Swedish Waffle Rosettes

These little rosette waffles are incredibly crunchy with enough nooks to collect pools of golden syrup and plenty crannies to hold piles of snowy icing sugar - so when you bite into one, it quickly crumbles into submission. I love desserts that fall into my mouth without me having to do much!

There is only one memory I have of these rosettes and it's a sweet one; of Friday afternoon's spent whisking them up with my best friend, Tammy (still in our school uniforms) just before a weekend sleepover. We would devour them still-hot with sticky syrup running down our forearms and icing sugar on our noses. My excitement was partly due to that after-school-Friyay-feeling but mostly due to the waffles which I was only able to make at Tammy's house because her mom had one of the old fancy irons. Of course, that just made them infinitely more delicious. Because they were special. 

And they were just a sweet memory until I stumbled on the vintage waffle iron at an antique shop. Of course, after that, I saw them everywhere - you can now even buy them (cheapish) online. It's a rosette revolution, people. And you're invited!

The pretty waffle iron is the most intricate part of this recipe; the batter is literally a pancake mix ratio.  So simple. Whisk. Deep-fry. Eat. Repeat. 

What's that? You don't have a pretty waffle iron? Well then, put the batter into a squeezy bottle and pipe your OWN pretty designs into the oil. No excuses here, move along.

I didn't get the chance to try these with anything else (I ate them all) but I imagine (nay, fantasize) that vanilla ice cream would be the bomb. So would a salted caramel sauce. Or or or! - Kate x

Swedish Waffle Rosettes

Makes 30

1 cup (250ml) cake flour

pinch of salt

2 tsp (10ml) castor sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup (250ml) milk

1 tsp (5ml) vanilla extract

Vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Golden Syrup, for serving

Icing sugar, for dusting

Combine the flour, salt and sugar together in a medium-sized bowl. 

Whisk the eggs, milk and vanilla together separately then slowly whisk into the dry ingredients. 

Heat the oil in a deep-fryer or pot until 180 degrees Celcius. 

Using a Swedish waffle iron, dip the iron into the hot oil first, then into the batter. Remove the iron from the batter then dip in a second time before placing into the hot oil. Allow the waffle to cook in the oil until it starts turning golden, then push it off the iron using a skewer or chopstick. Fry until golden brown, then drain on paper towel. Repeat with the remaining batter. 

Serve warm with dustings of icing sugar and pools of golden syrup. 

Baked Chocolate Mousse Cake with Spiced Clementines

This is gooey, chocolatey, messy, shove-your-entire-face-in-it good. 
Who wants to fiddle around with gelatine when you can just bake this and get a dessert that can only be described as the love child of a chocolate fondant and a mousse?! It's light but still deathly decadent. 

A slice of this would be heaven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or double cream (wait who am I kidding, we're all thinking the same thing - there is no way in friggin hell ONE slice is a serving.) Anyway, whatever size your serving is, be sure not to skip over the boozy clementines - they add a pop of brightness not only in colour, but also in flavour, so you can make your way out of the dark richness of it all. 

But if you honestly need another reason to make this? It's a source of Vitamin C*.

*sort of. 

Baked Chocolate Mousse Cake with Spiced Clementines

Serves 8-10

250g good-quality dark chocolate

125g salted butter

zest of 1 Clemengold

4 large eggs, seperated

110g white sugar

3 tbsp (60ml) cake flour, sifted

Spiced Clementines

6 Clemengold's, peeled

1 cup (250ml) sugar 

1/2 cup (125ml) water

3 tbsp (45ml) brandy (optional)

Cinnamon stick

3 cloves

1 vanilla pod, split

Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin (or standard loaf tin) and preheat the oven to 180C

Place the chocolate and butter in a large glass or metal bowl over a pot of gently simmering water and stir until melted and smooth. Stir in the Clemengold zest then set aside to cool slightly. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the egg yolks and sugar until very light, pale and thick. 

Whisk the egg whites in a seperate bowl until soft peak stage. 

Fold the egg yolk mix into the melted chocolate and then gently fold in the egg whites and flour in 3 batches until completely combined. 

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes until just set but still gooey (trust the timings and resist the urge to keep baking). 

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving with the spiced clementines. 

To make the clementines, slice the Clemengold's and set aside. 

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, brandy and spices over medium heat until dissolved. Bring to the boil then add the fruit and simmer for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

1954 Sticky Toffee Date Pudding

There's nothing fancy or frilly about a baked pudding. It's plain and simple but there is something deeply satisfying and supremely indulgent about a sticky pudding complete with pools of sticky toffee sauce and of course,  a good glug of piping hot custard. Something else which always accompanies a baked pudding, is a big spoonful of nostalgia. And this one, if it's even possible, comes with an extra dose. Because the recipe is over 60 years old. 

When my great aunt Gwen died recently, I was given a great gift; 3 large falling-apart boxes filled with her love of recipe hoarding and all sorts of vintage kitchen paraphernalia. There were pages upon pages of recipes - not in a book or file but just stacks of cuttings torn out of magazines, from the back of soup packets and old shopping lists, some even quickly jotted down on the back of a church hymn booklet. But it was amongst these droves of recipes, that I discovered a few real gems. 

And this recipe is one of them. 

Cape Times Newspaper - Wednesday, June 16, 1954

 Margaret Pollitt writes: 'One of the biggest problems of winter menu-planning is how to ring the changes with the sweet course - those sturdy summer standbys, ice cream, jellies and fruit salads, are of no use now to the mother whose children crave a big helping of pudding after the main course has been polished off.'

I cropped out the advert for corsetry services in the bottom right, although, in hindsight, that advert placement was very good!  

Amongst recipes for pancakes (Margaret advises budding cooks that 'tossing pancakes only comes with experience!'- you've been warned.), hot orange pudding, steamed sago pudding and roly poly, a date pud caught my attention. And it would be perfection when baked in my vintage pudding bowl (side note: how beautiful is this?!)

As a child I never appreciated puddings; I wanted to be a pastry chef and the simplicity of a baked pudding was completely lost on me. I only yearned to make the complicated, intricate desserts I saw in my cheffy cookbooks and magazines. My young imagination extended so much further than a quick-mix sponge drowned in thick UltraMel custard. How times have changed. Now... it's the very thing I crave when the weather turns wet and grim. Perhaps that's what makes pudding so universally soothing and rich in nostalgia. The fragrance of a baking pudding takes me back to Sunday afternoon lunches where we had to endure the delicious smell all the way through lunch. Torture. Followed by sheer bliss.

1954 Sticky Toffee Date Pudding
Serves 6-8

250g dried, pitted dates
250ml (1 cup) hot water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
250g cake flour
250g butter
1 tsp (5ml) baking powder
2 large eggs
100g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
100g toasted pecans or walnuts, chopped

Soaking syrup:
60g butter
1 cup sugar
11/2 cups milk
2-3 tbsp sweet sherry (optional, or add 1 tsp vanilla)

Preheat the oven to 180C, fan-forced 160C. 
Grease 12 small dariole moulds or ramekins or a large 26 x 16 baking dish. 
Place the dates in a medium bowl and pour over the hot water. Sprinkle over the bicarbonate of soda and allow to stand for 30-45 minutes or until very soft. 
Place the softened dates (and the water) in a food processor with the rest of the pudding ingredients (except the nuts) and blend until smooth and combined. Stir in the nuts then pour into greased individual moulds or one large dish. 
For small puddings, bake for 10-15 minutes and large pudding, 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
In the meantime, make the syrup; place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Keep hot. 
Pour the hot syrup over the puddings as soon as they come out the oven. 
Serve immediately with salted caramel sauce (recipe below), vanilla custard or thick cream. 

Salted Caramel Sauce
Makes 500ml

1 (395g) tin condensed milk 
250ml (1 cup) cream
3 tbsp (45ml) brown sugar (like Demerara or Muscovado)
Pinch of good-quality salt (I used local Oryx desert salt)

Place the condensed milk, cream and sugar in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer, stirring constantly until golden brown. Allow to cool, then sprinkle in the sea salt. 

Camembert and rosemary bread with honey and walnuts

Before you express outrage at the fact that I'm featuring a savoury recipe (Shock! Gasp! Horror!), let me just say that, cheese is basically the chocolate of the savoury world. So it counts. Sort of. 

If there's one thing I love more on this earth than chocolate (and cake), it's cheese. And bread. No wait, homemade bread! 

This is a combination of both those pleasures - homemade rosemary bread wrapped around a wheel of camembert and baked. So that when it comes out the oven, you can put it on the table (and if you're a nice enough person to share) let friends and family tear off crusty chunks of bread and dip them straight into the oozy, stringy, gooey cheese... But if you bake it and sit on the kitchen floor doing that all by yourself, then hey, who am I to judge!

Camembert rosemary bread with honey and walnuts

Recipe developed and featured in Food & Home Entertaining Magazine

Serves 4-6

850 g bread flour

15ml (1 tbsp) sugar

15ml (1 tbsp) salt

55 g unsalted butter

360 ml milk, scalded

240 ml warm water

7g sachet active dried yeast

olive oil, for drizzling

30 ml (2 tbsp) chopped rosemary

250g Camembert wheel

100g walnuts

30 ml (2 tbsp) honey

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Stir the flour, sugar and salt together. Stir the butter into the warm milk and allow to cool to room temperature. Place the water in a bowl and add the yeast. Wait one minute before whisking and adding the cooled milk. Stir in the flour mixture to form a rough dough. Knead the dough until perfectly smooth, either by hand or machine. 

Allow to rest for 10 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Knock the dough down by kneading it gently to push out the air. Break off a fist size piece of dough and roll out into a small circle.  

Wrap the dough around the wheel of Camembert and set aside. Roll the rest of the dough out into a rectangle, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with chopped rosemary. Roll the dough up into a sausage and then cut the sausage in half lengthwise, leaving the top still attached. Twist the two pieces around each other then form into a circle around the Camembert, pressing the two ends together. 

Cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Brush with olive oil, sprinkle with walnuts and bake the bread at 200°C for 30-40 minutes or until golden and firm. The bread is ready when it makes a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom. Drizzle the walnuts with honey and serve immediately while still warm.

Chocolate Marshmallow Log

This is an ode to the fabulosity that is the Chocolate Log; that delicious wafer-marshmallow-chocolate bar that is so deeply intrenched into each of our childhood’s. Those not from here, they just don’t get it. They don’t understand the utter joy in biting into a super-fresh chocolate log (you know the one’s when the wafer is still crispy?) or digging out the filling with your finger before eating the chocolate coating. And of course, there’s licking the squished marshmallow off the wrapper (and hoping no one will see and judge you for it). I've also just discovered that the serious chocolate log connoisseurs out there actually freeze the bar first, taking the squishy marshmallow to even gooier heights!

 This cake is by no means a replacement for the real thing, but it is almost as delicious! The gooey marshmallow filling is there (I’ve toasted it for added oomph), so is the chocolate coating - and the wafers - all wrapped up in a flourless light-as-air chocolate swiss roll.

If making your own marshmallow is too much effort, simply melt store-bought white marshmallows with a little water then spread that over. I won’t tell if you don’t. 

Chocolate Marshmallow Log

Serves 8-10

Chocolate log:

6 eggs (separated)

150g castor sugar

50g cocoa

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cocoa powder, for dusting

Marshmallow filling:

4 egg whites

1 cup (250ml) castor sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate glaze:

55g dark or milk chocolate

1/4 cup (60ml) cream

2 tbsp (30ml) golden syrup or honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate wafer biscuits, to garnish 

To make the Swiss roll: Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a large baking sheet with baking paper. 
In a large, clean bowl whisk the egg whites until thick and stiff, then slowly whisk in 1/4 cup of castor sugar. 
In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining castor sugar until the mixture is very thick and pale (about 10 minutes). Fold in the vanilla and sifted cocoa powder.
Lightly whisk 1/3 of the whipped egg whites into the egg yolk mix to lighten it, then fold the remaining egg whites in, taking care to knock as little air out as possible. 
Pour the cake batter into the lined baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until springy to the touch. 

While the sponge is baking, prepare the marshmallow frosting. Place the egg whites in a large glass or metal bowl and set over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Using a hand beater, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks, then slowly start sprinkling in the sugar. 
Whisk the meringue until it is warm to the touch, then remove from the heat, add the vanilla and beat until cool. 
Remove the cake from the oven ad allow it to cool a little before turning it out onto another piece of baking parchment which has been dusted in cocoa powder.

Make the glaze by combining all the ingredients in a bowl, microwave until the chocolate is melted and the glaze is smooth. Cool to room temperature before drizzling over the log. Top the chocolate log with remaining marshmallow frosting and sprinkle with chopped up wafers or chocolate wafer bars. 

To assemble, place the cake with the short side closest to you, then spread with the marshmallow, leaving a border at the end furthest from you. 
If you want, you can toast the marshmallow using a blow torch (or place under a very hot grill) until golden brown. 
Roll the cake up tightly, trim off the ends if necessary and dust with cocoa powder. 

How to make your own condensed milk

 If you buy (and eat) as much condensed milk as I do, you start thinking of ways to cut out the middleman. Luckily I did not have to think too hard, because my mother had the idea first and penned a recipe for her own condensed milk in our family cookbook. Bless her soul! 

Making your own will not only cost you 1/3 of the price of a store-bought tin, but it will also save you in those moments when you open the cupboard and (horror!) someone has beaten you to that tin. Because is there anything worse than planning a recipe only to realize you're missing that crucial ingredient?! 

Thank goodness making your own uses just 5 ingredients (3 if you're in a serious pinch). 

Did I mention how easy it is? It's embarrassingly easy. 

So easy I almost considered not even posting it at all. Almost. 

If you bake a lot of fudge (who doesn't?!) then it will save you a stack of money and you don't even have to use castor sugar - just blend up the normal granulated white sugar until it's fine and use that. All you're looking for is a finer texture so that it dissolves quickly so icing sugar will do the trick as well. 

Now I know I don't need to tell you that I have a STACK of recipes using condensed milk so I've included the links below the recipe because once you've made your own, you'll want to use it in a gajillion things, that's if you're left with any! 

Homemade Condensed Milk
Makes 400g (equivalent to 1 tin)

1 ¼ cups (310ml) powdered milk

¾ cup (180ml) castor sugar

60g butter, softened

1/3 cup (80ml) boiling water

A drop of vanilla essence (optional)

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, thick and the sugar and milk powder are dissolved. 

Pour into a jar and store in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Almost forgot, here's a video of me making the condensed milk too ->

RECIPES WITH CONDENSED MILK:

Chocolate peppermint crisp fridge cake

Double decker chocolate brownies

Microwave fudge

Milk tart cake

5-Ingredient Magic Bars

Chocolate rum and raisin fudge

Chocolate millionaire shortbread cake

Quadruple Chocolate Cake

A melt 'n mix white chocolate cake sandwiched together with whipped dark chocolate ganache and drizzled with THREE kinds of chocolate sauce. Why? Because I can. And because 4 types of chocolate exist and I couldn't choose my favourite (it's like choosing a favourite child!) so I used them all. And because it's International No Diet Day. Yes, I know every day on TheKateTin is no diet day... 

I once heard a dietician say (bet you NEVER thought I'd be quoting a dietician - ha!) that if you're going to cheat while on a diet, then do it properly! Half cheating just results in more cheating. But don't fear, there is no half cheating with this cake. I didn't call it a quadruple (bypass?) cake for nothing! 

The melt 'n mix white chocolate sponge is a revelation - it's so delicious and tastes just like a milky bar. YUUUUM! It's quite sweet so I balanced it out with a whipped dark chocolate ganache so there's a bit of bitterness. But all that balance kinda jumped out the window when I got to the top of the cake and decided to go all Jackson Pollock on it with white, milk and caramel chocolate. Oh well. My intentions were good! Does that count?

As for those of you who are feeling any sort of guilt at eating said cake? I'll leave you with this sweet quote from Jeanne Ray: 

"A slice of cake never made anyone fat. You don't eat the WHOLE cake... You have a slice and what it reminds you of is someplace that's safe, uncomplicated, without stress. A cake is a party, a birthday, a wedding. A cake is what is served on the happiest days of your life"

Quadruple chocolate cake

Because just 3 types of chocolate isn’t enough. A super-easy melt ‘n mix white chocolate cake topped with whipped dark chocolate ganache and caramel-chocolate sauce.

Serves 12

Recipe by Katelyn Williams

Melt ‘n Mix White chocolate cake

185g butter

1 cup (250ml) milk

1 cup (250ml) castor sugar

150g white chocolate, chopped

2 cups (500ml) cake flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

2 large eggs

Whipped ganache

100ml cream

200g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped

50g milk chocolate, melted

50g white chocolate, melted

50g caramelized white chocolate, melted (see TIP)

Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease and line 2 x 15cm cake tins.

For the cake, combine the butter, milk, sugar and chocolate in a saucepan and melt over low heat.

In a separate bowl, mix the cake flour and baking powder.

Add the chocolate mix to the dry ingredients and whisk well, then whisk in the eggs.

Divide the batter between the two cake tins and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until golden and springy to the touch. A skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean.

Turn the cake out of the tins and allow to cool completely, then slice each cake in half horizontally.

For the whipped ganache, heat the cream until boiling then pour over the chopped chocolate. Allow to stand for a few minutes then stir until melted.

Allow to set completely then using a hand mixer, whip the ganache until light and fluffy (careful not to overwhip or it will split!)

Assemble the cake by layering the white chocolate cake alternately with whipped chocolate ganache.

Decorate the cake by drizzling with the 3 different types of chocolate.

TIP: To make the caramelized white chocolate, place broken up good-quality white chocolate on a baking sheet and drizzle with 1 tbsp vegetable or canola oil. Place in an oven preheated to 150C for 1 hour, stirring every 10 minutes until a rich caramel colour is achieved. If the chocolate is lumpy, simply blend it in a food processor or pass it through a sieve. If it’s too thick, add a little more oil.