As if this year wasn’t filled with enough celebration, did you know that World Chocolate Day is coming up on the 7th July? Hoorah!
There’s never a bad time to enjoy a decadent chocolate-filled, topped or iced treat, so to whet your appetite, we have rounded up some of our favourite recipes from the Easy Peasy Baking Campaign, Carr’s Flour and Mr Organic below.
Recipes For World Chocolate Day – Juliet Sear’s Chocolate & Vanilla Traybake Recipe
This delicious traybake is simple to make and looks so appealing, with a lovely marble effect from using both the Carr’s Chocolate and Victoria Sponge Cake Mixes. If you want to make yours look extra special, you can pipe the mixed frosting shades over the top using large round, star and petal nozzles, or keep it simple and just add blobs of icing in a mix all over the top then spread, swirling it together to make a marble pattern to reflect the inside. Both ways are wonderful and just as tasty!
Serves: 16-20
Equipment needed:
- Bowls and wooden spoons (or you can use an electric mixer for the frosting, if you prefer)
- Piping bags and large piping nozzles (optional)
- 1 x traybake tin, greased and lined with baking paper on the bottom and sides (Juliet uses a 9 x 13”)
- Spoon or palette knife for spreading the icing and swirling the sponge flavours together
- Cooling rack
- Microwave safe bowl or saucepan & heatproof bowl for melting chocolate
Ingredients:
For the sponge:
- 1 x Carr’s Decadent Chocolate Cake Mix 425g
- 1 x Carr’s Heavenly Victoria Sponge Cake Mix 425g
- 6 eggs
- 200ml water
- 200ml oil or 200g butter
For the buttercream:
- 130g dark chocolate, melted and cooled
- 250g butter, softened at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 500g icing sugar, sifted
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 190C (170C Fan/Gas Mark 5).
- Mix the cake mixes according to the pack instructions, then spoon alternating blobs of the mix over the traybake tin. Use a knife or end of a spoon to drag through the flavours up and down and across the batter to create a marbled effect.
- Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes until cake is cooked through, going golden arounds the edges and the centre is completely cooked through (Tip: Use a metal skewer or end of a sharp knife to push in the centre and it should come out dry and free of mixture when the cake is done).
- Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack and remove the paper. Leave to cool completely and get your frostings ready.
- For the buttercream, either melt the chocolate in the microwave or use a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Leave to cool.
- Beat the butter and vanilla with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the icing sugar gradually, mixing in slowly to start with until all the powder has mixed into the butter, then beat well until very pale and creamy, beating between each addition until your buttercream is smooth and soft.
- Halve the mixture and pour in the cooled chocolate into one of the bowls and combine thoroughly. If you want to keep it simple, just add mixed blobs of the frosting onto the cooled cake and then use a spoon or knife to flatten and swirl it into a marbled pattern.
- Alternatively, you can either pipe these two icings onto the cake with star, round or petal nozzles, or to give you three shades of frosting, take half of each flavour frosting out and mix together into a third bowl, to give you a lighter chocolate shade, then divide into any piping bags you like with mixed nozzles and pipe in a random style all over the cake as shown.
Recipes For World Chocolate Day – Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Makes 10 cookies
Ingredients
- 300g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 120g salted butter (melted)
- 225g light brown soft sugar
- 1 egg
- 20 squares of milk chocolate (you will need to buy a large bar)
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- Microwaveable bowl
- Wooden spoon
- Baking tray lined with baking paper
- Measuring spoons
Method
- Preheat your oven to 160°C.
- In the mixing bowl, combine the flour and bicarbonate. Set to one side.
- In the other bowl, melt the butter in the microwave and mix in the sugar before adding the egg. Add this wet mix to the dry flour mix and bring together with the wooden spoon to form a dough.
- Divide the dough into 60g balls and place on the lined baking tray, leaving room to spread between each one. Push each ball down slightly then place in the oven for 6 minutes.
- After the 6 minutes, take the cookies out of the oven, press 2 squares of chocolate into each one, rotate the tray then bake for a further 6 minutes.
- Allow to cool slightly on the tray before serving.
Tip: You can keep the 60g dough balls in the freezer and when ready, bake for 12-14 minutes until golden brown – so you always have cookies on hand!
Recipes For World Chocolate Day – Chocolate Fudge Cake
Makes one round two layer 15cm cake
Ingredients
Sponge:
- 175g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 150g soft light brown sugar
- 50g cocoa powder
- 2 eggs
- 150ml/g sunflower oil
- 150ml/g milk
Icing:
- 300g dark or milk chocolate
- 150ml/g double cream (cold)
Equipment
- 2 x 15cm round cake tins lined with baking paper
- Mixing bowl
- Whisk
- Microwaveable bowl
- Icing spatula/knife
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160°C.
- In the mixing bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate, sugar and cocoa powder.
- Add in the eggs, oil and milk and whisk everything together until no lumps remain.
- Divide the batter into the two cake tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until springy in the centre. Allow to cool completely before icing.
- Whilst the sponges are cooling, melt the chosen chocolate for the icing in the microwave (in 30 second increments and stirring to prevent burning). Once it is melted completely, pour in the cold double cream and combine until glossy and smooth.
- Sandwich the two sponges with the icing before covering the top and sides. Decorate as you wish.
Recipes For World Chocolate Day – Chocolate Doughnut Bites
90 mins
6 people
INGREDIENTS
- 600g of self raising flour
- 2 sachets of dry active yeast (14g)
- 75g of caster sugar
- 330ml luke warm plant milk
- 100g og vegan melted butter
- 2 tbsp of flaxseeds
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 litre of Mr Organic Rapeseed Oil for frying
- 3 tbsp of caster sugar + 2 tsp cinnamon coating
- 100g of Mr Organic Chocolate spread
- 50 ml plant milk
METHOD
1. Start by combining the flaxseeds with 4 tbsp water in a small bowl and set aside to soak for 10 minutes.
2. Pour the luke-warm dairy-free milk into a large jug and sprinkle over the yeast and sugar. Stir to combine and cover the jug with a tea towel. Place it into a warm place for about 10 minutes or until the yeast has gone frothy.
3. In the meantime, sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and combine it with the fine salt. In a separate bowl, combine the melted butter and flaxseed mixture.
4. Create a well in the middle of your flour bowl and add in the butter mix as well as the frothy yeast mixture.
5. Combine with a spatula until the dough is thick enough to be handled by hand. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 2 minutes, then shape into a ball and place it back into a greased bowl, covering with a damp tea towel. Place the bowl in the closed oven and allow for it to rise for 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.
6. When the time elapses, place the sunflower oil into a deep saucepan of small diameter and carefully heat it over low heat. Once it reaches 220C it’s ready to fry your doughnuts.
7. Whilst the oil is heating, prepare your doughnut bite shapes. Create equal round dough balls from your dough and place them onto a lined tray, leaving at least 2 inches between them. Cover again and let them rest until the oil has reached frying temperature.
8. Carefully lower the doughnut balls into the hot oil with a ladle, one at a time. They should only need between 20-30 seconds to fry, carefully turn them with the ladle during the frying process and remove them once golden. Place them on a kitchen towel to remove any excess oil.
9. Repeat until all dough balls are created.
10. Mix the caster sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and coat your doughnuts in the sugar/cinnamon mix.
11. To create the chocolate sauce heat the chocolate and milk over a double broiler and stir until thoroughly combined and melted. To serve, either dip your doughnut balls into the chocolate sauce or use a piping bag with a long tip to fill your dough balls with the sauce instead..
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