Fold in the Flour ...

I've been playing around with my Chocolate Brownie recipe again. This time, Mike reckons I may just have come up with a version that is even more delicious than the original Ultimate Chocolate Brownies . Given that he doesn't even like cherries (and I'm not fussed over them either), I'm taking that as something good. These are really moist and fudgy, and intensely chocolatey. I used dried cherries, which I picked up some time ago out of curiosity, and  which had then sat in the cupboard. This month's We Should Cocoa challenge (which is cherries) gave me a good excuse to use them. The cherries plump up during baking, and as they are quite tart (think a milder version of dried cranberry), really balanced out the sweetness of the chocolate beautifully. Chocolate Cherry Brownies Ingredients (makes 16) 185g unsalted butter 185g 70% dark chocolate, broken into small pieces 3 large eggs 275g caster sugar 85g plain flour 40g cocoa powder 80g good milk c

This month's We Should Cocoa challenge is to produce something using chocolate (of course) and coffee. One of my favourite flavour combos, I must admit I didn't know where to start with it. Cupcakes? Muffins? Choux buns? (Yes, I know that's pushing the envelope a little for me, but still, one day I'll make them again, eh?) Anyway, I turned to the interweb thingy for inspiration, and found it in a  fantastic recipe from Ken, of Hungry Rabbit  via a guest post he did last year on My Man's Belly . I was immediately  taken with the simple beauty of the cake, and that it came from a straightforward buttercream icing, carefully applied, with just a few chocolate covered coffee beans as a simple garnish. I immediately realised I wanted to give it a go. My presentation isn't as good, but then that's a great reason to practice a bit more (so I think you can probably expect more iced cakes in future!). Anyway here it is. I've converted the original rec

I'm on a bit of a muffin kick at the moment, and as the last few bakes I've done have not involved chocolate, the plea from the boys was for something very much chocolatey. I thought I'd be a bit daring with these, though, as there is a cheesecake layer which is swirled into the muffin batter (I didn't tell the boys as they are cheesecake averse - no idea where they've got that from!). With melted chocolate in the mix, the result is quite a fudgy muffin, fluffy sponge with the cheesecake layer - especially on the top of the muffin - giving a bit of a fudgy contrast. The recipe I based these on calls for plain cream cheese, but as I had bought some of the new Cadbury Chocolate Philadelphia, I had to give it a go. Consequently, these are double chocolate (never a bad thing in my book!). Double Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins (adapted from Muffins Galore  by Catherine Atkinson) Makes 12 150g plain flour 175g caster  sugar 35g unsweetened  cocoa powder