Love Brownies? Of course you do! Chocolate chip cookies? Who doesn't! Oreo's? Yes please! Put these three favourite treats all together and you get...
Fact: chocolate is one of the most popular food products in the world. Newsflash: now you can make it quickly and easily at home! This is because cacao products such as cacao butter and cacao paste are now available to the general public - yay! Making your own chocolate means you can customise the sweetness and flavour to your liking. The quantity of sugar in this recipe can be increased or decreased, or try using creamed honey instead. Play around with adding some orange zest, nuts, coffee, dried berries or cookie chunks. This dark chocolate is completely vegan and dairy-free. If you...
Perhaps I am in the minority here, but I am not keen on traditional Christmas Pudding. It can be quite heavy and rich, and in our hot climate there are so many other delightful options to end your Christmas meal. Having said that, the look of a Christmas pudding is instantly recognisable. So why not borrow that familiar, festive look but make a much more (in my humble opinion) delicious dessert! I was inspired by a Sainsbury's recipe to make this Chocolate Profiterole Christmas Pudding stack. The crisp chocolate pastry provides the perfect shell to encase a vanilla diplomat cream. A decadent drizzle of white chocolate...
If you told me to make a dessert with coconut biscuits, caramel and peppermint chocolate I would say that is way too many flavours in one dish! Yet Peppermint Crisp Tart is one of the most well-loved desserts in South Africa, proving that the flavours work together fabulously. These Caramel Peppermint Crisp truffles combine all the delicious flavours of the famous dessert into little bite-sized balls of joy. If you can bear to give them away, these would make a fabulous gift for that friend of yours. You know, the one who LOVES Peppermint Crisp Tart - we all know at least...
Every now and then, an occasion calls for a stunning showstopper of a dessert. I'm talking about a Masterchef-worthy creation! This one is a chocoholic's dream come true. These Triple Chocolate Mousse Domes have a crunchy chocolate biscuit base, creamy milk chocolate mousse filling with a white chocolate ganache centre, and coated in a dark chocolate mirror glaze decorated with caramelised cacao nibs. Could you cram any more chocolate into one dessert? I think not! The five components do take some time to make but all can be made in advance and simply assembled before serving. Ingredients: (Makes 6) Chocolate Biscuits: 90g butter, softened (6tbsp) 100g castor sugar (7...
When I got married 4 years ago, my mother-in-law gave me a very special gift. A collection of family recipes, including many of my hubby's favourite dinners and treats. Lucky for me, it also includes one of my favourite recipes, and you're looking at it! The first time I sank my teeth into one of these chocolate crackle cookies, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. They are deeply chocolatey and chewy, but with a crispy shell. And to top it all off, they look absolutely stunning, and make for a beautiful gift. This recipe has been slightly adapted...
If you've ever been to Kamers, you know that you are guaranteed to discover at least one beautiful or wondrous thing there. This year I discovered Buttercrunch. My sister and I were tasting all the lovely samples at the confectionery corner, and found ourselves returning over and over to a nutty, crunchy sweet. After polishing off all the tasters, I felt the least I could do was purchase a box of these. That, and I needed a reference sample so that I could recreate this heavenly treat in my own kitchen. I'll be honest here - it took some trial and error until I...
The first time I used cacao nibs was when I made Raw Vegan Brownies. I loved the intense, dark chocolate flavour they added. Cacao nibs are considered a superfood and often used to make healthy smoothies and snacks. Me being me, I came up with a far less virtuous use for them. By simpling roasting the nibs to intensify the flavour, and steeping them in white rum for 2 weeks, you have a delicious chocolate flavoured rum. I added a little sugar to balance out the slight bitterness, but this is of course optional. A bottle of Chocolate Rum makes for a...
Today is the 1st of September, officially Spring Day! It's an absolutely gorgeous day in Cape Town. I can smell jasmine in the air and see green shoots on the trees. To celebrate the changing of the seasons I decided to have a little fun in the kitchen. Truth be told, these pretty flower pots are just chocolate cupcakes. But when you bake them in terracotta pots and decorate them with flowers, they transform into a magical spring garden. Once you've made them, you will feel a great need to share them as they are simply too pretty to eat alone! *If the thought of...
I know this marbled glaze is impressing you right now. Let me tell you, the cake underneath is equally impressive. It's incredibly dense and rich in texture, and ultra-chocolatey in flavour. That's thanks to not only the deliciously dark chocolate in the mixture. But also the cacao butter. That's right - cacao butter. It's a wonderful ingredient to use in baking when you want to boost the chocolate flavour. Cacao butter also works as a great substitute for butter when you're going dairy-free. As cacao butter contains less water than regular butter, it gives an extra dense texture to cakes and...