Tag Archives: egg

Recipes, Sweet

Marmalade sponge sandwich

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Ingredients for 5 portions:

  • Tesco  values sponge mix
  • 100g dark chocolate tablet
  • 20ml vegetable oil (or hazelnut oil)
  • 1 orange
  • 150g marmalade
  • 1 egg
  • Butter for greasing

Method:

Carefully follow the instructions on the sponge mix package to prepare the two halves of the sandwich. Before pouring the mix to bake, grate and mix in the zest of 1 orange.

Once the haves are baked, leave to cool for few minutes and turn both of them upside down.

Score the base of both cakes and evenly spread the jam on them making sure that it is well absorbed. Now put both cakes on top of each other on the jammed side. Set aside.

Ingredients for the chocolate covering

Preparing the chocolate covering. Break the tablet of chocolate in small pieces and place them in a heat-proof bowl. Add the 20ml of oil. Now, in a small sauce pan, boil 300ml of water and place the bowl containing the chocolate pieces in it while it is still simmering.

Gently stir the contents of the bowl until all the pieces of chocolate are melted and all what is left is a very smooth, rich and glossy chocolate sauce.

The sponge is covered with chocolate

Now place the sponge sandwich on a rack or a plate, then pour the chocolate sauce on it making sure to cover all the top and the sides of the cake too. One single layer of the sauce is just enough to keep it light. Decorate the cake before placing it in the fridge to allow the chocolate to harden.  30 minutes to 1 hours should be enough depending on the thickness of the chocolate covering.

The cake above was decorated with heart shapes filled with white chocolate shavings on the outer and poppy seeds in the inner heart. The fresh orange piece were lightly dipped in caramel before being placed on the edges of the cake. Make sure to decorate your cake before placing it the fridge to harden.

Share… on its own no distraction needed

This would be a great birthday cake or one to offer to friends.

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Recipes, Sweet

Homemade biscuits

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Homemade biscuits - gift
Homemade biscuits – gift

Find the downloadable book on the about page.

Ingredients:
 400g self raising flour
 2 tablespoons powdered milk
 1 egg
 50g butter
 1 lemon zest
 50g sugar
 Pinch of salt (not if you are using salted butter)
 Dark chocolate
 White chocolate
 Vegetable oil

Method:
Preheat the oven at 180C and place the butter in it for 3 minutes to melt.

Biscuit dough
Biscuit dough 1

Dissolve the milk in 50ml of water, then, beat together the melted butter, milk, salt, sugar and whole egg.
Beat them until the sugar granules are completely dissolved. Now sieve into the mix the flour.
Add the lemon zest and work the dough with your hands until it becomes a soft non-stick ball.

Wrap the dough in cling film and leave it to rest for about 10 minutes while you tidy up and create a space to roll and shape the biscuits.

Biscuits dough 2
Biscuits dough 2

Using a rolling pin or a clean full size wine bottle, flatten a portion of the dough on a surface dusted with flour. The thinner the dough, the crunchier will the biscuits be. After flattening the dough, slice it and create shapes. If there are children about, this is the time to let them loose. Let them shape the biscuits.

Biscuit shaping 1
Biscuit shaping 1

Once they are all shaped, place them on the oven tray and put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 180C depending on how thin the biscuits are. If your oven tray is scratch free, there is no need to butter or grease it before hand as the biscuits are dry enough not to stick.

Biscuit shaping 2
Biscuit shaping 2

Once all the biscuits have been in the oven, it is time to decorate them. Make a chocolate sauce like the one made for the sponge cake, divide the biscuits.

Read to decorate
Read to decorate

For some of them, just lay them flat on a dish and drizzle chocolate over them in patterns.

Chocolate drizzled biskits
Chocolate drizzled biskits

For the other set, dip one side in the chocolate then, dust with white chocolate shavings and for the other set, just leave it plain.

Dipped, drizzled, plain, dusted... Biscuits
Dipped, drizzled, plain, dusted… Biscuits

That’s it.

All four options
All four options

Offer them gift wrapped and they look expensive and beautiful.

Homemade biscuits
Homemade biscuits

Let me know how yours tasted. 
HJ