Category: Cakes

Hot Chocolate Orange Fondant Puddings – a dirty little secret

IMG_3393We all love chocolate fondant pudding…the soft molten chocolate goo inside and the spongy crust provide for a great collision of taste sensations.  Here I am using an eco friendly serving dish – the case of the orange itself which is also great if you dont happen to own ramekins or mini pudding tins.  This also imbibes an extra orangey hit into the mix.  I took the idea from a child’s cooking session where we baked orange cake in the shells and created this more adult version. 

And now the dirty little secret…. no not that you can eat the batter direct from the bowl and never actually bother with making the puds…no something a little more prosaic… simply that you can cook these direct from frozen…hallelujah! and therefore they should be on your dinner party shortlist.

Ingredients (makes 12 halves)

  • 2 oranges whole boiled for 1 hour starting with a level of water that almost covers them both – use up less than perfect oranges, make ahead and freeze them
  • 6 oranges
  • cocoa powder, for dusting
  • 200g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
  • 200g butter, in small pieces plus extra if you are using ramekins or expresso cups
  • 200g sugar
  • 4 eggs and 4 yolks
  • 100g plain flour (note for a gluten free version use rice flour or corn flour)
  • 50g good cocoa powder

Gadgets & Gizmos

An electric whisk/ food mixer with a whisk attachment – unless you have Popeye biceps its not really worth whisking with a hand whisk…well I think its not!

A blender to pulp your boiled oranges.

A cup cake tin is handy

How To

  1. If you are using orange halves no need to prepare your moulds just cut in half and use a citrus juicer to take out the juice. Now with your fingers or a teaspoon remove the pithy debris – what you want is orange halves free of the pith and segment membranes.  It sounds worse than it is – its pretty easy!  Cut a little of the orange away at each end so it will sit flat on a tray/ final serving plate. Place each empty half so it just rests on the cup cake hole. IMG_3383
  2. If using ceramic/metal little pots/ ramekins make sure what you are using is ovenproof – expresso cups work well if you dont have ramekins.  First get your moulds ready by painting them with melted butter and then allow it to go solid. Now sprinkle with cocoa powder generously, tip upside down onto a plate to remove excess.  This step seems fiddly…..and it is.  But the cocoa powder allows the pudding to rise up gracefully and not stick to the sides of the moulds.  Same thing applies to souffles.
  3. Cut your boiled oranges up roughly just to ensure you can take all the pips out. Blitz them up to a nice puree.  It should smell like marmalade.
  4. Melt your chocolate and butter together in the microwave (carefully and checking the rotating plate is rotating so you don’t set fire to it like I did recently…beautiful chocolate reduced to smoke and ash…) or traditionally in a bowl over simmering water.
  5. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and yolks together with the sugar until thick and pale and the whisk leaves a trail – if you havent got an electric whisk this is pretty daunting and I am not sure I would bother to be honest.
  6. Sift the flour and cocoa into the egg mixture. Pour in the orange puree. Fold very gently until incorporated taking care that the orange puree hasnt all sunk to the bottom.
  7. Pour the melted chocolate/butter into the orangey floury cocoay egg mixture in thirds, folding in ever so gently so as not to knock the air out.  Again make sure the chocolate hasnt all accumulated at the bottom of your bowl.
  8. You can tip into a jug but I hate excess washing up – I use a ladle to put into the orange halves. Fill to the brim.  At this point you can freeze them. If cooking immediately it is better to chill them a little beforehand but not essential. IMG_3389
  9. Heat oven to 180C and cook for 10-12 minutes until the tops have formed a crust and they are starting to come away from the sides of their moulds (this wont happen with the orange). If cooking from frozen add 6 minutes extra to the cooking time.
  10. Serve immediately!

I think they are great with some vanilla ice cream on top or actually just as they are.

Sticky upside down plum & Tuica cake

A bit of tuica can leave one feeling a bit “upside down” but this cake makes upsidedowness a virtue. You can have your tuica and eat it indeed. (Tuica is a Romanian plum brandy)

Plums (in Romanian prune) are one of those fruits like quinces that work equally well with savory dishes and sweet. They can be used as the base of stunning sharp sweet sauces and chutneys (think roast pork with plum marinade or plum & cinnamon chutney) and of course the dried plum, the much maligned prune, is a friend indeed to pork, pork pies and terrines. Prunes  also work well with chocolate but that is a whole chapter in itself…for now the subject at hand is comfort cake.

Choose slightly under ripe plums or mirabelles (“corcoduse”). On the subject of the mirabelles I feel they are a tad the poor sister of the purple plum in Romania. They are prized in France and Switzerland yet in Romania they seem sidestepped. Perhaps it’s the fact that there simply are so very many plums but still, it pains me every time I see the yellow nuggets falling to waste and rotting on the ground.

This recipe relies on having a deep well buttered dish or cake tin (I have a deep ceramic dish a friend gave me that is perfect for this homely cake). Gravity does the rest, when you invert the cake the caramelized plum juices sink into the cake and may dribble down the sides – Yum! You need to make the syrup and sozzle the plums first. So much the better if you can do this the day before and leave them to soak up the syrup overnight. The tipsy plums make a tempting breakfast compote although you might have some explaining to do to the boss. Hmmmm!

Gadgets & Gizmos

A deep cake tin or ceramic dish, 23 cm diameter and 6cm deep. You can use a spring base tin but cook on a tray as some juices will run out from the plums.

A hand whisk or food mixer to make the cake mixture.

Good saucepan with a thick base capable of boiling sugar syrup without burning

Timing

Making the syrup and poaching the plums is best done in advance but not vital. The syrup is wonderful to bottle fruit in, revs up dull pancakes a notch and I am sure it is good for coughs too. In any case it’s a theory worth testing out.

I use a classic “Victoria sponge cake” cake mix as a foolproof recipe. The method is a “creaming method” whereby the sugar and butter are first creamed until light and fluffy. This adds yet more air into the cake.

Ingredients

Sponge Cake:

250g butter

175 g sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 eggs

275g white flour

2 tsp baking powder

80-100ml milk

1 tsp cinnamon

Tuica Syrup

100ml Tuica

50ml water

150g sugar

And 1kg of plums, stoned and halved

How To:

Butter your dish well. Do this first as there is nothing more annoying than finishing the cake mixture, having the oven ready and realizing you need to prepare the dish!

Assemble all ingredients.

Make the syrup:

Boil all the syrup ingredients GENTLY taking care the Tuica doesn’t flame (if it does don’t panic but try and extinguish the flames as you are burning away alcohol. Or if you want an alcohol free cake do flambé the syrup to burn off the alcohol on purpose). You want the syrup just slightly thickened – approx 5-7 minutes on a low flame.

Poach the plums:

Add the plums to the syrup and poach for 3-5minutes. They should not be totally cooked as you want the syrup to penetrate them not create plum mush on top of the cake.

Make the cake mixture:

If using a hand mixer make sure the butter is softened (when you can press a fork through it). If you have a more powerful food mixer, then let the machine take the strain and cream using the “K” shaped attachment. The sugar and butter should change to a paler color and become “fluffy” in texture.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating as you go. With my mixer I have to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure a good mix. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and milk and mix very gently until just combined. Do not over mix as a tough cake will result.

Assemble and Bake:

Place the plums on the base of the cake tin/dish taking care not to drip too much syrup in (reserve excess syrup). Spread the cake mixture over the plums (it should drop by itself from the spatula – if it doesn’t add a little more milk) and bake for about 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

When the cake is still warm but not hot, use a palette knife to loosen the edges and just make sure the plum juice has not turned into superglue and bonded your cake to the dish. Put a large plate over the dish and invert it and wait for the cake to plop down. There may be a plum or too left clinging to the dish, simply remove them and arrange them on the cake while still warm.

Finally, with a bamboo kebab stick make holes in the cake. Drizzle over the remaining syrup for the cake to absorb.

Enjoy just as it is with a cup of tea or add smantana (sour cream) and indulge.