My SuperYummyChocaMochaHazelnuttyButtercreamyBrownie cake

So this is the cake i made for my mum's birthday. I couldn't decide what kind of cake to make so the bottom layer is brownie and the top is mocha, which sounds nice. Unfortunately I forgot to put baking paper in the tin with the brownie and so i sort of crumbled it to pieces trying to get it out. Also I didn't put enough coffee in the mocha. Oh yeah, and then there is the whole incident with me trying to make a chocolate hazelnut layer :  i didn't realise there weren't enough eggs until after i had ground up the chocolate, hazelnut, flour mixture;  tried to think of something useful to do with a useless mixture; melted it with even more chocolate; placed it on a sheet of baking paper to set in the fridge; finally acknowledged that the chocolate-to-hazelnut ratio was way out of whack, and thus it wasn't going to set; was left with a peculiar, useless piece of half solid... stuff (for lack of a better word). 

Luckily, I was able to glue the brownie layer together with icing, which was coffee butter-cream to make up for the minimum amount of coffee in the mocha layer. And as for the peculiar, useless piece of half solid stuff - i used it as a topping for the cake which added a welcome layer of crunch. It actually ended up as something frankly delicious and i intend to make it again one day.

Gi Gi

                                                              

 Good eve, and merry belated Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Or the winter solstice. Or whatever strange holiday you celebrate. Just happy winter, because folks, let's face it, winter is a bloody depressing season so happiness now is very muchly needed.

This christmas i have been rawther busy in the kitchen. Well okay, that's a lie. Other than the gingerbread house pictured left, i have done no cooking. But do not be fooled, gingerbread houses are no mean feat!

I know i posted this really late, and Gi Gi (the name my sister christened it with) is no longer standing, but here are some pictures of it in its full glory.

 Next time i make a gingerbread house I've decided i'm gonna hide something inside it, how could i resist this sight?:

If anyone has any great ideas for things to hide inside it, please tell me in a comment bellow!

Mock en bouche

Before you ask, no, mock en bouche is not a real thing. Did that stop me from making it? Of course not!

You may or may not remember me saying that it was my life long dream to make the perfect croche en bouche (see 'my caramel fiasco'). Well yesterday, along with the help of my wonderful su chef, mum, i did a practice run. It wasn't a real croche en bouche because we didn't have a mold so the pyramid was well wonky, and anyway i was just messing around with putting it together bit because we weren't sure what to do with the caramel after (rather miraculously) we had made it.

Below are some pictures of the rise and fall of my mock en bouche.

Check out how cool the caramel looks on top! 

It wont be soon till i have made the perfect croche en bouche now! And besides, this may not have looked that great but it tasted A-MAZ-ING!!! (Sorry you couldn't have any but they 'aven't invented teleportation yet, *sigh*.)

chocolate mint cake

Yesterday I was busy making this beauty of a cake. It's primarily a chocolate sponge cake but it's soooooo much better because it also has heaps of mint matchmaker sticks and nutella. Now, if you are any kind of chocolate fan, and who isn't, you will know just how delicious those two things are.

I spent hours slaving away in the kitchen (not really, i actually enjoyed it) but let me tell you, it was worth it! (But like really worth it not in the fake kinda way loreal means it) The cake was so moist and yet it had crunch from the matchmakers. The chocolate was rich but the mint lightened the flavor. (And I hope you know I'm just saying this to make you drule and wish you had the cake, because that's the kind of evil girl I am. Alright I'll stop.)

There was only one thing wrong with the whole thing and that was that, whist heating some nutella to drizzle on top, I accidentally caramelized it.

The result was something which had the texture halve, complete with crunchy bits where the sugar had hardened completely. Surprisingly it actually tasted quite nice! It tasted almost exactly like the roasted hazelnuts you can by in a paper cup in the west end at Christmas time, although I'm guessing that eating caramelized nutella out of a saucepan is probably a lot worse for you!