Leftover Blackberry frosting cookies with white chocolate

Quick post today to tell you about a little experiment in the kitchen. I made some chocolate and blackerry cupcakes recently and had some leftover frosting. I've used leftover frosting to make cookies previously and as I've never had a blackberry cookie I thought it would be interesting to try. The frosting is made of blackberry puree, icing sugar and butter. Butter and sugar are basic ingredients for cookies so I added in flour and and an egg. The mixture then looked a little grey so I added a handful of fresh blackberries as well which I managed to get in the reduced aisle for 10p a box! It gave the mixture a lovely purple hue and boosted the blacberry flavour. I added in about 50g of white chocolate chips to give some contrast and sweetness. The cookie dough was really soft - in hindsight I should have added more flour but I baked them anyway and they turned out like soft baked cookies. They tasted like a cross between a cookie and a cake. It was slightly crispy around the edges but soft in the middle. The flavour combination of blackberry and white chocolate was delicious! I will now have to experiment with making actual blackberry cookies. Has anyone tried a blackberry cookie before?

I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge guest hosted this month by Claire from Foodie Quine on behalf of Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This recipe uses up leftover blackberry frostings and part of a reduced box of blackberries which have just gone past their sell by date. 

I'm also sending it to Credit Crunch Munch as this is quite a frugal recipe using leftovers and store cupboard ingredients. The challenge is hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla from Fab Food 4 All. 

 leftover blackberry frosting 

 adding a handful of fresh blackberries as the mixture looked a little grey

 

 adding in white chocolate chips

 Blackberry and white chocolate cookies! 

Chocolate Blackberry Cupcakes

It's been a busy start to September mainly because I was away in Venice to celebrate my birthday over the weekend. I had a lovely chocolate dome cake from a bakery there on my birthday which was absolutely delicious! I was so excited I didn't even take a picture before tucking in. 

I love birthdays and I tend to have prolonged celebrations each year. Obviously a birthday is not really a birthday without cake and lots of it! On my return I decided to bake some cupcakes to continue the celebrations. I chose these flavours so I could enter them into several blogging challenges this month. I initially wanted to bake the cake with blackberry jam but just couldn't find it in the shops.  Lots of blackcurrant jam but no blackberry jam! I did however find some bramble jelly which is made from blacberries so I've incorporated that into the recipe. 

I adapated a recipe from BBC Good Food and it turned out beautifully. The cake was light and chocolatey but not overly so. You can clearly taste the blackberries and I loved the jelly in the middle. The icing was my favourite part as it uses blackberry puree for the flavour and colour. Everyone thought they were really good and they disappeared really quickly. I have some leftover frosting so I will be baking them into cookies. I've never had a blackberry cookie before so I'm quite excited to try it out.

I'm sending this to a few challenges this month.

AlphaBakes hosted by myself this month and Caroline from Caroline Makes on alternate months. The letter this month is J for Jelly.

We Should Cocoa hosted by Kate from The Veg Space on behalf of Choclette from Tin and Thyme. The theme this month is blackberries.

Simply Eggcellent hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen. The theme this month is cakes as it's also Dom's birthday in September. Happy Birthday in advance Dom!

Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from The Baking Explorer. The theme this month is anything goes. 

The Vegetable Palette and Fruit Palette hosted by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table. The theme this month is Purple and Blues.

 The mixture is very liquid but don't worry. I love the colour of the blackberries. 

 adding a generous layer of jelly before baking 

 after baking 

 I love that you can see a bit of the jelly poking out under the gorgeous frosting which is has a really pretty colour and tastes good too! 

Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food

For the cupcakes - makes 15 cupcakes

300g blackberries, divided into two portions of 150g each 

100g butter

100g milk chocolate

225g self raising flour

175g coconut sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 eggs

100mls boiling water 

For the frosting

100g butter

400g icing sugar

Blackberry puree - see recipe

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Place 150g blackberries in a bowl and roughly crush with a fork so the juices are running but there are still chunky bits of fruit left.
• In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate and allow to cool slightly. 
• Crack 2 eggs into the chocolate-butter mixture and whisk briefly. 
• In a separate bowl, mix the flour, sugar and coocoa powder.
• Mix the wet and dry ingredients together adding in the crushed blackberries. Add the boiling water and mix well. The mixture will be very liquid at this stage. 
• Divide the cake mixture between the cupcake cases and fill until approximately 2/3 full.
• Place a large spoonful of bramble jelly on top of each cupcake.
• Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until cooked and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool completely before frosting.
• To make the frosting, place the remaining 150g blackberries in a food processor and whizz until pureed.
• Place in a strainer and strain the pureed blackberries. 
• Beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth - about 5 minutes in an electric mixer.
• Add in the sieved blackberry puree and mix well.
• Decorate the cake using a piping bag and piping nozzle. 

AlphaBakes September 2015

Welccome to September's AlphaBakes. Can you believe it's the end of summer already? We've had a few tricky letters recently so you'll be pleased to know that this month is a much easier letter. If you haven't already seen the fabulous 'Z' roundup on Caroline's blog, do head on over to have a look. Without further ado, the letter we are using this month is ... J 

Look forward to seeing all your Jamming J entries! Entry is via the linky tool below and if for some reason it's not working then please email alphabakes@gmail.com by 25th September 2015.


Quick reminder of the rules....

1. Post your RECIPE on your blog and link it to The More than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes, stating the relevant month's host. If you do not have a blog, email us a picture and a brief description of your entry which we will include in the round-up at the end of the month.

2. You can use your own RECIPE or someone else's RECIPE. The recipe can be sweet, savoury or a mixture! Anything goes as long as the random letter is predominantly featured in the recipe as one of the main ingredients or flavours or in the name of the bake itself (i .e . not as a garnish , or using 'flour' for the letter F!) You can also republish old posts/RECIPES but you must include the information for this challenge as stated in these rules.

3. Add the logo to your post and add 'alphabakes' as a label to your post.

4. Entry is via the linky tool below. Alternatively, you can email your entries to alphabakes@gmail.com by midnight (GMT) 25th of each month. Please include:

• Your name (that you want included in the round up or we will use the name of your blog) 
• Your blog post URL 
• RECIPE title 
• Photo of RECIPE (to be included in the round up) 

5. You can submit as many entries as you like.

6. You do not have to participate every month to join in.

7. You may submit your entry to other challenges as long as it complies with their rules.

8. If you use twitter, please use the tag #alphabakes and mention @bakingaddict and @Caroline_Makes. We will retweet all those that we see.


9. Have fun! :)

Zucchini and Orange Marmalade Muffins with Cranberry and Pecans

It's another courgette recipe but it's too good not to share. I saw this on Brown Eyed Baker and the flavour combination really appealed to me. As with my previous post on biscotti, this has a distinctively festive flavour with the orange, pecan and cranberry.  The muffins were quick and easy to put together and made for a substantial breakfast. You can clearly taste the tangy marmalade which pairs well with the cranberry and pecan. You can actually see bits of green from the courgette in the muffin not that it put anyone off. I brought this to a work breakfast do and they were a real hit. Definitely on the bake again list. I also experimented with coconut sugar rather than caster sugar and to be honest I couldn't taste the difference. I was worried that it would have a coconut taste but it didn't so I will definitely be using more of my coconut sugar in the future. I like to think that this is healthier for me as it has courgettes, coconut sugar, dried fruit and nut! 

I'm sending this to a few blog challenges this month.

AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and co hosted by myself on alternate months. The letter this month is Z for Zucchini also known as courgette. 

Extra Veg challenge hosted by Jen from Jen's Food this month. The challenge is run by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle from Utterly Scrummy. These muffins are a great way to incorporate extra veg into your diet.

Simple and in Season hosted by Ren as courgettes are currently in season. 

No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. I used up the end of a jar of marmalade, an open pack of dried cranberries and a pack of pecans which I bought for something else. There was also 1 courgette left in the fridge which was exactly what I needed. 

 adding (strained) finely grated courgette 

 adding dried cranberries and pecan nuts 

 place a pecan nut on top of each muffin before baking 

 I love how you can see the green flecks from the courgette 

Recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker 

Makes 12 muffins 

185g plain flour

125g coconut sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 eggs

80mls vegetable oil

100g orange marmalade (I used 125g as that was all that was left in the jar) 

50g pecans, roughly chopped

120g dried cranberries

1 courgette, finely grated and strained well

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and ground cinnamon.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and marmalade. Stir in the courgette. 
• Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix briefly.
• Add in the dried cranberries and pecans and stir until just mixed.
• Divide evenly between 12 muffin cases.
• Place a whole pecan on top of each muffin before baking.
• Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Chocolate, orange, almond and cranberry biscotti

This sounds like a really festive bake but it's made in the middle of summer! It will definitely be a great gift at the end of the year when it's 'C' time... just can't bring myself to say it in August! This recipe is of course inspired by the current season of the Great British Bake Off. It was biscuit week in week 2 and they made biscotti. I've baked Italian biscotti once before and they weren't hugely successful so I was really pleased with how these turned out.  Clearly, I have to work on shaping these as my biscotti were huge! They passed the crunch test and tasted delicious. The flavours work really well together and it really tasted very festive with the chocolate, cranberry and orange. I'm definitely baking more biscotti in the future and might be more adventurous with flavour combinations. 

I'm sending this to Treat Petite hosted by Kat from the Baking Explorer and co hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi. The theme this month is The Great British Bake Off.

 adding dried cranberries, chocolate chips and blanched almonds 

 Love how the orange zest turns the eggs very orange! 

 biscotti loaves 

 sliced after the first round of baking

 biscotti! 

 

375g plain flour
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
200g caster sugar
100g dark chocolate chips
75g blanched almonds (bring a pot of water to boil, add the almonds for 1 minute then strain. Remove the skins by squeezing the end of the almond)
100g dried cranberries
3 eggs
zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon orange flavoured water

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Mix flour, baking powder and sugar. 
• Add in the chocolate chips, dried cranberries and blanched almonds and mix. 
• In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the orange zest and orange flavoured water (or fresh orange juice).
• Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and mix well. 
• Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into two fat sausages. 
• Place on a baking tray spaced apart, allowing room for spreading. 
• Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes. 
• Reduce the oven temperature to 140C. 
• Allow the biscotti to cool for 10 minutes then slice diagonally using a bread knife. 
• Place the slices facing up on a baking tray and bake for a further 20 minutes or until crispy. 

Chocolate Cake with Oreo and Cream Cheese Filling

Are you ready for a serious chocolate overload? This is cake is so good I've made it 3 times in the space of two weeks and will be baking it again later this week. It's a simple cake that looks impressive and everyone will think you've spent hours on this creation! I adapted a recipe I found online. It's a really nice, moist chocolate cake with a cookies and cream filling topped with chocolate ganache and more Oreos. I took this to my work and J took one to his work as well. Here are the comments received...

This is the best chocolate cake.... EVER!

‘Okay, so that cake seriously competes with the after eight mint cupcakes... It's AMAZING!’

‘OMG....that cake was amazeballs!! My compliments to the chef ;)’

I think I've died and gone to cake heaven!

You really have to try this cake for yourself especially if you like chocolate and Oreos. I used chocolate creme Oreos the first time round as the supermarket had sold out of normal Oreos (gasp!). I do think it looks better with the regular Oreos as you get a bit of colour contrast. As I said, I've made this a few times so I've varied the decoration a little. I quite like the one with the whole Oreo in the centre rather than crushed up Oreos. 

I'm sending this to We Should Cocoa hosted by Choclette from Tin and Thyme. The theme this month is anything goes so here's my chocolate overload entry. 

 use strips of parchment paper around the cake board to catch any spillages. 

 Place one cake bottom side up on the cake board 

 Add the Oreo and cream cheese filling 

 With chocolate Creme Oreos

 With regular Oreos

Makes 1 large cake

For the cake 

350g caster sugar

220g plain flour

85g cocoa powder

1.5 teaspoon baking powder

1.5 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs

250mls milk

125mls vegetable oil

1 teaspoon chocolate extract (or use vanilla extract)

250mls boiling water, cooled for a few minutes

For the filling

400mls double cream

225g cream cheese

85g icing sugar

14 Oreo cookies, crushed

For the ganache

200mls double cream

200g dark chocolate 

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Grease and line 2 x 18cm round tins. 
• Place the sugar, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix briefly.
• Add in the milk, oil, eggs, chocolate extract and finally the slightly cooled boiling water.
• Mix until smooth.
• Divide the batter between the 2 cake tins and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.
• To make the filling, whip the cream until stiff then set aside. 
• Beat the cream cheese with the icing sugar until smooth.
• Stir in the whipped cream and crushed oreos. 
• Chill in the fridge if not using immediately.
• To make the ganache, heat the cream gently until it's just starting to bubble - don't let it overboil.
• Add in the chocolate in small pieces whilst stirring.
• Whisk for a few minutes until it's smooth.
• Allow to cool for 5-10minutes before using.
• To assemble the cake, cut 4 strips of parchment paper and lay them on each side of the cake board (see picture above)
• Place one cake upside down on the cake board. 
• Spread the cream cheese filling evenly on the cake, smoothing out the edges as you go. 
• Add the second cake on top.
• Pour the ganache from a height on to the centre of the cake and allow it to spread out until it's dripping down the edges of the cake. 
• Decorate with piped rosettes of cream and half an Oreo Cookie as shown. I also added more crumbles Oreos as you just can't have too many! 
• Remove the parchment paper and you should have a clean cake board.