing moisture from the air pretty much as soon as it cools down, so you need to work quickly (and try not to make they honeycomb in a humid kitchen- don’t be boiling some pasta at the same time or anything!). There are two things you can do to help your homemade honeycomb keep for longer:

• Store it in an airtight container

As soon as you’ve broken up the honeycomb, transfer it to an airtight container, lined with greaseproof paper. Like this, the honeycomb should last for a few days (more if you are super careful), as long as it is stored in a cool, dry place (not the fridge!). If any moisture gets in, or your container is not completely airtight, the honeycomb will gradually start melting, which is not what you want.

• Dip the honeycomb pieces in chocolate

Dipping your honeycomb pieces in chocolate will seal the sugar off from the air, meaning that the moisture cannot get in and melt the toffee. If done correctly, this method is much more effective than storing the pieces in an airtight container and your toffee will keep for significantly longer. If you do this, make sure you cover the entire piece of honeycomb in a layer of chocolate- any exposed toffee and it will still be able to absorb moisture. Also, don’t put the chocolate-dipped honeycomb into the fridge to set, just dip the honeycomb (ideally with tempered chocolate- I didn’t temper mine and, while they did set at room temperature eventually, they took a while and the chocolate has bloomed, so this is definitely a case of do as I say not as I do. You can find my guide to tempering here). Once you’ve dipped the honeycomb, leave the pieces to set at room temperature.

I like to use two forks to dip the honeycomb pieces, tapping the fork on the side of the container to remove any excess chocolate before transferring the dipped honeycomb to a baking sheet to harden. Once dipped, the honeycomb should last at room temperature, but it’s better to store it in an airtight container, just in case.

I hope you’ll try making some honeycomb for yourself- it looks super fancy and complicated, but, if you have the right ingredients/equipment, it’s really not too tricky and comes together super quickly. Let me know if you give this recipe a go- I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Gemma

xxx

Recipe

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Honeycomb

Also known as Cinder Toffee or Hokey Pokey, this 4-ingredient, crispy-crunchy toffee can be left plain or dipped in chocolate for extra deliciousness (and easier storage).

Course Snack

Keyword Chocolate, Cinder Toffee, Glucose syrup, Golden syrup, Hokey Pokey, Honeycomb, Sponge Toffee, Sugarpaste daisy

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 1 20cm square tin

Equipment

• 20cm square tin, fully lined with greaseproof paper
• Large, heavy-bottomed saucepan
• candy thermometer (see Note 1).
• Heatproof whisk
• Heatproof spatula
• Sieve

Ingredients

• 160 g caster sugar
• 80 g golden syrup
• 80 g liquid glucose
• 2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

To dip (optional):

• 400 g chocolate (I used milk chocolate, but you could use dark if you prefer).

Instructions

• Begin by setting out all of your equipment, so that everything is at hand for when thing start happening quickly towards the end of the process- make sure the lined tin, thermometer, whisk and spatula are all at hand, near the hob.
• Sieve the bicarbonate of soda into a small bowl or measuring cup. Set it near the hob, so it is easily accessible. Add the sugar, golden syrup and glucose syrup to the saucepan and set over medium-low heat.
• Allow the sugar to melt, giving it a gentle stir, if needed, to help it melt evenly. Try not to stir too much, though, or it might crystallise. Once the sugar has melted, keep an eye on the temperature using the candy thermometer and allow the mixture to bubble away until it reaches 153°C.
• At this point, you need to work very quickly. Remove the pan from the heat and immediately add the bicarbonate of soda. Vigorously whisk in the bicarb- the sugar will froth up violently, so be very careful. Once all of the bicarb has been mixed in, quickly tip the mixture into the lined tin, using a spatula to scrape the sides (don't worry if you can't get it all- just try to get most of it). Leave the honeycomb until it is just about cool, about 10-15 minutes, (see Note 2)- it should be hard to the touch- then break up into pieces using your hands.
• At this point, the honeycomb can either be eaten immediately or transferred to an airtight container, where it should keep for a few days (as long as it is not exposed to any moisture). To prolong the shelf-life of the honeycomb (and make it extra tasty), you can dip it into chocolate. Melt and temper the chocolate, then use 2 forks to dip each piece of honeycomb into it, making sure that the honeycomb is completely covered. Transfer the dipped toffee to a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper and allow to set at room temperature until the chocolate has hardened. Store in an airtight container until ready to eat.

Notes

1. I like to use a digital probe thermometer, for a more accurate reading and because it is easier to use for smaller quantities, but you could also use a more traditional candy thermometer, which clips onto the side of the saucepan, if you prefer.
2. It is easier to get proper chunks (as opposed to a messy rubble) of honeycomb if you break it up when it is just about cool- not completely cold yet. Obviously, do not touch the toffee if it is still hot, but, once you can touch it in a few places and it is hard, take it out of the tin, peel off the greaseproof paper and start breaking it up, working from the outside in (the centre will take the longest to firm up). If the toffee bends, rather than breaks, give it a little bit longer to set. As a bonus, it will be easier to remove the greaseproof paper when the toffee is not quite cold yet, so you shouldn’t have any trouble with the paper sticking to the toffee if you use this method.