Easy Chocolate Cake

This chocolate cake looks good and it tastes great too, guess what...it is really easy to make!! This is so easy to make and decorate that I made two of them for my childrens teacher, the perfect end of year thank you!!

The sponge mix is an all in one - put everything into a bowl, mix it up - and the chocolate buttercream is a doddle to make.

No Bake Nutella Bites

If you are looking for a quick and easy recipe that requires no effort at all then you are in the right place. Basically heat, stir and chill and you are on your way to a chocolatey chewy bite that didn't even raise a sweat. These little tasty morsels are very moreish and even if I say so myself are real lookers! Perfect for some after dinner dining, party treats or perhaps as a movie snack.

Recipe adapted from Dinner Dishes and Desserts

Yield 80-90 pieces

Ingredients
450g White Sugar
4tbsp Cocoa powder
113g Butter
125ml Milk
1tbsp Vanilla extract
165g Nutella
230g Porridge oats

Method
Line a 30x25cm shallow baking tray with baking paper.

Place the sugar, cocoa powder, butter and milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring frequently. Boil for 1 minute, remove from the heat.

Fold in the vanilla extract, nutella and porridge oats. Mix until all the porridge oats are coated in the chocolate mixture.

Pour into the prepared tray, level off.

Gently tap the dish on your work surface to remove any trapped air bubbles.

Before the mixture sets, shake over sprinkles of your choice.

Chill for 2-3 hours or until firm, use the baking paper to help lift the chocolatey goodness out of the baking tray. Place on a chopping board, with a sharp knife cut into roughly 2cm square pieces. Serve and devour!!

Quick Peanut Brittle

Every year after Christmas I am left with unopened bags of dried roasted peanuts, I have tried loads of recipes to use them up, but this is by far my favourite. Now I'm fairly sure that you won't be sharing this recipe with your dentist because of the sugar and golden syrup content but occasionally this is an excellent treat. I have made up batches, parcelled them off in parchment paper and given them away, makes you very popular at the school gate! If you are new to peanut brittle, it is a sweet crunchy confectionery that you have to break with a hammer!

Yield 454g

Ingredients
220g Dry roasted peanuts
200g White sugar
120ml Golden syrup
1g Salt (optional)
15g Butter
1tsp Vanilla extract
5g Bicarbonate of soda

Method
‬Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a glass bowl or a deep sided silicone dish, combine peanuts, sugar, golden syrup, and salt.

Cook in microwave for 5-6 minutes on High (800 W), mixture should be bubbly and peanuts browned.

Stir in butter and vanilla; cook 2 to 3 minutes longer. ‬Quickly stir in bicarbonate of soda, just until mixture is foamy.

Pour immediately onto lined baking sheet. Let cool 15 minutes, or until set. Break into pieces, and store in an airtight container (not in the fridge, you'll have no teeth left!).

Children's Chocolate Truffles

I think this makes a perfect present for teacher or that someone special in your child's daily life. It is very quick to make and children of almost all ages can make these sweet treats. When my daughter and I made the first batch, we rolled them in cocoa powder, but they failed quality control (my 4 year old son!) he didn't like bitter taste. So we changed the coating to icing sugar and chocolate strands. If you're a grown up, then a tablespoon of Rum, Whiskey or Tia Maria added to the mix would be delicious and then rolled in crushed nuts or dessicated coconut.

Makes 18

Ingredients
100g Slightly stale cake
100g Milk chocolate, melted
25g Raisins
75ml Double cream
Cocoa, icing sugar or sprinkles for rolling

Method
Crumble the cake in crumbs. Melt the chocolate. Add the crumbled cake and other ingredients to the melted chocolate and mix well with a large spoon.

 

Use your fingers to make small rounds of the mixture and place on a sheet of baking parchment. Put some cocoa powder, icing sugar or sprinkles on a plate and gently coat the truffles using just your finger and thumb to roll them. Shaking off the excess.

 

Do not use the palm of your hand as this is warm as this will cause the truffles to melt. Place the truffles in paper cases.

Nigella's Sweet and Salty Crunchy Nut Bars

This is my favourite Christmas treat, so much so that I've quit buying tins of sweets. I make alarmingly large batches of this and chop into various sizes. My sister just loves it and last year I sent her home with lunch boxes full of it! This is another of my scribbled down recipes in my now very tattered note book, but I'm very sure it is a Nigella recipe. I suspect it is from a Christmas special. This is part of my edible Christmas gifts posts, Enjoy.