Chocolate Orange Shortbread with Candied Orange Peel

A delicious buttery biscuit, spiked with fragrant orange zest, generously dipped in dark chocolate. Perfect to give as a homemade gift!

There's something about baking and Christmas. I wish I could say it was because of the weather, that the snow and dropping mercury drives one in to the kitchen for baking and comfort by the oven but in Australia, this is quite the opposite. It's hotter the devil's bumhole after curry night. I can barely function in this heat. And yet when the tree goes up and the shop fronts put their little animatronic scenes up, I get the hankering for some bakering.

Mr. Cakes has always been a fan of choc orange. Not to say that he came out of the womb sucking on a Jaffa but for as long as I've known him, he's been a fan of this classic combination. It wasn't a flavour I've previously been inclined to choose. However, in the last few years, I've certainly come around. Maybe I'm a mature person now who likes to munch on a Terry's Chocolate Orange while I'm watching a bit of Miss Marple.

I have never had a Terry's Chocolate Orange and I have never seen Miss Marple. Both are awesome, I'm sure.

I have had chocolate orange shortbread with candied orange peel. These smell so good, you can out your Christmas candle back in the cabinet for the afternoon while these are baking. Ain't no party like an olfactory party cos an olfactory party is in your nose...and you know...what other party is in your nose? Cocaine.

These cookies have a wonderful orange flavour from both some orange zest and a few tablespoons of freshly squeezed juice. But because the juice does thin the batter out, the cookies do spread when baked. To counter this, make sure to refrigerate the cookies for 30 minutes.

I choose to make these in half moon shapes, like orange slices. I tried cutting them before they were put in to the oven, but I found I could get a crisper line on the sliced side if I carefully cut them with a very sharp knife the second they came out of the oven.

You may be tempted to skip making the candied orange peel and who am I to discourage cutting corners. But I must tell you, the candied orange peel not only look darling and take presentation of the cookies to the next level, but they taste divine. And if giving these as gifts, then I'm afraid the candied peel is really not optional. It just looks (and tastes) too good.

Chocolate Orange Shortbread with Candied Orange Peel

Prep time: 40 mins

Cooking time: 25 mins

Total time:  1 hr 5 mins

Servings: 24 cut-out biscuits

230g butter, softened

120g caster sugar

2T fresh orange juice

Zest of 2 oranges

260g plain flour

80g rice flour

375 dark chocolate

1.      Preheat oven to 150°C and line two cookie sheets with baking paper

2.      In a large bowl, beat the butter with a wooden spoon until soft then add the sugar and mix thoroughly.

3.      Add orange juice, orange zest then mix.

4.      Sift in both flours and mix to a smooth dough.

5.      Roll out dough to 1cm thickness and cut using a round cookie cutter.

6.      Place on the prepared cookie sheets, at least 2cm apart and place in the fridge to chill for at 30 minutes.

7.      Meanwhile, make the candied orange peel - see below for 

8.      Bake each tray on the middle shelf of the oven for 25 minutes, or until cookies are just cooked.

9.      When the cookies have come straight out of the oven, cut the circles, with a very sharp knife, to form half-moons.

10.  Allow to cool.

11.  Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, in the microwave in 30 second intervals.

12.  Dip each cookie in the melted chocolate and top with a piece of candied orange peel while chocolate is wet and then place on a rack to allow to dry.

13.  Enjoy!

Candied Orange Peel

1/3 cup caster sugar

1/3 cup water

2 oranges

Extra caster sugar for coating peels (1/2 cup to a cup)

1.      Use a vegetable peeler to cut the peel off the oranges in long strips, then use a sharp knife to cut the peel into pieces 3 - 5 cm long.

2.      Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.

3.      Add the orange peel and cook over a low-medium heat for 20 or so mins until the peel is tender and the syrup thickens.

4.      Transfer the peel and syrup to a small bowl and refrigerate until cool enough to handle.

5.      To sugar the candied orange peel, drain the syrup from the orange peel and toss the peel with the extra caster sugar in a small bowl, then place on a baking sheet lined with non-stick paper.

6.      Allow to stand until required.               

Chocolate Fudge Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream, Salted Caramel and Dark Chocolate Ganache

A chocolate cake for serious cake lovers...a dark, moist fudge cake with sweet and salty salted caramel buttercream, salted caramel sauce and oozing dark chocolate ganache...

Sweet gods of sugar!



Sometimes, it's best to go the healthy option. It's better to get the salad than the burger. It's better to get the fruit salad than the full, big brekky. Hold the butter, get the skim milk, no chips and no dessert. And then, sometimes it's best to seriously indulge. And this cake is for those times.



All this can make magic. Cake magic. The best magic. Except like, Aladdin's Genie's magic. He could make a million cakes!



This is my Chocolate Fudge Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream, Salted Caramel and Dark Chocolate Ganache. Oh my diabetes.




If I were magic, I would cast a spell that would take all the calories out of cakes. And then I would eat cake all day long. Probably not the best use of my powers but hey. This is my scenario!



I had been thinking about cake for a week. My favourite chocolate cake is one that was synonymous with birthdays in our house growing up. I love chocolate cake, which should not come as a surprise and all cake is good cake but the Chocolate Fudge Cake is my most ultimate favourite. And it's the only cake that will do when the craving for chocolate cake comes. Which is often.






The contrast between Dutch processed and natural cocoa.



I wanted this cake to be dark and moody and a little bit messy. In order for the cake to really achieve the darker colour, I used Dutch processed cocoa. Dutch processed cocoa is a lot darker, as you can see from the photo above and also tastes different. I assure you, natural cocoa works in this cake perfectly well but for a more adult cake, use Dutch processed. A good explanation of the differences can be found here. 


Caramel and chocolate, live together in perfect harmony, side by side on my kitchen bench.

To top this lusciously dark cake, what goes better with chocolate than more chocolate. A rich, dark chocolate ganache. Drizzled on top, and encouraged to spill down the sides in the most glorious of ways.



The layers of cake, ready to be dressed in buttercream!

But things can't be all chocolate all the time. Well, they can and that would be wonderful however today, caramel is getting a look in. Salted caramel. In both the buttercream and in liquid form. Salted caramel seems to be having more than it's 15 minutes of fame and for good reason. I doubt there'll be anything to come takes it's crown for quite a while.


Buttercream is the best icing. I'll be over here with copious amounts of butter and sugar.

The salted caramel butter cream is made by making the salted caramel and allowing it to cool. In the meantime, make some light and fluffy buttercream then add a generous amount of the salted caramel to the butter cream. The result is a salty sweet heaven.

And this is how the layers of Chocolate fudge cake, salted caramel buttercream and the two sauces go together.

Using a round open tip, pipe a border of fat kisses around the edge...

Then fill in the interior with a layer of butter cream and a generous amount of salted caramel sauce. Allow delicious rivulets to ooze from between the kisses.

Repeat with the buttercream and this time use the dark ganache. 

Repeat again with the caramel... 

Then top with the final layer of cake and let the ganache flow!

This cake is huge too. Don't go making it without some friends to share it with. That being said, Mr. Cakes did manage to eat two-thirds of it in 4 days. What a legend.

The view from the top.

This cake hit my sweet spot and then some. If you like chocolate and caramel and cake, then this is the cake for you. If you don't, seriously, we can't be friends. Unless you like ice-cream, and then we'll be friends. But I still will question your commitment to food.

Like my dark and moody photography? On trend.

There is nothing better than a homemade cake. And the messier and more gooey this cake looks, the better!



Ready for a cake party!



Can I just point out the sifter there? I bought it at an antique shop and it's so old and charming! I elbowed it into the photos, even though I didn't use it. It deserves a moment.

See how dark that Dutch processed cocoa makes the cake? Wonderful!

Open up for the aeroplane!

Mmmmmmmmmm cake.

Chocolate Fudge Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream, Salted Caramel and Dark Chocolate Ganache

Prep time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 55 mins

Total time:  1 hour 25 mins

Servings: 12 slices

Chocolate Fudge Cake

200g butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs

1 cup Dutch processed cocoa

1 cup hot water

1 1/2 cups milk

3 teaspoons vinegar

1 1/2 cups plain cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons bicarbonate soda

Salted Caramel

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup brown sugar

180g butter

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt flakes

Dark Chocolate Ganache

300g dark chocolate

350ml heavy cream

Salted Caramel Buttercream

375g butter, room temperature

3 cups sifted icing sugar

1 1/2 cups salted caramel

Chocolate Fudge Cake

1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Grease, flour and line, with baking paper, two 20cm/8 inch cake pans
3. In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs, beating after each addition until incorporated.
5. Add cocoa to a separate bowl and add hot water, a little at a time until it forms a thick paste.
6. Add gradually to butter mixture.
7. Add vinegar to milk to sour.
8. Sift together flour, baking powder and bicarbonate in a separate bowl.
9. Add the flour to the butter mixture in three lots, alternately with milk, starting and ending with the flour.
10. Fold the batter til fully incorporated.
11. Pour 1/4 of the batter into each of the tins and bake for 23 mins.
12. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes in the tins, then turn out to cool on a cooling rack.
13. Bake the remaining batter in the re-prepared tins.

Salted Caramel

1. Add sugars to a heavy bottomed sauce pan, stirring occasionally, until the sugars melt and becomes smooth.
2. Add the butter and whisk until the butter is melted and stirred through.
3. Remove from the heat and slowly pour in the heavy cream.
4. Return to the heat and allow the mixture to boil for 1 minute.
5. Remove from heat and stir in salt.
6. Allow to cool down before using.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

1. Melt the chocolate in a large microwave proof bowl in the microwave in 30 second intervals.
2. Once melted, add cream and stir to combine until smooth.
3. Allow to cool slightly. Ganache should be pourable but not hot

 Salted Caramel Buttercream

1. Beat the butter until light, fluffy and butter has become paler in colour.
2. Sift in the icing sugar and beat well.
3. Add in 1 and 1/2 cups of the previously made salted caramel and beat well.
4. Refrigerate for 10 to 15 minutes, until buttercream is slightly firmer and pipeable. 

 Assembly

1. Place one layer of the chocolate fudge cake onto a piece of baking paper or cake plate.
2. Fill a large piping bag fitted with a large open tip with salted buttercream and pipe a border of large 'kisses' around the outside of the cake.
3. Using an offset spatula, fill in the interior created with buttercream then spoon on a generous amount of the salted caramel sauce.
4. Repeat with all the layers of cake, alternating the salted caramel sauce and dark chocolate ganache.
5. Top with more piped kisses and pour over ganache, using a ganche to encourage it to drip over the sides.
6. Serve and enjoy!

Chewy Chunky Cookies! aka Anger Cookies



Something fantastic came from my anger!

There are many types of biscuits in the world, but my favourite would have to be big, chewy cookies full of chunks! I like the soft ones that melt in your mouth with that hint of chewiness when you bite in - dare I say the American style ones?  

Cornflour, what chu doing in this photo? You ain't needed!



These particular cookies came about from a bit of an unusual scenario. You'd think cookies would be made in the kitchen on a Sunday with the afternoon sun streaming in the bay window, while forest creatures sing a Disney princess song. Well, these cookies were created at about 10pm on a week night when I was fighting with Mr. Cakes about the volume of the television in our old tiny apartment. I decided to create my own noise. What better than get the electric beaters out and make cookies in a steel bowl?

 

The start of the magic.



And that's how they got the name in our household of Anger Cookies. Really, what a way to try and win a fight. But at least we both saw the humour in it the next day and we had cookies! And I now have this amazing cookie recipe!



It's a nice soft batter that's a blank canvas for your imagination!



There are a few things which make these cookies so good. First of all, there's a fair amount of oil in it which creates a really moist, gooey cookie. I add butter as well because I think that gives a good depth of flavour.



Double choc pecan. Pretty classic combination...so good.

The second tip that I can give you is about flour. It's always about flour. Seriously, good quality flour makes the world of difference in all my baking. In cakes and cupcakes, I insist on using a low protein flour which makes them soft and fluffy but with cookies, you want them to have a bit of bite and strength to make them chewy. So use a strong or '00' flour if you can get it, or normal, good quality flour.

This is the flavour combo of late 2014, I tells ya.



And finally, the third thing about these cookies are the CHUNKS! Heaps of them! It's in the name, you guys. And so is anger but I told you about that already. So usually I put dark, milk and white chocolate and chop up some caramel chocolate to put in there too but this time I decided to split the mix up and make two types. In one bowl I put pecans, dark chocolate melts and white chocolate chips.

oooooh what smells better than fresh cookies!


And the other, caramel chocolate and pretzels. You guys, you heard it here first: pretzel is the new salted caramel. You're gonna start to see it everywhere! And I'm never one to shy away from a food trend! So I decided to try it out too! I liked it, it's a bit different.

I like to leave whole pieces of the caramel chocolate in the mixture so it goes molten and gooey.

These cookies are gooey in the centre so if you like a firmer cookie, bake for 12 mins, instead of 10. This recipe double and halves really well too! 
 

So good fresh out of the oven.



Give these cookies a go, they're super easy and really yummy!

Win.

Cookie heaven!



Serving suggestion! Serving demand, more like.



Chewy Chunky Cookies

Prep time: 10 mins plus cooling

Cooking time: 10 mins

Total time:  20 mins plus cooling

 

Servings: 22 large cookies 

 

4 large free range eggs
1 1/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup (115g) soft butter
2 cups plain flour - preferably strong/00 flour
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Up to 5 cups of chunks  eg.
1 cup of chopped pecans
1 cup roughly chopped dark chocolate melts1 cup white chocolate chips1 cup chopped pretzel pieces1 cup caramel chocolate

 

1. Beat the eggs and sugars in a bowl until the mixture turns lighter in colour, about 2 minutes.
2. Beat in the soft butter for about 2 minutes. If there are small lumps of butter, don't worry as these will be beaten out once the flour is added.
3. Sift in flours, bicarbonate soda and baking powder and stir with a wooden spoon until incorporated.
4. Add the oil and chunks (split the mixture in two if desired and add chunks to each) and stir with a wooden spoon until incorporated.
5. Refrigerate, covered, for at least one hour.
6. Preheat oven to 180°C
7. Using an ice cream scoop, or by rolling large balls by hand, place mounds on tray, about 8 cms apart. I can get about 6 to a large cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 10 mins for soft gooey cookies, and 12 for firmer cookies.
9. Allow to cool slightly before enjoying!