5-Ingredient Chocolate Raspberry Macaroon Cake (Gluten-free)

Be honest, I had you at chocolate right?. Well that’s understandable, because without chocolate there would be darkness and chaos in the world (okay we don't know that for sure but let's just put it up to trust - and I'd trust a chocolate bar any day). But back to the 'cake', it's got just 5 main ingredients - how cool is that? And it's gluten-free! Even more brownie points earned!

Layers of coconut macaroon, whipped chocolate and raspberries make this recipe an absolute hit and super impressive with so little effort it's actually embarrassing.  But don't worry, I won't tell if you don't! Try and use the best quality chocolate you can get your paws on, the high cocoa content gives the whipped ganache a bittersweet richness, combined with the sweet meringue and zing of the fresh raspberries - it’s just plain awesome. 

Chocolate raspberry macaroon cake
Recipe and images created for Yuppiechef.com

(Serves 6-8)

1 cup cream

300g dark chocolate, chopped

3 egg whites

1 cup sugar

2 2/3 cups desiccated coconut

To decorate:

Cocoa, for dusting

200g fresh raspberries (or other fresh fruit), to garnish

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 20 x 20cm baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Bring the cream to a boil, remove from the heat and add the chocolate chunks. Allow to stand for 5 minutes then stir until smooth. Refrigerate until set then whip until fluffy and stiff.

In a medium saucepan, bring 1cm of water to a simmer. Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites in a glass bowl set over the simmering water until soft peak stage. Gradually beat in the sugar until combined. Remove from the heat and beat at high speed until cool. 

Fold in the coconut gently until combined. Spread the mixture into the lined baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool slightly, and then turn the macaroon cake onto a clean surface. Trim the edges and cut the cake into two rectangles.

Sandwich the layers together with the whipped chocolate mixture, finishing with a layer of chocolate and finally a dusting of cocoa and a sprinkling of raspberries.

TIP This cake is even better refrigerated overnight and enjoyed the next day. 

Hot Cross Bun Spiced cake with Easter eggs

Easter is without a doubt my favourite time of year and if you know even just one thing about me, this is hardly a surprise, what with my chocolate infatuation and all. But when I really think about Easter, the first memory that comes to mind is a warm, toasted hot cross bun drenched in melted butter and served with sweet milky tea. Heaven. One of life's little joys for me, is depriving myself of the spiced, kissed buns all year around (by the way, since when did it become a thing that shops sell them all the time?!) so that when Easter comes around, it really is a special treat.  But, if unlike me, you haven't paced yourself this year and have eaten way too many of the buns by now, this cake is the solution to hot cross bun gluttony. It's a 'throw everything in a bowl and mix' kind of cake recipe with a hint of those lovely Eastery spices. And let's not forget to add the glorious king of all confectionary, speckled eggs. I will not bore you with a soliloquy on my infatuation, nay, deep love, for speckled eggs, as I could go on forever, but I will say that the eggs make this cake speggtacular (too much?!). But just trust me on this one. 
Serve this cake for tea, and have a very happy chocolate-fuelled Easter! 

Hot cross bun spiced cake with speckled eggs
Makes 1 cake

3 cups self-raising flour

1 cup cake flour

2 cups castor sugar

2t mixed spice

2t ground cinnamon

300g butter, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups milk

6 eggs, at room temperature

1t vanilla extract

Icing

250g butter

2 cups icing sugar, sifted

2T milk

1t vanilla extract

Mini colourful Easter eggs, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 150C and grease a 25cm ring cake tin. Place the flours, sugars, spices, butter, milk, eggs and vanilla in a bowl and beat on low speed until just combined. Increase speed to high and beat for 1-2 minutes or until thick and light. Spoon into the cake tin and bake until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before turning out onto a wire rack. Make the icing by beating the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the icing sugar, milk and vanilla until creamy. Frost the cake with the butter cream and decorate with the eggs. 

Pumpkin and vanilla bean cheesecake & Almond puff pastry tart

 This post is a little different from my usual, not only does it contain 2 fabulous recipes: a pumpkin vanilla bean cheesecake and a ridiculously light and puffy almond puff pastry tart (or if you're feeling fancy, it's called Galette des Rois) but I'm also going to be getting a little tech-savvy (wow, I sound a bit like my grandmother there!)

It took me a while to catch on, but I've developed a bit of an app addiction. Both my tablet and phone are littered with cooking and baking apps and there seems to be one for everything! From an app that can tell you if the fish you're eating is endangered or not (WWF SASSI), an extremely versatile baking converter (QuickBake Converter), one that grabs recipes off your favourite blogs and saves them as recipe cards (ChefTap) to an app that transforms your Instragrams and tweets of restaurant meals into food for disadvantaged and hungry children (Feedie). 

But my absolute favourite at the moment has got to be the Food and Home Entertaining magazine app which has hands-down got to be the most beautiful app on my homepage. Not only is it pretty but it's also pretty useful with videos and a cook mode which goes through the recipe step-by-step so you can follow it on your tablet while you bake. 

 

I tried the pumpkin and vanilla cheesecake recipe because the spiced pumpkin reminded me so much of how my grandmother used to prepare her pumpkin fritters. This cheesecake was lovely and dense and I'll definitely be adding it to my recipe collection.  

KATE'S TIP:  I served mine with a butterscotch sauce and toasted almonds (having a sweet tooth and all).

The puff pastry tart is also so yummy and quite impressive! So if you're baking this long weekend (that's a silly thing to say isn't it? Of course you are!) give either of them a try!

For the recipes for these beautiful bakes download the app here for free.

Mini hot cross bun doughnuts

Deep-fried hot cross buns, people. Easter treats just don't get any better than this! Wait, maybe they do, 'cos I have some fabulous Easter recipes coming up in the next week so hang onto your sweet tooth! 

Sometimes people ask me how I think of deep-frying a hot cross bun. And the answer is that I dream about food at night. Not in that 'swimming in melted chocolate' kind of way (although isn't that what we'd all like!) but more in a 'wake up in the middle of the night with a recipe idea' kind of way. Which makes me pretty food-obsessed but it's where I get my best ideas. Like deep-frying hot cross buns, or making millionaire shortbread into a cake or giving sweetie pies a red velvet twist. Let's be honest, it's a little weird (or a lot weird, depending on your weird-o-meter), but we all have our quirks! Mine just happens to result in yummy things!

Photograph by Gunther Schubert of Vorsprung Studio

Mini hot cross bun doughnuts

Makes 24

60g butter or margarine

420g cake flour

1 tsp salt

50ml sugar

1 tsp mixed spices

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed peel (optional)

10g Instant dry yeast

1 egg, beaten

200ml warm water

½ cup raisins (or chocolate chips)

Crosses

¼ cup flour

1 tbsp oil

2 tbsp water

Oil, for deep-frying

Castor sugar, to dust

Rub the butter into the flour and mix in salt, sugar, spices and mixed peel, if using. Add the yeast and mix. Beat the egg and warm water together and add to the dough. Mix to form a soft dough then knead for 5-10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Divide into 24 pieces and roll into balls. Place on a lightly floured surface, cover and allow to rise until doubled in size. Mix the flour, oil and water together and place in a piping bag. Pipe crosses onto the buns. Heat a large pot of oil to 180C and fry the doughnuts, in batches until golden and puffed. Remove from oil and immediately dust in castor sugar.

Chocolate peanut butter Milo cake

I think we all have a guilty food pleasure; whether it's putting odd things on toast or eating breakfast foods for dinner. Mine is sitting with a tin on my lap shovelling spoonfuls of Milo straight from the can into my mouth. Odd but oh so gooood. 

Milo is just heaven for me. That malty, milky flavour gets me every time. So as one does, I've created an ode to this drink-that-I-eat, and stuck it in a chocolate cake. Only The Best Chocolate Cake (recipe courtesy of the fabulous Alida Ryder). 

Did I mention it has peanut butter in it too? And espresso? It's like when the cake gods were handing out decadence, this cake stood in line twice. And then again. 

I must say that I did contemplate topping this cake with those crunchy malty whispers things, but then wondered if the poor cake would explode from chocolate sexiness... wait, who am I kidding? That would've been friggin' amazing! Now, go and make this cake so you can do what I was too weak to do!

Chocolate milo peanut butter cake

Based on Alida Ryder's recipe (simplydelicious.co.za)
Serves 10-12 (or just one Kate)

2 cups white sugar

450ml cake flour

200ml cocoa

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup hot espresso

¼ cup Milo powder

¼ cup smooth peanut butter

115g butter, melted

ICING

½ cup smooth peanut butter

115g butter, softened

2 ½ cups icing sugar

100ml cocoa powder

100ml Milo powder, plus extra for sprinkling

1 tsp vanilla extract

150ml cream

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Prepare 2 springform tins (24cm each). Mix all the dry ingredients together. Whisk the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla and add to dry ingredients. Combine coffee, Milo, peanut butter and butter and add to the mixture. Mix well. Divide between the cake tins and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before inverting and allow to cool completely.

For the icing, cream the peanut butter and butter until light and fluffy. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat well. Ice the cake and decorate with Milo powder and chocolate curls, if desired. 

Chocolate cherry éclairs

I've been on the hunt for the perfect éclair recipe ever since the pretty French pastries started popping up everywhere! It seems they're the next big baking trend after the macaron mayhem we're all recovering from! I got the old-school choux pastry training where we taught that the perfect puff is achieved with a 1:1:1:1 ratio of water, butter, flour and eggs. As long as they were light, it didn't matter if they were a bit wonky-looking. But just like Pierre Hermé, who created that perfect-looking macaron that we all do absolutely anything to achieve, someone somewhere created a perfect-looking éclair and now we're all doomed to do the same.

In swoops Kate to save the day! After much research and testing, I give to you.. The Secret of The Perfect Eclair! 

Resting. 

So flipping obvious when you think about it! You've whipped up all that gluten and to get a perfect shape, you need to rest the pastry so it rises evenly. Makes sense right?!

A modern, sleek-looking éclair deserves an updated filling, so I've plugged them with boozy whipped cream, and placed some beautiful plump amarena cherries inside (just to-die-for!). Pile the éclairs on top of each other croquembouche-style, add some chocolate shavings and a drizzle of that gorgeous cherry syrup and I challenge ANYONE to resist this as a dessert showstopper! 

Black Forest éclairs

Makes 20

350ml water

150g butter, diced

pinch of salt

200g cake flour

4 eggs, beaten

FILLING

500ml cream, whipped

1 tsp cherry liqueur (optional)

1 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

1 cup preserved cherries, in syrup, drained and halved

TOPPING

200g dark chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 200C.

Place the water, butter and salt in a saucepan and heat gently until melted. Then bring the mixture to the boil. As soon as the water boils, remove from the heat and add the cake flour in all at once. Beat together with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan.

Place the mixture into a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or you can do this b hand) and beat until smooth. Allow to cool slightly then beat in the eggs gradually until the mixture is thick and smooth. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Place the pastry into a piping bag fitted with a plain 2cm nozzle and pipe 10cm long eclairs onto a lined baking tray, making sure to leave enough space between to allow for rising.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the pastries are golden.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Dip the tops in the melted chocolate and allow to set completely then cut the eclairs in half but not all the way through.

Make the filling by whisking the cream, liqueur and icing sugar together until stiff. Place in a piping bag and pipe the cream inside, arranging a few cherries inside each éclair as well.

Serve immediately.

Chocolate rum 'n raisin fudge

If I told you I've always loved the combo of rum 'n raisin, I'd be lying. It reminds me of the days my grandparents would come home from shopping and announce there was ice cream for dessert, only for me to later find out that it was rum 'n raisin flavour. The disappointment that tub of ice cream brought me was something I could only describe in a couple of days worth of therapy. It was a grown-up flavour that ruined a perfectly good scoop of ice cream, if you'd asked me!

But I was a pretty bright kid and with my insatiable sweet tooth, it didn't take me long to persuade my tastebuds to like it so I wouldn't have to skip dessert (I think the deadly sin 'glutton' is appropriate here!). Rum 'n raisin was reserved for the adults, it was sophisticated and I would feel rather classy (and clever) 'enjoying' it. So now, when I think of rum 'n raisin, I feel exactly that; classy. 

So here's a classy chocolate fudge recipe which feels like it should be stored in an antique tin. I'm pretty sure it would taste even better that way. 

Chocolate rum and raisin fudge

Makes 24

½ cup raisins

¼ cup rum (or 1 tsp rum essence in ¼ cup water)

400g dark chocolate, chopped

395g tin condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

50g butter or margarine

Line a 20cm square cake tin with non-stick baking paper.

Combine the raisins and rum and allow to stand for at least 1 hour.

In a heavy-based saucepan, combine the chocolate, condensed milk,  vanilla and butter and stir over a low heat until melted.

Increase the heat and stir for a few minutes until the fudge is smooth and thick. Stir in the raisin mixture.

Pour into the lined cake tin and refrigerate until set.

Cut into squares and store in an airtight container.

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