Chocolate Jack

Coming up with birthday cake ideas for adults is a tough one. For a recent birthday I wanted to continue the theme of patriotism (from the Queen's Diamond Jubilee) but add something that the recipient would love - chocolate. So I developed a Chocolate Jack. A chocolate sponge tray bake with chocolate buttercream icing, decorated with Maltesers and white chocolate buttons.

The traybake was adapted from Mary Berry's chocolate traybake recipe in her book - Mary Berry's Baking Bible. I remained pretty faithful to the recipe but added a couple of teaspoons of chocolate extract to give it a more rounded depth of chocolatey flavour. Into the buttercream icing went cocoa powder and again, chocolate extract and then the fun began - decorating. The Maltesers didn't take too long, but the white chocolate drops took ages. I wanted them as perfectly aligned as possible. After about half hour the decoration was complete. A triumph. 32 adults (fueled by chatter and lots of alcohol) lined up like kids in a sweet shop - and hey presto. It was gone!

Hello new friend...Chocolate Extract

When I was recently filming for Baking Mad on Channel 4 (watch out for more on this in the next week or so) I was introduced to a new friend. That friend (and this isn't a sponsored post) is Chocolate Extract. Think about how divine vanilla extract is and essential for so many baking recipes - well this one's a chocolate version. There's two on the market, one by Nielsen Massey and the other by Star Kay White - both produce a whole range of great extracts and pastes for baking. I have Eric Lanlard to thank for this new discovery, he mentioned this whilst baking so I grabbed a bottle and added it to a chocolate brownie recipe and you could really notice the difference. It boosted the chocolate taste and added real depth to it - it tasted more grown up.

It's a pure chocolate extract that's rich and smooth but isn't sweetened. So far I have only added it to cakes and brownies, but it would sit equally well in cookies, icing, custards and puddings. The possibilities are endless. Nielsen Massey has been in the business of making extracts (vanilla was first) since 1907 and it's been a family business since then. If you haven't tried their vanilla extract - treat yourself today. Star Kay White is also a privately run family business and has been around since 1890.  I found the Star Kay White version in Waitrose, but could only source the Nielsen Massey version online. A kitchen cupboard essential.

I've got one thing to say to you Kimmy, "Chocolate Ginger Cake"

Combining two of my favourite flavours and upon special  request I attempted a Chocolate Ginger Cake. Lucy (who has been freelancing in our office) left work on Thursday and like all special occasions, I mark it by baking a cake. This time upon request. There are a number of recipes for chocolate and ginger cake - but no one in particular grabbed me. I love Nigel Slater's Ginger Cake and the icing from Nigella's Choco-ginger (as well as the idea of chocolate drops from another recipe) so I set about adapting both and making my own additions. Leaving out the sultanas and adding in chopped up 70% dark chocolate (Green and Black's no less) removing a touch of the flour and replacing with cocoa - and then the most fabulous touch of all, added ginger beer to the chocolate icing. It was done. Moist, rich and a little dense but ever-so divine. We scoffed it the office like gannets. There were a couple of bits left for me and Karl at home. We popped them in the microwave for 30 seconds and topped with ice cream. OMG. I will be doing that again very soon. Recipe will be appearing on my website soon.