General Custard :)

Always brilliant with a range of desserts. Especially cake. And disastrous should you get it wrong!


Ingredients

• 2/3 tsps Vanilla Essence
• 250ml of Milk
• 250ml of Double Cream
• 4 Egg yolks
• 100g of Golden Caster sugar
• 1 tbsp of Cornflour.

Method

1. Place the milk and cream into a saucepan and heat. Add the vanilla essence and stir. Bring to a slow boil and then take off the heat.
2. Whisk the egg yolks and caster sugar and the conflour (this is optional for thickness... i like thickness. That sounds wrong ) until pale and thick.
3. Add this to the milk and pop back onto medium heat. Stir clockwise continuously making sure to add a counter-clockwise stir every 7th stir until it coats hte back of the spoon. DO NOT LET IT OVERHEAT OR BOIL!

Should take no more than 20/25mins.

Failing which stick to instant you retard lol (kiddin)

TOPTIP: You can also add a lil food colouring to this and turn it into whatever colour you like. We usually turn it a light shade of green and add half a tea spoon of peppermint essence to give it a minty taste. Very nice with Chocolate cake :)

Chocolate Marble Cake = AWESOME!

Alot of people think the best cake is the chocolate fudge cake, id disagree. Its just too chocolatey to be enjoyed properly.

The best of both worlds. The Chocolate Marble cake. Its not too chocolatey and its not a boring plain cake either. Great for guests if you're looking for a lil something new and different... instead of the boring same old sweet dishes.

Ingredients.

• 225g butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 225g Plain flour
• 50ml of Milk
• 50g of Cocoa powder.
• 4 Eggs.
• 2 tsp baking powder.
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180'c and butter the sides of a baking tin. You can also use greaseproof paper (available at your nearest supermarket).
2. Cream the butter (i assume you know what i mean by this if not ask... or google it... you know what? just go ahead and google it) in a large bowl. You can either use a large spoon or an electric food mixer-thinga-ma-jig until its soft. Add the sugar and beat until the misture is light and fluffy.
3. Whisk the eggs and vanilla extract together in a separate small bowl. Then add to the butter mixture and continue beating.
4. Add the flour and baking powder and fold gently into the mix, then add the milk and mix.
5. Tip half the cake mixture into a separate bowl. Then add into THIS bowl the cocoa powder. More mixing. Till the mixture turns into a chocolatey (is that even a word?).
6. Now for the marbeling. Theres two ways of doing this:
7. -FirstMethod: Place the 1st cake mixture into the prepared cake tin and then ADD the chocolatey mixture to it VIA SPOONFULS in random places. Then take a table knife and gently... well not mix but similar to mixing just swirl the mixture around a bit and your ready to pop it into the oven.
8. -SecondMethod: Take the chocolatey mixture and pour into the 1st mixture then do the swirling thing and then pour into the baking tin.
9. Alot of the time you'll find with the first method that the chocolatey part ends up just on the top of the cake and very little inside etc. With the second you get a decent mixture and marbelling affect.
10. Wack it into the oven for about 30-35mins. At the end of that time period take a tooth pick (preferrably an unused one or something similar) and poke into the cake. It should come out dry and NOT gooey.
11. Reduce the heat to half. So about 90'c for a few mins. I find that if i just turn it off completely the cake quickly deflates. So turn down to 90'c for about 10 mins before switching off.
12. Allow to cool before seving. Tastes AWESOME! Can be eatten on its own but its excellent when served with Custard. Mmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhhh.

Until next time ;)

Chocolate Buttercream: Because your weak!!

Used on cake or as filling.
You will need

Ingredients

• 6oz of butter
• 1cup or 6oz of icing sugar
• Some good chocolate or coca powder

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
2. Add the chocolate powder and mix until nice and snooth.

 Add on cake etc and enjoy.