How to make chocolate leaves

I have definitely fallen in love with gardening! I finally (or we) have my own garden to work on. I only ever have been helping other people with their gardens, but now when I get to add whatever flowers I want, I'm so excited! Sorry sister! :)

I found this handy tutorial from Martha Steward's website. It really shows how simple making the chocolate leaves are. And if you pop them in the fridge to harden, they will be ready in no time.

Remember the chocolate tempering. Only melt the chocolate so that it just about melts. This way the fat solids wont 'brake', and your chocolate will become solid again as it cools.

And we are ready!

Images by marthasteward.com

Petit four fruit tartlets

If you are looking for a lighter dessert, you should try these vanilla custard filled tartlets. They are not too sweet, and the fruit and berries give them a fresh touch. 

 I think I have to make these again for an afternoon tea party that we are planning to have with a few of my college friends. So there is more afternoon tea bits coming later...

If you want a proper vanilla flavoured custard, I recommend making it yourself. The ready mixed ones don't have enough vanilla flavour in them, and they taste a bit, well, cheap. Making the custard is easy and quick anyway, and I think it is nice to make everything from scratch -  it is all your work then!

Also you can get creative with the decoration by choosing the fruit and berries you like. I think using dark and light coloured fruits together gives a nice contrast, which makes the tartlets look more interesting and the other colours pop! I made these in a muffin pan, but you could use individual cases too. This dough makes about 12 tartlets.

Shortcrust pastry

150 g cold butter

4 dl flour

1/2 dl powdered sugar

1 egg

1/2 tbsp cold water

Put the flour on a working surface, and cut the butter into small cubes on the flour. This helps the butter not to stick too much to your knife, and it keeps the butter more cold as well.

Put the flour+diced butter in a mixing bowl, add the sugar.

Pinch the butter with the flour and sugar, do not over work, as the butter will get too soft, and it will be difficult to work later. So try to work fast.

Add the egg and water and work together quickly until the dough has just combined. Do not knead - you want a nice and crumbly pastry. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Vanilla custard

100 g caster sugar

100 g corn flour

2 tsp vanilla extract (the proper stuff)

4 eggs

2 egg yolks

600 ml milk

600 ml whipping cream

Put the caster sugar, cornflour and vanilla into a mixing bowl and add the eggs and egg yolks. Whisk with a hand whisk until smooth and blended.

Pour the milk and whipping cream into a pan and heat gently until hot, but do not boil. Pour this over the egg mixture and immediately whisk until blended. 

Wash the pan to remove any excess from the milk and pour the custard back into the clean pan. Heat gently, stirring constantly until thickened. Don't panic if the custard starts to look lumpy as it thickens, just continue to heat and whisk until the custard is thick and smooth. 

Pour into a jug and cover the surface of the custard with cling film to prevent a skin from forming. Set aside to cool.

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Preheat the oven to 175C. Now while the custard is cooling down, roll out the shortcrust pastry for about 4mm thick on a floured surface. 

If you are using a muffin pan, put the pan upside down on the pastry, and cut the pastry around the tin. Roll the cut out pastry around the rolling pin (easier to lift up without it breaking into pieces), and lay the sheet of pastry on the tin, add press the dough down into the individual cups. Use a piece of dough to press, your fingers tend to be too warm and might brake the dough. Cut the excess dough away so that each cup is covered with the dough.

Cut pieces off baking parchment for each cup, press them gently to the cups and fill with baking beans. 

Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. The bottoms should not be soggy or too pale.

Remove the beans and baking parchment and let them cool down completely. Fill each pastry cup with vanilla custard and top with fruit and berries.

If you want to glaze the fruit, boil a few tablespoons of apricot jam and a little water until the jam is smooth. Brush over the fruit.

Ham sandwich cake

My boyfriend has been telling everyone at his work about these sandwich cakes I make. So I got to make one for his colleagues to try out. They are popular in Finland and Sweden at least, and usually you have one or two in a more formal party setting with other sweet cakes and bits. This is a ham version. You can basically make the filling with any kind of mixture you fancy. Smoked salmon with prawns is also yummy.. 

Usually the filling is made of meat or fish mixed with cream cheese, herbs and spices, layered between moistened bread slices. Of course you could also make a veggie version. 

The cake is placed in the fridge without the toppings for overnight, this will make the flavours to intensify. Decorations and the cream cheese topping are put on the next day, preferably just before serving, so that everything looks nice and fresh. I can't get enough of this cake. Slurps.

Ham sandwich cake

Make the beef stock and leave it to cool down.

Line a springform tin with large pieces of clingfilm so that there is enough film to cover the cake when it's assembled.

Cut the ham slices, paprika and gherkins into very fine pieces. Put the herb cheese, creme fresh and mustard into a large bowl and mix to combine. Add the ham, paprika, gherkins, liver pate, grated emmental cheese and finely cut chives. Mix well so that everything is well combined.  

Cut the crusts of the bread slices. Make the first layer with bread. This is a bit like making a puzzle when you make the cake into a round tin. Just cut the right size pieces as you go, so that you have even layers of bread, with no gaps. Moisten the bread with the beef stock. Don't over do the bottom layer, as it will get most of the moisture when the toppings go over.

Put a layer of filling over the bread, and carry on adding layers of bread+beef stock and filling, just like when making a normal sweet layered cake. 

Finish with a layer of bread, and moisten it again. Put the clingfilm over the cake so it doesn't dry out. Place a light weight on top (for example a plate), and put it in fridge over night. 

Few hours before serving, take the cake out, peel the clingfilm off and cover with cream cheese. Decorate as you like. 

The cake will stay good in fridge for about 2-3 days.

Tomato rose

Peel the skin of a tomato with a peeling knife in one go so you have one continuous piece of 'tomato ribbon'. Curl the 'ribbon' in it's self, so that it makes a rosette. 

Strawberry quark cake & chocolate leaves

I have lots of interests, one of them is flowers and plants. I'm so happy we have a garden, I can't wait to get my hands in it as the weather gets warmer. My dream is to have an English style garden - not too structured,  with colours of pink, purple, lilac, white and blues. At least to start with. We don't even have a grass yet. 

So I like to combine plant and flower features into my cakes too. These chocolate leaves are very easy to make.

The cake has the most delicious chocolate cake as the base. I used Mary Berry's recipe, she is one of the most famous bakers in the UK, and after tasting the cake, you'll understand why.

Chocolate cake

16 g pure cocoa powder

2 tbsp boiling water

1 egg

1,5 tbsp milk

58 g flour

1 tsp baking powder

30 g butter

100 g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 20-22 cm springform tin and line with baking parchment.

Put the cocoa powder and boiling water into a large bowl and mix well to make a smooth paste.

Add rest of the ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake until well risen and shrinking from the sides, about 15 minutes.

Cool the cake on a cake rack. When completely cooled down, even out the top with a serrated knife, and put back in the same, cleaned springform tin.

Strawberry filling

4 gelatine leaves

2 dl whipping cream

400 g sweet strawberry quark

1 tbsp sugar

2 tsp vanilla sugar

1-2 dl strawberries as puree

Put the gelatine leaves into large bowl with cold water for 5-10 minutes. Whip the cream with the sugars. Squeeze excess water out from the gelatin leaves and put in boiling hot water and mix until dissolved completely. Combine pureed strawberries and quark. Pour the gelatine + water mixture slowly into the strawberry quark , stirring at the same time.

Carefully add the whipped cream by folding it in with a cake spatula, until everything looks even and smooth.

Pour the mixture over the cake, and put it in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or over night. Put a small sharp knife under hot running water, and carefully 'loosen' the edges of the cake from the springform tin. Open the tin slowly, this helps the cake not to split.

Chocolate leaves

50 g plain dark chocolate

real rose leaves (you can use any leaves you like, but be careful not to use poisonous plants) mint leaves are nice to use as well.

Put the chocolate in a microwave proof bowl. Give the chocolate 30 second blasts, stirring after each  one. Be careful not to over heat, if you do, the chocolate wont set properly anymore.

Brush your chosen leaves with the melted chocolate, and let them cool until set. Carefully peel the leaf off the chocolate. Done! 

I want KitchenAid now!

This is on my shopping list now. Pistachio green KitchenAid. Love it. 

It would fit in our kitchen nicely with the greens and fresh white. I have an emotional attachment to my picture on the wall. I think the three years living in England did for me, haha. They are great with all the comfort stuff. Just look at the B&B's, they are all about nice comfy food and warm beds :)