Chocolate Pecan Cake with Maple Whipped Cream

This is a really simple to make recipe, perfect for when you are in a rush and don’t have the time, but still want to impress.

It is a moist, fudgy chocolate cake studded with chopped pecans. Pecans always make me think of the autumn and this cake is perfect as a Sunday afternoon treat, with the wind howling the crisp, orangey leaves around outside.

I made the cake for a family get together, my aunt and uncle from Canada were over and I baked up the cake ready to take over to my other aunt’s, who was hosting.

My aunt and uncle had kindly brought over some real maple syrup with them for me to bake with. I decided to incorporate this into whipped cream I was going to spread on top of the cake.

I reduced the syrup in a saucepan to intensify the flavour before letting it cool then drizzling it into the cream as it slowly whipped. The flavour it imparted was subtle yet sweet. I spread this on the one tier cake (quite a small cake, by my standards!) and scattered even more pecans on top.

Everyone loved the cake and I think you will too. It's adapted from a recipe over on Taste.Com.Au 

Here’s how I made it…

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Chocolate Pecan Cake with Maple Whipped Cream

by Stuart Vettese October-8-2015

Moist chocolate cake studded with chopped pecans and slathered with maple infused whipped cream

Ingredients

• 100 grams caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 110 grams self raising flour
• 40 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
• 100 grams pecans
• 200 ml double cream
• 50 ml best maple syrup

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Line an 8" baking tin with greaseproof paper and grease the sides of the tin.2. Chop all but 12 of the pecans into small pieces.3. In a bowl beat the eggs until pale and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat until slightly thickened.4. Add the olive oil and beat this in.5. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder and carefully fold through.6. Add 70 grams of the chopped pecans and fold through. Transfer the cake batter to the baking tin.7. Bake in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the centre.8. Whilst baking, place the maple syrup in a saucepan over a low heat and reduce to half it's quantity. Allow to cool.9. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool,10. Whip the cream with an electric mixer on medium speed. As it begins to thicken slowly add the maple syrup. Stop beating when it becomes a spreadable consistency.11. Spread the cream on top of the cooled cake. Place the 12 whole pecans around the edge of the cream. Scatter the remaining chopped pecans in the centre of the cream.12. Slice a piece of cake and enjoy.

Details

Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 35 mins Total time: 1 hour 5 mins Yield: 12 slices

I am entering the cake into this month's Love Cake hosted by Ness at Jibber Jabber UK. The theme is 'In A Hurry' and the cake is a fast one!

I am also entering the cake, somewhat tenuously into this month's Alphabakes, hosted alternately by Ros at 'The More Than Occasional Baker' and this month Caroline at 'Caroline Makes'. The letter this month is W and Whipped Cream is definitely there on that cake!

Frosting Techniques - A Handy Infographic

Have you visited cool baking website - 'It's a Baking Thing' yet? It's a great one stop shop for baking ingredients and tools which also provides expert advice for home bakers.

Last month, during 'National Cupcake Week' they featured 20 creative frosting techniques with home baker Rachael Heatley, in a two minute video which can be seen over at their site.

But they didn't mention at the time what piping nozzles were used for each technique. To fix this they came up with the handy dandy infographic below, clearly explaining the technique and what nozzle to use to get the correct effect.

Why not pin this for future reference...

Disclosure Statement: I received payment to feature this infographic on my blog and on social media. Any opinions expressed are however my own.

My Favourite Sandwich and a new Blogging Challenge

I was at Food Blogger Connect 2015 in London last weekend. It was a weekend of networking and learning, held in the grounds of Chiswick House in the capital. I will be bringing you a post on this soon.

At the conference, I was chatting with a few other food bloggers about foodie things and the subject of sandwiches came up. We talked about favourite fillings that we liked in our sarnies and then I remembered!

Like a bolt from the blue, I suddenly remembered by favourite sandwich filling which I had as a young 'un, which I thought I just had to share with you. It is quite a weird combination of flavours and I have no idea how I concocted it...

My friend Luca described the flavours of the ingredients as all very umami – the fifth taste – which hits a lot of savoury notes.

I decided to replicate the sandwich when I got home from FBC, and luckily I had been sent some flour to try from Marriage’s The Master Millar. I was sent a bag of plain flour and a bag of their wholegrain bread flour.

I made up a loaf using the golden wholegrain flour, which contains twice the fibre of white flour. The loaf was crusty, light and fluffy!

I got to making the sandwich, which is fairly straightforward. All you need is some ‘spread’ – butter is fine, marge is fine, but you need a good schmear of this.

Then you take a bag of ready salted crisps – I used Walkers – but any brand of ready salted would be fine. Place a good handful of the crisps atop the ‘spread’.

Then you take brown sauce – mine’s was HP. Again, up to you the brand. Squeeze a healthy amount over the top of the crisps.

The last part and to me, the most important. Parmesan cheese. Now, don’t go racing down to your cheesemongers as I am not using ‘real’ parmesan. Back when I used to make this sandwich, real parmesan was not as common place as it is now. We always used the pre-grated type you can buy in tubs (sometimes described as hard Italian cheese). I always think of this as a guilty pleasure. I used to liberally splash it on tomato soup, over my pasta of course, anything I could think of.

My tip – buy cheap 'parmesan'! The cheaper the more flavour I find, and makes this crisp, brown sauce and parmesan combo a real treat. Sprinkle the cheese all over the brown sauce so it sticks.

Take your top piece of bread and press down lightly and there you have my favourite sandwich!

If you try it I would love to know what you think!!

club sandwich logo

This all brings me conveniently on to our new blogging challenge – Club Sandwich. I say we as myself and Kevin over at the Crafty Larder will be hosting alternate months. This month it is yours truly.

For Club Sandwich we would love to see all your sandwich combinations. Be they proper sandwiches or toasties, Paninis, bagels, sweet or savoury, healthy or not – you name it we shall accept it! It doesn't even need to be in bread - I once saw Paula Deen make a sandwich with doughnuts as the 'bread'! Be creative as you like.

All you have to do is follow the simple rules below;

• Add your sandwich to the Linky at the bottom of this post by the 25th of the month, midnight at the latest.
• Post the sarnie onto your blog and link back to Cakeyboi and The Crafty Larder, stating who is hosting this month.
• Follow Cakeyboi and The Crafty Larder blogs on Google + (see sidebar links), if you haven’t already.
• If you tweet use  #clubsandwich and mention @MrCakeyboi and @thecraftylarder – we will retweet 
• Add the challenge logo to the post and ‘Club Sandwich’ as a label to the post
• Use any recipe as long as the source is noted
• Feel free to enter old posts as long as you update the post and meet all the requirements above!

Why not join our Club Sandwich this month?!

Treat Petite - October 2015

I cannot believe it’s October already. Where the hecky thump did this year go??

It’s been so fast, I’ve barely had time to catch my breath, until now to announce to you that Treat Petite October is finally here.

Many thanks to those of you who took the time to enter your bakes for September’s Anything Goes festivities.

October brings Halloween at the end of the month of course, but also the full autumn with crisp leaves everywhere, the darker nights coming in and a feeling of cosiness.

The theme this month is ‘Black and Orange’ the colours of Halloween, but I’d like you to think beyond that if you don’t feel you want to embrace the supernatural.

The flavour of orange is an obvious one, or treats the colour of black and orange, or orange or black (we will accept chocolate as 'black'!).

If you want to bake for your favourite football team too – Dundee United – whose colours are black and orange, that would be fine.

Also anything orangey in an autumnal colour sort of way – whatever you can interpret from ‘Black and Orange’ we will gladly accept in Treat Petite form!

Here them rules…

Treat Petite is for all of those delicious bites, which can be individually portioned. Tray bakes are fine, cookies, cupcakes, brownies, macarons and so on. No cakes, puddings, whole loaves – you get the idea…here are those all-important rules:

1. Add your petite treat to the Linky Tool at the bottom of the current month's post by the 31st of the month, midnight at the latest (bit longer for you this month!)

2. Post your bake onto your blog and link back to Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer, stating who is hosting this month

3. Follow Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer blogs on Google+ (see sidebar links), if you haven't already.

4. If you tweet use #treatpetite and mention @MrCakeyboi and @BakingExplorer - we will retweet

5. Add the challenge logo to the post and 'Treat Petite' as a label to the post

6. Use any recipe as long as the source is noted

7. If you like, add your photo to the 'Treat Petite' Pinterest board (request access from me, Cakeyboi)

8. Feel free to enter old posts as long as you update the post and meet all the requirements above!

Above all else - have fun!

Treat Petite September 2015 - Round Up

It’s been a busy month for me! Work is as mad as ever then I was in London last weekend for Food Blogger Connect learning lots about being a food blogger.

A quick run through of the gorgeous gaggle of entries for Treat Petite this month. ‘Anything Goes’ was the theme and anything went as long as it wasn’t big cakes, loaves etc…(you know the idea).

Firstly there was Angela from Perfecting Patisserie who entered salted caramel praline macaron. These looked visually stunning and I bet they tasted as good as they looked.

Angela at ‘Only Crumbs Remain’ gave us these ‘99’ Ice-Cream Cupcakes with blackberries. 99’s take me right back to my childhood. These cones looked cunningly like real ice-cream too.

Charlotte in her lively kitchen gave us Chocolate Orange Meringues. If you can’t wait until Christmas to get your choccy orange why not give Charlotte’s recipe a try?

 Fanny kept calm over at Keep Calm and Fanny On and brought us a bonkers biscuit concoction made to look like horses – neigh bad!!

 Choclette at Tin and Thyme made Honey Apple Cardamom Mini Bundt Cakes – these look moist and delicious bursting with tastes of the season.

 Ros, The More Than Occasional Baker baked chocolate blackberry cupcakes. A great flavour combination and the frosting on too looked like roses – very pretty.

Lili at Lili’s Cakes baked Jamaican ginger cupcakes with lemon swiss meringue buttercream frosting. I bet these are sweet and tangy in equal measure. The frosting looks like an inviting duvet ready to sink into!

My pal Lisa at United Cakedom made madeleines in Pistachio and cardamom flavour. The madeleines were mentioned in a book she was reading which inspired her to bake these beauties.

Kate, The Gluten Free Alchemist, baked a big vanilla swiss roll – both gluten and dairy free. But hang on you might be thinking – it’s a big cake! Not to worry Kate made mini rolls too which look just like naked chocolate ones – too cute!!

 Johanna at Green Gourmet Giraffe didn’t actually bake – instead she went for No Bake Chocolate Oat Slices. I love chocolate and oats together, so I may be giving these a try very soon!

 Caroline at Caroline Makes baked butterscotch blondies and these look divine. With butterscotch chips which are very addictive these would go perfect with your next cuppa!

My entry is for Maple Spice Brownie Cupcakes – made with a mix of maple sugar, seasonal spices and a brownie mix these cupcakes were heavenly even if I do say so myself!

Helen at Casa Costello entered her chewy ginger oat cream cookies. They look delicious and way better than those shop bought cream cookies.

My baker in crime Kat the Baking Explorer whipped up some PB Oreo Truffles with some new Peanut Butter Oreos she had been sent to try - how devilishly good do these look?

Thanks to everyone for entering this month's Treat Petite. It's me on duty next month too - so stay tuned for October's theme!!

Scottish Treats To Get You Inspired

image source

As a blogger, I don’t go on about the fact I’m from Scotland very much. I probably should do more – I live in a beautiful country with outstanding food and drink right on my doorstep.

As 2015 is Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink, I thought I would share some of my past recipes which are Scottish, inspired by Scottish food and drink or contain some of our lovely produce.

Firstly my Spice ‘n’ Cheesy Scottish Oatcakes made with added spice to give them a bit of a kick. A Scottish/Mexican fusion if you will.

Next my Scottish Tablet. Tablet is a treat difficult to describe. It sits alongside fudge and toffee on the confectionery shelf, but is neither chewy like toffee nor soft like fudge. It’s sweet, crumbly and utterly addictive. I could never make it, as it is very tricky to get right, but when I found a recipe that worked, I had to share it!

I come from Arbroath on the east coast of Scotland and the small fishing town is famous for it’s specially smoked haddock, called Arbroath Smokies. I used Smokies in a savoury cupcake, which went down a storm!

Scotch Pancakes – no really sure what makes them particularly Scottish, but they are ruddy good. Thicker and sweeter than crepe type pancakes, these are the way I would like to start everyday!

Top Hats – they may not exactly be 100% Scottish, but I've adopted then as such. I grew up with them at kids birthday parties and nowhere else in the UK seemed to have something similar, or called them Top Hats. Very easy to make with chocolate, a smartie and a marshmallow, these take me right back to my childhood!

Cranachan is a very popular Scottish dessert, made from toasted oats, Scottish rasps, cream, honey and whiskey. On a bit of a health kick one January I decided to make a healthier version using fat free Greek yoghurt and the result was just as lovely.

Iron Brew, or Irn Bru as it’s called on the cans these days, is Scotland’s number one soft drink, even outselling Coca-Cola. I decided to use the flavour in these French macarons – not to be confused with macaroons!

Dundee marmalade is very famous, made by world-renowned jam manufacturers Mackays. Mackays factory is based in my hometown of Arbroath and I was lucky enough to get a tour of the factory. I used some Dundee marmalade in these gooey, sticky, sweet buns.

Butteries are a Scottish staple, called different names, depending on what part of Scotland you are from.  They are a flat bread roll type of affair, crossed with a croissant. Laminated with layers of butter and lard, they may not be the healthiest of snack, but are very tasty!

Lastly, back to Iron Brew and Tablet – I decided to pair the two up in a cupcake recipe for the ultimate Scottish treat. With iron brew flavoured cakes and a sweet centre of tablet these were a naughty but nice taste fusion.

There we have it. A Cakeyboi run down of some Scottish inspired goodies. What Scottish treats are you making in this year of Scotland’s food and drink?

Pear Ginger and Chocolate Crumble Pie

Chocolate and pears – a great combination.

Chocolate and ginger – a great combination.

Pears and ginger – also a great combination I’m sure you will agree.

Pop them all into a pie, or a crumble? Decisions, decisions…

 How about have pears, chocolate and ginger all surrounded by the flaky short pie crust, but topped with delicious crumble topping? Best of not both worlds, but the best of all worlds.

This Pear, Chocolate and Ginger Crumble Pie really hits the mark on all counts. It’s a great dessert for  post Sunday dinner I find.

I used a shop-bought shortcrust pastry, but you could of course make your own if you have the time or inclination. But I had neither, so Tesco’s own it was.

I used a kilo of random pears, to mix things up, just make sure that they are not too hard, or they won’t cook down well in the oven. I grated in fresh ginger and tossed this with the pears I had diced into cubes. Careful on how much fresh ginger you use, too much and it can put some people off. I like it quite gingery so used about a half inch grated. This will be purely down to your personal taste however.

I also used some plain chocolate chips and scattered this into the pear ginger mix, once I had lined a pie dish with the pastry, trimmed any excess and placed the pears in.

I made a simple crumble topping and scattered that on top of the pears and finally with some excess pastry cut out wee shapes and stuck them all around the edges to give a decorative effect.

After baking I let the pie rest for about 20 minutes before dishing it up. Word of warning to you – it will look a complete, yet tasty, mess on your dish. No matter how long you let it cool, it does tend to crumble, as you would expect from a crumble, but not with a pie.

The flavours here are to die for, and the pie is definitely best served warm with some cream on the side.

Enjoy…

Pear Ginger and Chocolate Crumble Pie

Shortcrust pie filled with pears ginger and
chocolate and topped with crunchy crumble

Cuisine:	Dessert	Category:	Fruit Pie	Yields:	1 9" pie
Prep Time:	20 Mins	Cook Time:	50 Mins	Total Time:	1 Hr 10 Mins

 

Ingredients

• 1 sheet of ready rolled short crust pastry
• 1 kilo of ripe pears, any kind, diced
• ½ inch of fresh ginger root, grated
• 100 grams dark chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 1 egg for egg wash
• 100 grams plain flour
• 75 grams unsalted butter, chilled
• 75 grams granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 50 grams porridge oats

 

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Place the shortcrust pastry in an 9” pie tin and trim off any excess. Reserve the off-cuts.
3. In a bowl mix together the pears, grated ginger, caster sugar and cornflour so everything is combined.
4. Transfer to the pie shell and sprinkle on the chocolate chips, mixing through slightly.
5. Make the crumble topping by rubbing together the butter and flour until they resemble bread crumbs then add the granulated sugar, cinnamon and oats and stir through.
6. Sprinkle over the entire pie.
7. Cut the leftover pastry into small shaped with a cutter and stick around the edge of the pie with some beaten egg.
8. Press down slightly with a fork so the offcuts stick well to the edge of the pie case. Give them an egg wash on top.
9. Place in the oven for 45 to 50 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown, the crumble is golden too and you can smell the fruit.
10. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing it into pieces (it will still be quite crumbly).

I am entering this pie into this month's Pastry Challenge hosted alternately by Jen at Jen's Food and this month Lisa at United Cakedom - the theme is 'Anything Goes'.