chocolate

Pumpkin Pie Brownies

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Pumpkin Pie Brownies

It’s the time of year where I can start putting pumpkin into absolutely everything. This happens every year, and it’s one of the best things about autumn. Some prior examples from the blog include things like pumpkin cinnamon buns, nutella pumpkin pies and pumpkin & black eyed bean curry. You can see everything pumpkin here. I love make spicy pumpkin soups, pies and bundt cakes. I’m not just talking ‘pumpkin spiced’ either as none of that junk has pumpkin in it, just a blend of spices that’s sold to you as the taste of autumn. I decided to experiment with one of my favourite go-to recipes, my brownies. I’ve made cheesecake brownies before and this falls into a similar territory and while I was worried about flavours and moisture levels, the Pumpkin Pie Brownies were a huge success. Read more

Marmite Caramel Millionaire’s Shortbread

- Michael 2 Comments

Marmite Millionaire's Shortbread

It’s been a very busy, but quite exciting, couple of weeks. Not only did I go on a week’s trip to Madrid & Barcelona (which I’ll be getting into soon on the blog), but I popped up to Leeds for the 2017 Bloggers Blog Awards, where I was shortlisted for ‘Best Food Blog’. After winning last year, and having some incredibly strong competition, I was incredibly humbled to discover I’d won. Thank you so, so much to everyone who voted for me. You have no idea how much it means to think that people like my ramblings about cheese and cinnamon enough for me to have won an award once, let along twice. It was also wonderful to see so many old faces on the night, as well as meeting a bunch of new ones. These events have all gotten in the way of actually doing the blogging though, so it’s time for another Bake Off Bake Along; Marmite Caramel Millionaire’s Shortbread.

Best Food Blog

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Tahini Chocolate Bundt With Tahini Frosting & Sesame Brittle

- Michael 2 Comments

Chocolate Tahini Bundt Cake

I don’t read enough food magazines. When I went to the states earlier in the year I bought a copy of Olive Magazine for the flight. it had a couple of recipes in it which jumped out and, after I got back, I gave some a go. One of these was this particular recipe. It’s one from the Boy Who Bakes and is indulgent on many different levels. If you’re not a fan of sesame then you’re going to have to stop now, because there’s sesame in every single aspect of it, from the cake itself through to the glaze and the brittle, which also makes it a mouthful to say; Tahini & Chocolate Cake with Tahini Frosting and Sesame Brittle may not roll off the tongue, but boy does it taste good.
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White Chocolate & Raspberry Cake

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White Chocolate & Raspberry Cake
In case you haven’t noticed, summer is here. In England right now it’s hit the kind of temperatures we spend the whole year complaining we don’t get, and then the few days it does we say things along the lines of; ‘can’t function’ and ‘I’m not built for this kind of heat’ while we sit in the shade in a beer garden or lay on top of the covers at night. I decided to bake on what was the hottest day of the year so far, so all of these things were uttered in the first 5 minutes. In all fairness, I baked this cake at about 8am, when the full heat of day hadn’t hit, but the oven was happily sat there making up the difference as it pre-heated. I had decided to make something fit for summer and baked a White Chocolate & Raspberry Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream and Pistachios.
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Vegan Chocolate & Caramel Tarte

- Michael 1 Comment

Vegan Chocolate & Caramel Tart

I’m almost 3 weeks into Vegan May and so far, so good. Yeah, OK, I miss cheese a little bit, but having gone to Club Mexicana last weekend and eaten some of their Vegan Cheese Fries the craving was satiated slightly. We hosted some friends over the weekend for Eurovision and I decided to try and bake something for us all to share after we’d had a little bit too much to drink. Having tackled vegan cinnamon buns I wanted to do something else which usually relies pretty heavily on dairy, a Vegan Chocolate & Salted Caramel Tart. Caramel usually has stacks of cream and butter, a ganache filling is filled with cream and pastry, almost by definition, is crammed full of butter. Read more