allotmentsnstuff

Flowerlady · Joined: 15 Jan 2006 Posts: 3364 Location: Herts

Iced Chocolate Traybake
From the Wiltshire Times, first published Wednesday 9th Aug 2006.

Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Makes: 24 portions

For the cake
60g cocoa powder
3 teaspoons baking powder
125ml boiling water
5 eggs
250g butter
250g caster sugar
280g self-raising flour
Butter for greasing the tin

For the icing:
200g dark chocolate
50g butter
200g sieved icing sugar
4 tablespoons warm water

Method:

1. Turn the oven on to 180c. It will take around 20 minutes to heat up properly. Meanwhile place the flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, butter and a few drops of milk into a large bowl.

2. Mix the cocoa powder together with 100 - 125ml of boiling water until it makes a smooth paste. Add the melted cocoa powder to the other ingredients. Beat all the ingredients together for 2 minutes with an electric hand mixer, or about a minute in a kenwood or a similar machine. It should have a soft consistency.

3. Line a roasting tray with foil and grease the foil with butter. Put the cake mixture into the tin and smooth out with a palette knife or a spatula.

4. Bake in the middle of the oven at 180 c for about half an hour. Once cooked leave the cake in the tin to cool.

5. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Add the butter and stir until melted and well mixed in. Add the warm water and stir until well mixed in. Add half the of the sieved icing sugar and mix in well. Add the other half and mix this in well, until the icing is of a smooth consistency.

6. Leave the cake in the tin and spread the icing evenly over the top. When the icing is cold and set cut the cake into slices or squares and serve.

... haven't made this so let me know how it goes! Wink

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I love my vegetable garden. So here is my sad ballad: I nurtured it for months, And ate it in one salad!

wardy · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 9:09 pm Post subject:

24 portions, you sure Laughing

Thanks Flo - another good un. I love choccy cake. Well, doesn't everyone Very Happy

Was thinking of making some proper ice cream - you know like an old fashioned custard ice cream. Anyone made ice cream before. Any tips, like will I need a machine to make it properly. I don't like ice crystals in my ice cream Confused

frenchchique · Joined: 22 Sep 2006 Posts: 3506 Location: Kent

Yeah I got myself a machine cos they're all ice-cream mad Confused

T'is lovely but...it doesn't make enough for all of us Embarassed

I needed an industrial-size one
Rolling Eyes

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rk01_danzacanapa

wardy · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 9:38 am Post subject:

so what did yer get then Dom. C'mon, c'mon I need input Rolling Eyes

redimp · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 1:00 pm Post subject:

You've got input. You input the eggs, you input the creamy milky stuff, you input the sugar (to taste), you input the fruit and finally, you input the electricity to make it go round and get cold. Or summat like that anyway.

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moonbells · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 2:11 pm Post subject:

wardy wrote:

24 portions, you sure Laughing

Thanks Flo - another good un. I love choccy cake. Well, doesn't everyone Very Happy

Was thinking of making some proper ice cream - you know like an old fashioned custard ice cream. Anyone made ice cream before. Any tips, like will I need a machine to make it properly. I don't like ice crystals in my ice cream Confused

dead simple.
All you need is to ignore all what they say in books about making custard, and it works anyway.
4oz sugar
4 egg yolks
1 pint cream
flavourings
Put sugar and yolks into a large plastic or pyrex jug. Whisk together with electric whisk till pale and creamy. Add 1/4 pint of cream gradually, and when whisked in, microwave the whole lot until it starts to rise in the jug. In other words, pretty cooked. Whisk again till the curdling recombines, then add the rest of the cream while whisking. You then have a fairly cold mixture which doesn't need any more heating. Refrigerate until really cold then bung in either the freezer (in which case you'll have to beat it up regularly) or an icecream maker (follow destructions).

I had one acquaintance who did the beating part in a food processor goblet, then just bunged the whole lot into the freezer, blades and all. Every hour she'd take it out, load back onto the motor section and press WHIZZ for a couple of seconds, then shove it back into the freezer. After a few hours it was crystal-free soft scoop, at which point she'd decant it into tubs. She never had an icecream maker but used to turn out silly quantities of icecream.

If you add 4oz dark choc to a double cream mixture, and a measure of Cointreau, you can just put the whole lot straight into the final container and never need to beat it as it just stays soft scoop. And very very rich...

moonbells (who has a dark past in alcoholic ice cream making)

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Diary of my Chilterns lottie

daveandtara · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 2:40 pm Post subject:

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frenchchique · Joined: 22 Sep 2006 Posts: 3506 Location: Kent

What MB says Wards Shocked

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wardy · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 8:57 pm Post subject:

wow that sounds awesome. Goblet, freezer, back to machine, whizz, whirr Goddit! Very Happy

Ta MB

moonbells · Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 8:15 am Post subject:

This lady's speciality was blackcurrant. Take your newly-picked currants, put in a pan with some sugar, squash them to get them started and bring to a boil. Simmer until the berries are fairly well broken down and it's quite a gloopy puree. Sieve out the skins and then either whizz into the vanilla base mixture halfway through freezing, or wait until the decanting to tubs stage and swirl it in for a ripple effect.

Obviously the method works for all fruits, though banana is a little tricky as they don't freeze terribly well. You could even do fruits raw if juicy enough, or just drop the berries into the partially-frozen custard at the last whizz stage and let the processor break them up a bit.

Always remember that alcohol stops it freezing so hard. So does increasing the fat content. The lower the fat content, the more likely you are to get hard ice cream with crystals. I never use anything less than single cream. Milk is right out.

Once you've had a home-made raspberry ripple, you'll never go back.

moonbells

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Diary of my Chilterns lottie

wardy · Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 11:41 am Post subject:

I'm sold on the idea. Can't wait to get going Very Happy

daveandtara · Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 12:22 pm Post subject:

I make banana 'ice cream' for the kids Very Happy

when bananas are cheap down the market we buy loads, cut into chuinks and freeze them spread out on a tray.
when the kids come home all hot and bothered you just bung some of the chunks in a liquidizer or smoothie maker...whack in some whipping cream (or we use that emlea whipping buttercream cos it lasts forever in the fridge) and blitz.

doesn't stay ice cream for long but then, doesn't contain suger, colours or preservatives and it tastes amazing! it's always gone in seconds Cool

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Trilly-114icon_flower