Kiwi Curd, or Any Curd for that Matter (Volume Measurements, not Weight)

Remember when for World Goth Day when I did the Madeira cake with eyes? In that recipe, I mentioned that my friend Aimée's original memory of eating that kind of cake as a kid was that it was kiwi flavoured filling, not strawberry. I also promised that I would update you with a kiwi filling recipe, and here it is!

Confession time: I hate kiwi fruits. They taste like under ripe strawberries, and when they're puréed they look like green frogspawn. They probably taste like frogspawn too, but I've never eaten frogspawn so I have no frame of reference.

But there are people in this world who like kiwi fruit and if you do you'll enjoy this recipe, which is very simple. Like most of my recipes, this is a simple ratio:

To make the curd base

2 parts fruit purée : 1 part sugar

In volume (fluid ounces, millilitres, etc.)

Once you make the base mixture, you'll need to thicken it with some cornflour.

To thicken with cornflour:

8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres) of base mixture : 1 to 1½ tablespoons (15 to 22 millilitres) cornflour

Now, I do understand the obvious issue here: how many kiwi fruits/strawberries/raspberries etc. are in 8 fluid ounces of purée? Well, that might be a question for Google, but what I do is I buy the fruit, purée it, and then work with what I have with respect to the ratio. That's the beauty of ratios, and why I love using them in the kitchen.

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DIFFICULTY
No baking required, but uses stove top cooking

TIME

About an hour

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

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INGREDIMENTS

8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres) kiwi fruit purée, smoothly blended, I think I used 6 peeled fruit to make this much purée

Zest and juice of 1 lime

4 fluid ounces (115 millilitres) caster sugar

1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 millilitres) cornflour

Pinch of salt

Optional: 1 tablespoon (15 grammes) unsalted butter

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METHOD

• In a saucepan, heat together the fruit purée, lime juice and zest, and sugar over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and comes to a simmer.
• In a small cup, mix together the cornflour with a few tablespoons of water to make a slurry. When the purée is simmering, gradually add in the cornflour and mix until it comes to a thickness you like: you can add all the cornflour to make it more like a jelly when it sets, or add less to make it more like a loose jam.
• If you want a little extra richness, take off the heat and then mix in the butter until it has completely emulsified into the curd.
• Pour into a wide shallow bowl, allow to cool slightly before covering with cling film - making sure that the cling film touches the surface of the curd - and allowing to cool completely before chilling until set, which will take about 4 hours.

STORAGE

Keep in the fridge in an airtight container and use within a week.

Cake for Aimée: Madeira Loaf with Strawberry "Eyes" (Warning: Long Post)

On this wonderful day before World Goth Day, I present to you a cake that's been weeks in the making: Madeira Loaf Cake... with Spooky Eyes!

A few weeks ago, I began to make videos again for my YouTube channel. Normally when I do a video (although life has been a bit hectic recently so I've not done one for a while; I'd better correct that) I finish with an invitation for suggestions or questions. After I released a cake review video, I got a message from a friend of mine, named Aimée, who is currently travelling Southeast Asia. Our conversation went a little something like this:

"My Nannie used to buy this cake when we were younger but I thinks it’s been discontinued for a good while now, and I thought who’d be there most likely person to know about it: you my cake guru friend"

I was flattered to be referred to as a "cake guru", so I continued reading:

"It was a rectangle log, with shiny green-black wrapper, the inside was Madeira and the outside had a light layer of chocolate covering the whole thing. And through the middle were two strips of limey jelly so when you cut into it the line bit almost looked like eyes.

It was utterly delish but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called and I've been trying for weeks to remember!"

After posting this question into a few baking groups on social media, and doing a bit of scratching around on Google, I came to a possible answer. After Aimée and I conversed back and forth, we came to the conclusion that the cake her Nan used to buy must have been this:

From my research I discovered that these kinds of cakes are very common on the continent, and used to be found here in Ireland in the Polish goods aisle of most large supermarkets: Aimée told me her Nan used to get hers in Supervalu. However, she was right in her assumption that this cake is now discontinued: I could not for the life of me find a cake like this in the Irish supermarkets, or the Eastern European supermarkets here in Limerick.

Because I couldn't get a hold of the actual cake itself, I had to do all of my investigation from photographs of the outer packaging, promotional photos of the cake itself on the company website, and from other people's blogs where they reviewed the cake.

I must have made about six versions of this cake (nearly all of which ended up in the food processor to be reincarnated as cake pops), and I tried loads of methods to get the two channels of jelly into the cake: I tried baking the cake with the jam in it with raw jam and cake, I tried freezing the jam into logs first and then baking it into the cake - some dusted with flour, some not - I tried baking half of the cake then adding the jam and the remaining cake mixture on the top to prevent to jam sinking. None of these worked, as each time the jam sank to the bottom, or there was a seam where the two cake halves met.

Then, on closer inspection of the photographs, the answer became clearer: the cakes were injected with jam filling. In the factory, the cakes must be stabbed with a double injection nozzle. Of course! It's so simple; and here was I making it unnecessarily complicated.

Here, you can see the difference between baking the jam in (left), and injecting is afterwards (right):

Of course, no-one has an industrial injection nozzle in their home, so the way I found to mimic it is to poke a channel, or two, all the way through the cake with a chopstick, widen it with the handle of a wooden spoon, and then squeeze the jam in with a piping bag. Make sure to make the opening of the piping bag quite narrow, and if needs be you can coax the jam all the way in using the chopstick.

I used raspberry jam which I had thickened with a little cornflour, as directed in my Bakewell Gateau recipe, and am still working on how to make a kiwi version as I've never, ever seen kiwi jam. I may just have to make it myself. I tried making a version using kiwi jelly crystals, but it was a miserable failure as the cake soaked up all the liquid jelly; you need to use something with a thicker consistency to prevent soakage, and you need a cake with a fairly dense texture, like a Madeira cake or a pound cake.

So, let me explain how I did it:

INGREDIMENTS

1 loaf-shaped Madeira or pound cake, made in a two-pound (1 kilogram) loaf tin, or shopbought

Roughly 4 ounces (115 grammes) filling of your choice: strawberry or any other jam, lemon curd, Nutella, custard, etc.

About 4 or 6 ounces (115 to 170 grammes) glaze of your choice: glacé icing, melted chocolate, etc.

METHOD

• Take your completely cooled homemade or shopbought cake and chill it for about 20 minutes to make it easier to work with.
• Because this cake will be served upside down, cut the dome off the cake so it will sit flat. If the two short ends are sloped, cut a narrow slice of each end to make them completely flat.
• Turn the cake up on its narrow end and using a chopstick, poke channels gently through the middle of the cake to resemble two eyes. Widen the channels by going through them again with the handle of a wooden spoon.
• Fit a piping bag with a narrow round nozzle - or better, an injection nozzle (don't worry, this isn't an affiliate link: it's just a link for visual reference) - and pipe the filling into the channels. To get the most filling in, you might have to fill from both ends and coax it down with the end of the chopstick.
• Pop into the fridge again for about 30 minutes to help set the filling.
• To decorate, glaze with some simple glacé icing, or with melted chocolate. I used a simple glaze of dark chocolate and sunflower oil.

STORAGE

This cake is best stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week, but is best served at room temperature. For that reason, I recommend taking the cake out of the fridge an hour before serving.

THIS TIME IN 2016: Mocha Cupcakes: Chocolate and Coffee Join Forces (Gluten Free; Dairy Free Option)

THIS TIME IN 2013: Bake Sale Madness: Raising Funds for Christian Aid

There were no blogs on this day in 2017, 2015, nor 2014.

Homemade Chocolate Box Strikes Back: 8 Flavours!

For another Christmas gift, that requires good care and attention: homemade chocolate selection box!

As many of you may have guessed, I'm fascinated by chocolate boxes. When I was a small child, I remember watching the film Matilda, an American adaptation of a Roald Dahl classic. The villain, Miss Trunchbull, has a box of chocolates that only she can eat. I remember seeing that scene in the film and thinking "those look so nice!", and thinking that a box of chocolates was such a grown up thing to get.

Over the last few years, I've made a few different kinds of chocolate boxes: some that are dipped, some that are moulded, some that are vegan, some that are milk and dark, and all took a lot of time and effort. But one thing is universal for all the different kinds: chocolate is Hell to work with.

Chocolate is very fickle: if you don't melt it properly, or mix it too much or not enough, it sets as a soft, streaky mess. I've had good and bad luck with chocolate, and this time it was particularly difficult. Humidity, air pressure, and temperature all play a big part in making or breaking good chocolate tempering. The first batch of milk chocolates I made this time around bloomed horribly: all grey streaky and spotty, I was heartbroken.

First batch of milk from the mould bloomed a lot, which made it unusable.

Bloomed chocolate; disaster.

Tempering chocolate without a thermometer is a matter of patience: you must use a bowl over warm water, and 'seed' the melted chocolate with un-melted chocolate. There are many videos available on YouTube about this process, which I recommend that you watch.

To make the chocolate shells, I melted the chocolate correctly to keep it in temper. I half-filled each hole in the mould, then using the tip of the teaspoon, I spread the chocolate up the sides. Placing a sheet of non-stick baking paper underneath a wire rack, I then put the mould upside-down on the wire rack, allowing the chocolate to dribble out of the mould, coating the sides, the excess spilling onto the paper. Once the dripping stopped, I turned the mould right side up and scraped the excess chocolate off the surface of the mould with a palette knife. I allowed the shells to cool at room temperature before filling, because putting in the fridge would run the risk of blooming the chocolate. I filled the individual shells leaving about 2 millimetres of a gap to cap with chocolate.

This chocolate box includes 5 moulded and filled flavours (in both milk and dark chocolate), and 2 dipped milk chocolate flavours:

Soft Caramel
To fill these chocolates, I used the same caramel recipe that I used for my banoffee pie: 7 ounces (200 grammes) light brown sugar, 7 ounces (200 grammes) evaporated milk, 2½ ounces (60 grammes) of butter, and 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence. I mixed all the ingredients, except for the vanilla essence, in a medium saucepan, and cooked it gently over a low heat until the butter and sugar melted together fully, then brought it to the boil. I boiled it gently for about 5 minutes, until the mixture thickened into a creamy saucy consistency, and darkened slightly. I allowed it to cool before using it to fill the shells.

Pecan Nut Praline
To make the praline for the truffle filling, I put 2 ounces (55 grammes) of pecan nuts, 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar, and 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) of water into a frying pan. Over a low heat, I heat the mixture until the sugar dissolved, then increased the heat to medium-high. I cooked the mixture until the sugar became thick and dark brown. I poured this mixture onto some oiled non-stick baking paper, and let it set completely. I pulsed the praline pieces in a blender to a powder, then mixed it into some chocolate truffle mixture (see below) before using it to fill the shells.

Strawberry Fondant
I mixed some strained strawberry jam in equal weight quantities with icing sugar to thicken it slightly, and used this to fill the shells.

Lemon Truffle
To make the lemon filling, I used 1 ounce (30 grammes) of caster sugar, 1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) of milk, 1 ounce (30 grammes) of butter, 3½ ounces (100 grammes) white chocolate, chopped into pieces, 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence, and the zest of half a lemon. I heated the sugar, lemon zest, and milk together in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolved. I brought it to the boil and cook for about a minute or two until a little syrupy. I removed it from the heat and stirred in the butter, chocolate, and vanilla essence, then returned it to a low heat, mixing until smooth. I allowed it to cool before using it to fill the shells.

Coffee Crème
To make the lemon filling, I used 1 ounce (30 grammes) of caster sugar, 1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) of strong coffee, 1 ounce (30 grammes) of butter, 3½ ounces (100 grammes) white chocolate, chopped into pieces, and 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence. I used the same technique to make it as the lemon filling, and allowed it to cool before using it to fill the shells.

Almond Marzipan
I made some marzipan using this recipe, and used it to make 1 inch (2½ centimetre) balls, pressing them into ovals, and dipping them in properly melted chocolate.

Turkish Delight
I made some Turkish delight using this recipe, and cut it into 1 inch (2½ centimetre) pieces, dusted very lightly with icing sugar (brushing off any excess) and dipping it twice in properly melted chocolate, allowing to set fully after the first dipping, and sprinkling on some coloured sprinkles.

White and Dark Truffle
These ones were a bit of an experiment, but they turned out nicely. I mixed equal quantities of melted dark chocolate and buttercream icing together until it became a thick mixture, then chilled it overnight. I allowed the mix to return to a cool room temperature before rolling into balls. I chilled them thoroughly before dipping in melted white chocolate. These ones were very tasty,

Chocolate Truffle Box: Dark Raspberry and Milk Orange

For my next trick, moulded chocolate shells filled with truffle and fruit jam! I made my Dad a box of these for his present, and he really appreciated them.

A few weeks ago, I was in Dealz (PoundLand) and I found a lovely sillicone mould with shapes of various tea time things, like cakes, teacups and teapots, and I thought this would be ideal to make some nice truffle filled moulded chocolates for Christmas. Over the next few weeks, I designed what would go into each chocolate.

Seeing as the mould had 15 holes, of 5 different designs, I thought I could do 5 different fillings, but in the end I thought of a better idea: to use the mould to make one whole batch of dark chocolate truffles, and one whole batch of milk chocolate truffles, then just make a box including one of each shape and colour, making a box of ten in total.

I filled the dark chocolate shells with raspberry jam and dark chocolate truffle, made with what I like to refer to as a faux-ganache, and then the milk chocolate shells where filled with orange marmalade and milk chocolate truffle. To make the chocolate shells, I needed 3 1/2 ounces (100g) chocolate per tray.

I melted the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water until almost completely melted, then I removed to bowl from the heat and continued stirring until fully melted; this is the lazy man's way of tempering, and has served me well so far. I put one teaspoon of chocolate into each shape in the mould, then using the tip of the teaspoon, spread the chocolate up the sides; if it spills out a bit, that's okay.

Put a sheet of non-stick baking paper underneath a wire rack, then put the mould upside-down on the wire rack; the chocolate will dribble out of the mould, through the rack, onto the paper. This will coat the sides completely. When the dripping stops, turn the mould right-side up again; scrape the excess chocolate off the surface of the mould with a palette knife, or the back of a normal knife. Put this in the fridge to set for about 10 minutes before filling. On removing from the fridge, fill each hole leaving a eighth inch (3 millimetre) gap at the top.

To make the fillings, you will need:

RASPBERRY DARK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) chocolate, broken into pieces
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter or margarine
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) raspberry jam
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) raspberry jam, sieved

Heat together the butter (or margarine) with the tablespoon of jam until melted and just starting to bubble. Remove from the heat, and stir in the chocolate until smooth. Leave to cool slightly before using, so as not to melt the shells. Use the sieved jam and the ganache to fill each shell.

ORANGE MILK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) milk chocolate
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter or margarine
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) milk
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) orange marmalade, sieved.

Heat together the butter (or margarine) with sugar and milk until the sugar and butter have melted together and the mixture is just starting to bubble. Remove from the heat, allow to cool slightly, then stir in the chocolate until smooth. Leave to cool slightly before using, so as not to melt the shells. Use the sieved jam and the ganache to fill each shell.

I put a quarter teaspoon of jam (for dark) and marmalade (for milk) into each shell, then topped each one off with about a half teaspoon of ganache. Allow to stand for ten minutes. There should be some melted chocolate left over from making the shells, and the chocolate that dribbled onto the paper should be a little bit set by now, so take all the chocolate off the paper, add back into the heatproof bowl, and re-melt very gently over simmering water as before until almost melted.

Stir until completely melted, then spoon onto the tops of the filled chocolates, gently spreading it into the corners. Allow to set completely at room temperature for an hour, or pop into the freezer for 10 minutes. Gently turn each hole inside-out to get the chocolates out, and put into little paper cases.

These turned out really well for my first, and I hope that future attempts will only improve!