Chocolate rum Easter torte

Happy Easter everyone ... hope you are all enjoying the extended break from work.

As this is the first Easter time since I started baking, I decided to swerve Easter eggs this year and do a spot of Easter themed baking instead.  There were some fabulous-looking recipes in  last week's Mail On Sunday You magazine, so I thought I would try one ... and here it is 

Chocolate rum Easter torte

Taken from The Mail On Sunday You Magazine 13/4/2014 - recipe by Annie Bell

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

For the cake:

150g dark chocloate (approx. 70% cocoa solids)

4 eggs, separated

150g golden caster sugar

150g unsalted butter, softened

25g plain flour, sifted

1 tbsp dark rum (I substituted approx. 1/2 tsp natural rum flavouring)

For the glaze:

100g dark chocloate

55ml boiling water

1 tsp dark rum (I substituted approx 1/8 tsp natural rum flavouring)

To finish: 

Easter themed edible decorations (I used micro eggs and choclate spaghetti)

Equipment:

1 * 20cm (8") loose bottomed cake tin (I used my Lakeland non-stick pushpan)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/160 C fan/gas mark 4. Grease cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.

2. Gently melt the chocolate for the cake in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, then set aside to cool.

3. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and creamy, then add the butter and continue to beat until smooth.

4. Incorporate the chocolate and then the flour and rum.

5. Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until stiff, and fold into the chocolate mixture in two halves.

6. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin, and smooth the top.

7. Bake for approx 25 minutes or until risen, and a cake skewer comes out clean or with only the slightest moist crumb. Run a small palette knife around the cake and leave to cool - it will sink a little (mine didn't actually!!)

8. When cool, turn out the cake onto a plate with the base uppermost, and peel off the baking parchment.
9. melt the chocolate for the glaze, then add in 55ml of boiling water and the rum. Smooth the glaze over the top of the cake and top with edible decorations.  Leave to cool - you can refrigerate for a short while to serve chilled. Serve  with creme fraiche.

Observations:

This cake was very easy, though boy did it create a lot of washing up!! Yesterday afternoon when I went out I couldn't get any Cadbury's mini eggs for love nor money, but luckily I spotted some micro eggs in my local Tesco which I think were actually a better size for topping a cake. I also decided to use a bit of stray chocolate spaghetti I had around the place to give a slightly more nest-like appearance. 

I did have to guess the amount of rum flavouring to use, but googling indicated I should use 1/9 of the amount of actual rum (ie 1 tsp flavouring for every 3 tbsp of rum). My husband said he couldn't really taste the rum, though the cake was very rich although light ... I thought it better to err on the side of caution so maybe I would use a bit more next time :-)  Eating it with a dollop of creme fraiche was definitely the way to go though ... fab treat after our Easter dinner!

I would like to enter this cake into a few baking challenges, namely ...

Cake of the Week: Baking With Spirit - Chocolate & Alcohol (my rum flavouring does contain alcohol .. it's just more concentrated and cheaper than buying a whole bottle lol!)

Simply Food - Let's Cook Sweet Treats For Easter

Calendar Cakes (April), hosted by Dollybakes -  Easter Bakes

The Pink Whisk (in conjunction with Two Little Fleas) - Easter Bake & Make  (2nd entry - I'm not sure if more than 1 is allowed as I couldn't see anything bout it in the rules .. so hope this is ok!! :-) )

That's all from me for today .... all caked out now so I think I will be having a little rest from baking. Til next time ...

Hugs,

Charity Bake #2 - With This Ring ....

Hi everyone, Well here I am again with my second Charity bake for Ashgate Hospice ... I'm not sure where the past couple weeks have gone to, but I hope it will be easier to get into a baking rhythm once the nights start getting lighter!!

 I recently discovered the Clandestine Cake Club; and although it was too short notice for me to join in my first meeting at one of the branches I have joined (Warrington), I was nonetheless inspired by their theme of beautiful bundts.  Having discovered the existence of this type of cake I just had to try making one, and I have also been very much inspired by the fantastic recipes, hints and tips by Rachel at Dollybakes - she really has got  bundts on the brain!!. (For any non-baking readers who have followed my charity email link, a bundt is a ring shaped decorative cake with a hole in the middle!)

So I decided to start getting in the mood for Valentine's Day with a bundt, taking as my theme With This Ring ... (Yes I know it's a terrible pun but I just had to do it!).

My recipe is very closely based on Rachel's basic recipe at Build a Bundt, with slight variation in topping and decoration to fit my lovey-dovey theme.  I have given full credit to Rachel but copied out the steps and stages so I can show my pics of work in progress!! :-)

"With This Ring" Valentine Bundt

Recipe from Dolly Bakes - Build A Bundt

Ingredients:
For the cake:
225 g butter, softened
450g golden caster sugar
4 medium eggs
350g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
250 ml vanilla yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the icing:
300g icing sugar
Small amount of water
A few drops of pink food colouring
Sugar heart sprinkles to decorate (mine were from Asda).

Equipment:
10 cup/ 2.4 litre Bundt tin. (I googled around and as I'm a beginner I didn't splash out for a posh Nordicware tin  (yet!!) ... I bought a Lakeland fluted cake ring).

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan)/ Gas mark 3
2. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

3. Add the eggs one at a time and beat on a low setting (I always beat my eggs first and then pour in the liquid a little at a time).The mix will get noticeably fluffier (with my new KMix this was very true!!)

4. In a separate bowl, measure / sift the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda.
5. Mix the yoghurt and vanilla extract together in a bowl/jug.
6. Sift 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the main mix and fold in gently, followed by 1/3 of the yoghurt mix. Repeat until all the flour and liquid are incorporated.  Fold in gently - Rachel advises that over-mixing at this stage will result in a heavy cake and can cause air channels which can ruin the decorative shape.
7. Give it all a mix on a low speed for a bout ten seconds until smooth.

8. Grease and flour your bundt tin, or grease with cake release (that's what I did).

9. Spoon the mixture into the tin evenly....

10. ...and bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean and the cake is slightly shrinking away from the tin. It's stable after about an hour for checking / turning.  Mine was done after  about 1 hour and 8 minutes.

11. Leave the cake to cool for about ten minutes and then remove from tin.

12. Allow to cool completely before icing.
13. For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a jug, add the water a little at a time and mix together until the icing reaches a  pouring consistency. Add a drop or two of food colouring until you reach the desired colour. Pour slowly over the cake and decorate with sugar hearts.  Tip: place the cake on serving plate before pouring over the icing, or you'll make a mess and find it difficult to move the cake when iced.

Observations:
This really was very easy to make - Rachel's directions were flawless. I did have a momentary holding of breath when it came to turning it out of the tin, but it turned out very easily with virtually no sticking - yay! I'm very pleased for my first attempt.

I had never made glace icing before, and I was surprised by how much icing sugar you need to get a decent amount of icing (best not to think of the calories!!) .. I used 300g of icing sugar and with hindsight the cake  really could have done with a bit more.

I would like to enter this attempt into a few baking challenges for February, namely

Calendar Cakes - Oh L'Amour! 

(hosted by Dollybakes & Laura Loves Cakes)

Love Cake - Baking With Passion

Update:
Amount raised - £15

I did try a piece of this and was pleased with it for a first attempt - the cake was nice and moist and didn't even dry out being out on the table during the day. I retract my earlier statement though about more icing ... maybe a bit thicker (more opaque) but it would ahve been overwhelmed by any greater quantity - so that's all good! :-)

That's all for today - thanks for visiting.

Hugs,