We Should Cocoa #38 October 2013 - Vegetables Round-Up

At the beginning of October I asked you to bring in the harvest for me and combine vegetables with chocolate for this month's We Should Cocoa founded by Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog. Thank you to Choclette for letting me loose and a big thank you to everybody who took part and came up with so many varied recipes. Without anymore gushing here's the round up of October's fine spread.

First entry in was from Suelle at Mainly Baking. She used a recipe from The Good Food Channel for her Sweet Potato and White Chocolate Cake. Suelle took their advice and added some orange zest for extra flavour plus some dark chocolate to finish it off.

The gloom of a wet Sunday in Lincolnshire inspired Dom at Belleau Kitchen to mix dark chocolate with carrots for his Chocolate Carrot Cake. This recipe makes enough for two small loaf cakes and four muffins.

The founder of the We Should Cocoa Challenge Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog went in search of vegetables at her allotment and came back with a glut of beetroots. Check out the amazing natural colour of her Beetroot and Orange Brownies.

Over in New Zealand Lucy of The Kitchen Maid got distracted by a house renovation reality TV programme and ended up baking a brick. However if you concentrate and follow her recipe you'll be rewarded with a delicious Chocolate Beetroot Banana Bread.

Back to Blighty for our next entry and a hop over the Pennines for me to Linzi at Lancashire Food. Her tried and tested recipe for Chocolate Courgette Loaf has the Green and Black's seal of approval as they published it their book Unwrapped.

Vicky at YumYumBubblegum made us something that was definitely yum yum but had no bubblegum in it. Instead her Chocolate and Ginger Cake had a secret and rather sneaky addition of courgette.

Some of the best recipes are the ones you cook from ingredients you need to use up. This was proved by Elizabeth at The Law Student's Cookbook with her Chocolate Zucchini (Courgette) Muffins. She was wanting to use beets and found she didn't have any so zucchini it was then. These are also eggless for the same reason!

This month's theme of cooking with vegetables and chocolate was like the mothership coming home for Kate of Veggie Desserts. Although she already has a number of delectable choc & veg combos on her blog she treated us to new recipe of Beetroot Chocolate Chunk Cookies.

If there's a food blogger's challenge about vegetables it is only right we should have an entry from Louisa at Eat Your Veg. Sneaking vegetables into recipes so your kids don't notice them and like them can be a daily struggle but her much tested Chocolate, Beetroot and Walnut Brownies fooled her children.

It was time for breakfast over at Rebecca's blog BakeNQuilt. Inspired by a favourite B&B of hers Rebecca's autumn staple food of pumpkin found its way into her Nutella-Stuffed Pumpkin French Toast.

It wasn't just one vegetable that went into Laura of I'd Much Rather Bake Than... cake but two plus a whole host of fruit as well. Her aptly titled Fruit and Veg Cake had enough ingredients to make up our 5-a-day which meant we could be treated to a white chocolate topping.

We went for afternoon tea with a twist with Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen. Her Chocolate Beetroot Scones had a beautiful natural colouring to them and still went great with lashings of whipped cream!

I've never made blondies before but I'm definitely tempted by Natalie's version. The Hungry Hinny that she is presented us with some very seasonal Autumn Spiced Butternut Blondies.

It was time to ditch the cakes and sweet bakes with Hannah of Corner Cottage Bakery and her Vegetable Crumble. So how do you get chocolate into a savoury bake? The secret's in the roasted cocoa beans...

Sweet buns can be very tricky to make but help is at hand with Alexandra of The Lass in the Apron. Her step-by-step photographs of Sweet Potato Chocolate Buns means everybody should be brave enough to give them a go.

The witching hour is almost upon and October means Halloween and pumpkins and Caroline of Caroline Makes... came up trumps. Two different layers, bats, ghosts and a skeleton; this was the ultimate Halloween cake.

There's definitely a nip in the air now and I'm a big fan of soup to warm the body and soul. Jill of Lapin d'Or and More gave us her take on Dennis Cotter's Black Bean Soup with Chocolate Chilli and some handy foodie shopping tips.

So it is left to me as your privileged hostess of October's We Should Cocoa to finish the month off as it began. I kicked things off with a Chocolate and Potato Cake with cranberries and macadamia nuts. The addition of the leftover mashed potato gives a moistness to the cake.

If you joined in this month or fancy taking part in next month's We Should Cocoa then head over in early November to Rebecca at BakeNQuilt to find out the theme. In the meantime happy baking and making and I hope you got some inspiration from this month's tasty delights.

We Should Cocoa #38 - October 2013

I took the plunge a couple of months ago and asked the lovely Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog if I could be the guest host of her monthly chocolate cooking challenge We Should Cocoa. To my delight she said yes so here we are for my first blogging challenge hosting. Last month's challenge was the third anniversary of We Should Cocoa and appropriately the theme was Chocolate Showstopper Cake. 

We're now past the autumn equinox and this month the clocks will change bringing those dark nights ever earlier. It's time to start digging up the soil to reveal the goodies the land has grown for us. It's time to bring in the harvest so therefore the theme for October 2013's We Should Cocoa is:

Last October we had pumpkins on their own for We Should Cocoa but if you missed that or have another recipe here's your chance. It's not just about the big orange squashes though. Make the most of the wonderful seasonal produce that is in abundance this year. If you grow your own it's time to show it off and bring me your beetroot. Got a great local market or producer? Shout out about their swede. While we're thinking about local and seasonal let's just have a word about ugly vegetables. Some veg may not be lookers but that's no excuse to throw them away. If you have some odd looking aubergines or seen better days butternut squash I want to see what you have made with it.

To kick things off I've made a Chocolate and Potato Ring Cake using some leftover mashed potato. This goes to show that vegetables are a great ingredient to combine with chocolate. This year I've the pleasure of eating chocolate cakes made with aubergine and beetroot. It's not just about cake. You can keep it sweet or make it savoury just make sure your recipe includes chocolate and at least one vegetable.

To summarise, here are the rules:

Post your recipe on your blog. Remember, we all love a photograph too whether it's lovingly styled or snapped on your mobile, show us what you have made.

Link your recipe by the 25^th October to the linky below.

Mention We Should Cocoa in your post

Please link to me, JibberJabberUK, as this month's host and also Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog.

Please use the 'We Should Cocoa' logo in your post.

If you use Twitter please tweet your post to @jibberjabberuk and @Choclette8 with the hashtag #weshouldcocoa and we will endeavour to retweet it.

Please make sure you use this month's ingredient of vegetables and chocolate in your recipe.

A round-up of all your fabulous creations will be posted on JibberJibberUK after the closing date.

For any further details please look here.

Happy cooking!

get the InLinkz code

Chocolate and Potato Ring Cake

Chocolate and Potato Cake with the addition of macadamia nuts and dried cranberries.

I've been blogging for a bit now and enjoying the cooking challenges that are hosted by other bloggers. Often challenges are guest hosted by other bloggers giving them a chance to pick their own themes. I thought it was time that I stepped up to the plate and put myself forward as a guest host. Since I always have a very willing band of chocolate recipe testers I thought I would ask Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog to be a guest host of her We Should Cocoa chocolate cooking challenge. Happily, she agreed and for October 2013 I decided the theme should be vegetables. So here's my contribution for the We Should Cocoa challenge.

One question that may well be asked is why the inclusion of the mashed potato? Firstly, it's a terrific way of using up a little bit of leftover mashed potato. Secondly, the addition of the mashed potato adds a moistness to the cake. Quite often when cocoa is added to a recipe it can have a drying effect.

I've also added some macadamia nuts and dried cranberries. Substitute these if you wish. Chopped almonds, walnuts, raisins or sultanas would all work equally well. I've left it plain this time but an icing topping, either plain or chocolate, is also welcome.

Equipment: 1½ pint (900ml) Ring mould or savarin tin (mine's from Lakeland), electric whisk.

Ingredients

4oz (110g) Unsalted butter, softened or baking spread

4oz (110g) Caster sugar

3oz (85g) Self-raising flour

1oz (28g) Cocoa powder

3oz (85g) Mashed potato

1oz (28g) Macadamia nuts, chopped

1oz (28g) Dried cranberries

Method

1. Grease the ring mould.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.

3. Sift the flour and cocoa together.

4. In a separate bowl cream together the butter and caster sugar.

5. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a little of the flour/cocoa mixture.

6. To remove any lumps from the mashed potato put through a ricer or press through a sieve.

7. Stir the mashed potato, macadamia nuts and cranberries into the creamed mixture.

8. Fold in the flour and cocoa into the tin and cook for 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

9. Leave in the tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

Along with the cake making and general cooking I have several other interests, one of which is cycling. If you're not into the two wheeled thing then you may not realise that cyclists like nothing better than going out for a ride, exerting as much energy as possible (not a great deal in my case) and then collapsing in a café to eat vast quantities of cake. Of course there are many varieties of cake but one I hadn't heard of until I got into cycling was Chocolate Guinness Cake. One cycling friend of mine made a couple as her wedding cake and has said it the easiest cake she knows how to make. I would disagree with that as an all-in Victoria Sponge would top that category for me. However, I would say it is a very forgiving cake and one you can mess about with the quantities a bit.

Being a non-drinker I've always been deeply suspicious of any alcohol in cooking as I can usually still taste it and that's the bit I really don't like! I put off making one until I had the pleasure of tasting one at a Clandestine Cake Club meeting. The addition of Guinness in this recipe though really brings out the flavour of the chocolate despite the relatively small amounts of cocoa in the recipe for the size of the cake. I don't like dark chocolate but I will go out on limb and say this is the most intensely chocolate flavoured cake I have ever eaten.

I bought a 500ml bottle of Guinness for this recipe after deciding against the smaller Foreign Export at 7.5%! There's no reason why you shouldn't buy another brand of stout except in my case this was the only one my local supermarket was offering. I have heard that Newcastle Brown Ale makes an excellent alternative and gives it a sweeter edge. Other people have simply put in another beer of their choice. I have to say they all smell the same to me (revolting) so I couldn't really advise in this matter. As the recipe uses exactly half a bottle of Guinness you have a choice of what to do with the rest. Obviously you could just neck it but that isn't really an option for me. There is the option of making two because un-frosted it freezes well. My half bottle will though be going into a Beef, Bacon and Guinness Casserole to make the perfect St. Patrick's Day combo.

The most famous Chocolate Guinness Cake recipe is by Nigella Lawson but I've added a few tweaks of my own. Sadly, the budget at Jibber Jabber Towers isn't as big as the one at Casa Lawson so my suggestions are of the penny pinching variety. I know Nigella wouldn't approve; in fact I reckon she would be horrified. However, I think if she had the choice of cake or no cake I'm sure that she would go for the cake option.

Normally for the mere thought of mixing imperial and metric measures I would be thrown out of the cake bakers circle but as I said before this is a cake that allows for a bit of give and take. I've listed the ingredients in both imperial and metric measures but let's just say my measuring jug has ¼ pint marked on it but not 150ml...

As the original recipe was made 'famous' by Nigella Lawson and is of the chocolate variety I am putting this forward for this month's We Should Cocoa which is hosted jointly by Chocolate Log Blog and Chocolate Teapot. The guest host for this round is The KitchenMaid who has decided that the theme should be to share a famous chocolate recipe.

You will need a 9in (23cm) round tin – I use a springform tin as it makes it easier to get the cake out of the tin. I also line tins with reusable non-stick liners so if you don't you will need to grease or use parchment paper.

Ingredients

9 fl oz (250ml) Guinness or Stout – Don't measure the head!

9oz (250g) Baking Spread

2.5oz (75g) Cocoa

14oz (400g) Caster Sugar

¼ pint (150ml) Plain natural yogurt

1 Large egg

1 tbsp (15ml) Vanilla extract

10oz (275g) Plain Flour

2½ tsp (12.5 ml) Bicarbonate of soda

Topping

10.5oz (300g) Cream cheese

5oz (125g) Icing sugar

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4.

2. In a large saucepan pour in the stout and add the baking spread in small pieces (it makes it quicker and easier to melt).

3. Heat the mixture gently until the fat has melted and then add the cocoa and sugar. Stir in well.

4. In a separate bowl beat together the yogurt, eggs and vanilla. Add this mixture to the large saucepan along with the flour and bicarbonate of soda.

5. Give the mixture a good beat so all the ingredients are combined. It should look like the thickest, most indulgent hot chocolate you would ever want to drink.

6. In the prepared tin pour in the mixture. Remember this has a lot of liquid in it so it will be more of a batter rather than something you can spoon into the tin.

7. Cook for around 45-55 minutes. Once baked due to the moistness of the cake leave in the tin to cool completely but place the tin onto a wire cooling rack.

8. Once the cake is cold prepare the topping.

9. In a large bowl beat the cream cheese with a fork so it becomes quite loose and smooth.

10. Sift the icing sugar unto the cream cheese and beat together well until all the icing sugar has been combined.

11. Place on top of the cake and start to smooth all over the top until there is an even layer.

12. Due to the cream cheese topping this cake will need to be stored in the fridge.

Thrift notes

I have substituted some ingredients from the original recipe and left others entirely. This is how much I have saved. Prices quoted are as shown on sainsburys.co.uk on 16 March 2013 (Sainsbury's is my local supermarket so that's why I chose it). The eggs I bought from Iceland have been priced at £1.00 all of this year.

Basics unsalted butter 250g   £1.20  Soft spread 2kg-£3.00                          £0.38

Soured cream 150ml             £0.60  Basics Low Fat Natural Yogurt 500g       £0.45

Free range woodland eggs     £0.46 Iceland Large Free Range                     £0.17

medium x 6 £1.40                             eggs x 6 £1.00

Double cream                        £0.60   Left out                                               £0.00

Totals                                    £2.86                                                     £1.00                                                 

Difference £1.86 plus yogurt left over (it's going in a quiche).

Ginger Preserve and Chocolate Cake

Ginger preserve and chocolate cake

My Mother often gives me food items that she has found reduced and knows it will be gratefully received when trying to feed my hungry horde. This is usually yellow-stickered meat which has been reduced by vast amounts. Occasionally, though, she gives me other things which I presume she bought on whim, unable to resist such a good bargain. When I left her house at Christmas she pressed a jar of ginger preserve into my hand muttering something about how I could do something with it.

Now I'm not really one for preserves of this type. I stick to mainly olive spread for toast and sometimes join the kids with Marmite or chocolate spread. Jam is used for Victoria Sandwich cakes and scones. My husband goes for marmalade and peanut butter. So this jar has now become a problem for me and quite frankly I AM SICK OF THE SIGHT OF IT.

My cupboards are full to bursting at the best of times and it seems to have found a home on the top shelf in front of the self-raising flour. This means I have to unpack everything in front of the flour container in order to get it out of the cupboard and I use a lot of flour. I can't give it away or sneak it into school raffle or hamper prize because it has been opened and sampled. By me. Yes, one morning while at breakfast I had a bit of it on some toast because my Mum kept bringing it out and finally I cracked when she suggested for the umpteenth time I should try some. It is very strong tasting and like the label describes, warm and spicy. If I did start to have some on toast each day it would still take a long time to finally get shot of it due to its intense flavour. The fact I've had it now for two months and not opened it again just shows that it's not going to disappear by its own accord. In such desperate times there is only one solution – bake it into something.

Inspired by Jen's choice of ginger as this month's theme for her hosting of We Should Cocoa on behalf of Chocolate Log Blog and Chocolate Teapot, I thought the ginger preserve would be best used in a cake. As such I will be putting it forward for this month's challenge on Jen's Blue Kitchen Bakes blog.

I also have to say thank you to Jen for making me aware of the No Waste Food Challenge which is run each month by Turquiose Lemons. February's ingredient is preserves so I shall be entering this recipe for Kate's blog.

I've covered this with chocolate flavoured icing but you could use a chocolate ganache and even put some more ginger preserve on top.

Ingredients

5oz (150g) Self-raising flour

1oz (25g) Cocoa powder

½ tsp (2.5ml) Baking powder

4oz (110g) Butter, softened or baking spread

2.5oz (75g) Soft light brown sugar

2 Large eggs, beaten

4oz (110g) Ginger preserve

Topping

3oz (85g) Icing sugar

1 tbsp (15ml) Cocoa

1 tbsp (15ml) Hot water

Equipment

Large mixing bowl

Electric whisk

2lb/1kg Loaf Tin, lined

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.

2. Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.

3. Add the butter, sugar, eggs and ginger preserve and beat well with an electric whisk.

4. Pour the mixture into the lined loaf tin.

5. Bake for 30 minutes and check the top isn't burning too much. Cover if needed. Cook for another 20 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

6. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes before leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

7. Once cool make the topping by sifting together the icing sugar and cocoa.

8. Add the water and stir together.

9. If you want thicker icing just add more icing sugar. Leave to set.

This recipe uses about a quarter of a jar of ginger preserve so one down, three to go...