dessert Archives - Page 46 of 57

Ombre Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Tart (No Bake)

21|07|2014

Let’s talk about colours! Or the absence of them. Can you imagine a world without colours? How boring would that be! Colours contribute to our visual experience. They help us to relate to our environment. They stimulate imagination and creativity. One of the earliest and basic things we learnt as kids were to recognise and differenciate between colours. We painted the yellow sun, wanted to dive into the blue sea, ride the red bike and messed up the brown cake. Most of us loved it. Because it simplified our understanding of the big world around us and gave us our first powers. The power of choice! I can tell you how big and powerful I felt at 4 years when I was allowed to choose the colour of my birthday dress.

As bloggers, photographers, food enthusiasts colours have never been more important to us. How much do we love Pinterest! Being a colour fanatic myself, I love what I can do with the pictures and recipes on of my blog. I feel empowered, in a humble way. On the topic of colours, Ombre is amazing! It is a feast for the eyes. When you add Chocolate and Cheese to it, it is a feast for the soul.

Getting the Ombre effect on a tart was impossible without piping the filling onto it. I didn’t want to make a cake as there are plenty of beautiful ones out there. So I decided to go with the usual no-bake crust that I use to make my cheesecakes, only in tart form. I started out with a base cheesecake mixture, then divided it into three bowls and mixed the 3 types of chocolate individually. Then it was a matter of filling up a piping bag and piping in the filling (starting with white) in a shaded effect.

This recipe is easier than it looks. Like a no-bake cheesecake, this is best stored in the refrigerator. Because this is a large tart, the tart crust might be slightly delicate to deal with, so do be carful while releasing the sides of the tart pan. I have not used gelatine in this recipe, which I would usually do to get a firmer texture for my cheesecake. Since, I intended to pipe the cheesecake filling, I reduced the heavy cream content so it was firm enough to hold shape. If you are going to use a single piping bag, needless to say, it is best to start with the white chocolate filling.

This Ombre tart is my contribution to the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop for the month of July. This is hosted by the lovely JJ of 84th &3rd and the theme as you might have guessed is Ombre. Do check out the other creations at the bottom of the post.

Starting with something sweet on a Monday morning is my best start to a week. I hope you are off to a colourful & sweet start too!

Ombre Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Tart (No Bake)
Serves 8-10

300g chocolate cookies
100g unsalted butter, melted
200g dark chocolate, melted and brought to room temperature
150g milk chocolate, melted and brought to room temperature
150g white chocolate, melted and brought to room temperature
500g cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup Castor sugar
250 ml heavy or thickened cream
cocoa powder, to serve
chocolate shavings, to serve

Grease a 23 cm Tart pan (with a removable base) and line the base with baking paper.
Place the cookies in a food processor. Process until fine crumbs. Add melted butter and mix to combine. Using your fingertips, press biscuit mixture over base of prepared pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.

Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl until smooth. In a separate bowl, whip heavy cream to stiff peaks. Fold through cream in the cream cheese mixture, gradually. Divide this mixture equally among 3 bowls. Mix the dark, milk and white chocolate individually into a bowl of the cream cheese mixture. Fold in till smooth and blended.

Fill up a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle with the white chocolate cheesecake filling. Meanwhile, refrigerate the other two bowls. Pipe cheesecake kisses onto 1/3rd of the tart base. (I have done two overlapping layers). Repeat with the milk and dark chocolate cheesecake fillings till the entire tart base is covered. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until set. Sprinkle with cocoa. Decorate with chocolate shavings. Serve cold.

Neopolitan Marble cake

27|06|2014

Life is all about choices. Blogging is no different. Sweet or Savory. Healthy or indulgent. Hot or cold. Moody pictures or bright images. To post or not to post. And so on. Choices can be confusing. Also overwhelming. A Neopolitan cake at least saves you some choices.

My twin boys have very different personalities and palates. They make different choices when it comes to food and I think they secretly enjoy that. When it comes to cake, one of them wants a strawberry cake while the other one loves chocolate. Thankfully, I have a solution to that now. This cake has 3 flavours- strawberry, chocolate and vanilla, present individually but mixed together in a marbled effect. It starts with a single batter that is later divided into 3 different bowls and flavoured with the respective ingredients.

It is actually fun to make this cake, especially with kids. When I saw condensed milk in the recipe I was a bit concerned if the cake would be too sweet. On the contrary it wasn’t like that at all. The texture was dense almost like a mud cake. I found the chocolate part of the batter too subtle for my liking and I might increase the amount of cocoa next time. On it’s own, the cake tasted alright. I thought it might benefit from a little bit of frosting, ganache or even whipped cream. So I piped whipped cream which lifted the appearance as well.

Neopolitan Marble Cake (adapted with variation from Nestle recipes)
Serves 12

250 g butter, room temperature
395 g can sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
21/4 cup plain flour, sifted
1 tbsp. baking powder
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Pink food colouring
1 tsp strawberry essence
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp. milk, extra
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks and sweetened to your taste
maraschino cherries, to decorate
sprinkles, to decorate

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. Grease and line the base a 19 cm round pan with baking paper.
Beat butter and condensed milk until thick and creamy. Add eggs, beating well. Fold in sifted flour, baking powder alternately with milk.

Divide mixture among 3 bowls. Add vanilla essence to the first bowl, mix, leave aside. Using pink food colouring, tint the second bowl pink and add the strawberry essence. Mix. To the last bowl, add the cocoa powder and milk and mix.

Drop alternate spoonfuls of mixture into pan. Swirl mixture with a skewer to create a marbled effect. Bake for 11/4 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

Once completely cooled down, pipe swirls of whipped cream onto the top of the cake. Decorate with cherries and sprinkles.

Chocolate and Coconut Slice

22|06|2014

I love recipes that can be made without prep or planning. Shopping for ingredients is always fun but once in a while it’s nice to be able to make something with regular pantry ingredients. One-bowl recipes make life so much easier. The last thing you want to do in winter is wash heaps of dishes. And the one thing in winter that you love to do is use the oven.

This recipe is all of the above and tastes amazing. I discovered chocolate and coconut as a combination only recently. Individually I’ve cooked or baked with both for as long as I can remember. Put together in a slice or bar, I found it hard to stop eating them.

Technically, there is no chocolate in the recipe however it tastes as good as chocolate. They are fudgy almost like brownies but not soft. They have a great texture and the icing makes them really indulgent.

Chocolate and Coconut Slice (adapted with variation from Taste.com)
Yields 16 slices

150g butter, melted, cooled
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup desiccated coconut

Chocolate Icing
1 cup icing sugar mixture
1/4 cup cocoa powder
20g butter, finely chopped
2 tbsp. boiling water

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a 20cm x 30cm rectangular pan and line with baking paper extending paper 2cm from edge of pan at long ends.
Place butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla in a large bowl. Stir until well combined. Sift over flours and cocoa. Add 1/2 cup coconut. Stir to combine. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until firm to touch

Make Chocolate icing: Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a medium heatproof bowl. Add butter and boiling water. Stir until smooth. Spread hot slice with icing. Sprinkle with remaining coconut. Set aside to cool completely in pan. Cut into pieces. Serve.

Strawberry Almond Cake with Lemon Sour Cream Frosting

15|06|2014

Almond cake with strawberry jam for a delicious nutty texture and an easy lemon sour cream frosting and fresh strawberries to top the cake.

I’ve not been feeling like myself over the last few days. Rather, I’m feeling like my old-self before I became a mother. Carefree, energised, relaxed and slightly funny. Because even that takes some getting used to. My parents and my sister, who are staying with us at the moment apparently decided that I would be on a break till they are around and they are sharing the day-to-day responsibilities between themselves.

‘Take a break’ they told me. So, I took long showers, watched movies in fast forward mode, slept on the couch afterwards, visited a craft store I’ve been meaning to since months, eaten calories laden curries and flatbread. And baked cakes. For me, that has always been a way of de-stressing. With people to share them with, it just got a lot more exciting.

The cake uses strawberry jam for a subtle strawberry flavour. Almonds give it a moist nutty texture which is only typical of a nut-meal based cake. The great thing about the cake is that it is so simple to make by just throwing everything together in a bowl, that it can be created at the spur of the moment. The lemon sour cream frosting is equally quick and easy. Overall, this is one cake you would want to make over and over again for its simplicity yet refined flavours.

Strawberry Almond Cake with Lemon Sour Cream Frosting (adapted with variation from Taste.com)
Serves 5-6

Strawberry Almond Cake
175 g butter, at room temperature, roughly chopped
3/4 cup castor sugar
3/4 cup self-raising flour, sifted
3/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup strawberry jam
3 eggs, at room temperature, lightly whisked
Fresh Strawberries, to serve

Lemon Sour Cream Frosting
1 1/2 cups icing sugar mixture
1/4 cup sour cream
1 lemon, rind finely grated

For the Strawberry Almond Cake: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease a round 19 cm cake pan and line the base with baking paper.
Use electric beaters to beat the butter, sugar, flour, almond meal, jam, almonds and eggs in a large bowl until combined.
Pour the cake mixture into the prepared pan and use the back of a spoon to smooth the surface. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside to cool completely.

For the Lemon Sour Cream Frosting: Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add sour cream and lemon rind. Stir until well combined. Pour icing over cake. Allow to set. Decorate with fresh strawberries. Serve.