Chocolate Fudge Bite Madness

If only I had a picture of the student stampede that shook through the Ballymaloe Kitchens today due to the the Chocolate Fudge Bite Madness….

Having just joined UK Bloggers it seemed like a fab idea to do a recipe swap blog post. My very very first one (I was and am excited) with the lovely Alyssia and this is what she says….

'Hey there! I'm Alyssia from http://alyssiarose.blogspot.co.uk. Ever since I can remember I have always loved baking, but it wasn't really until I came to University that I started messing around with baking. My favourite things to bake are cupcakes, because they are just too cute, and too yummy! When I saw that Jette wanted to do a recipe swap I jumped at the chance. I was seriously pleased with the recipe that she gave me, which you can check out over on my blog! Now for a bit about the recipe I gave her:

I actually got the recipe for Chocolate Fudge Cake Bites from the 'Step-by-step Baking Book' by Caroline Bretherton. (As a side note I think all keen bakers should own this book). Anyway this recipe is one that I have made many times and it always goes down a storm with my friends. So I hope that you enjoy it and maybe give it a go yourself!

Thanks again Jette for organising this swap, it's been really fun!'

So, here goes...
Generally in the kitchens of Ballymaloe Cookery School it's mayhem and madness and if one thing is started on one day, it rarely gets remembered the next to be finished but I managed it. All by myself, no notes or alarms. Proud aren't you?!

The recipe Alyssia sent me seemed a little complicated, especially for a girl (me) who gives up on recipe instructions if they go on and on (sorry Darina) and kind of just makes it up but, I stuck to it. Pat on the back. And oh yes, were they a hit. Within 5 minutes of putting them in the dinning room they had vanished into the tummies of my fellow Ballymaloe students. I did vary size but generally stuck to small so that it didn't feel quite so waist-increasingly-sinful to eat more than one.

The recipe is time consuming but yes, absolutely worth it. I can see it being great for kids parties and then doing some more decadent (add some booze) ones for a dinner party.

Now I did have some several awful moments. One was where my balls had been out of the fridge for quite a while and as I tried to coat them with white chocolate they proceeded to melt into the chocolate. Not a pretty effect but definitely a lesson learned…keep them cool!

All in all though a recipe that is well worth the effort and made one happy girl (me) and plenty of satisfied people in the dining room.

Cake competitions and foraging.

This week at Ballymaloe Cookery School two hugely significant things happened. First, we had ourselves a cake competition. Ok, so maybe it wasn't that serious and second, we only had the choice of three cakes but still. A little Ballymaloe/Rachel Allen inspiration did not go astray! We had crisp rolled dark chocolate mounds, sparkling iced primroses covering bases, mugs of steaming coffee decorating others etc, etc. (I'm hoping you get the picture)

Wednesday was Rachel Allen's, along with Pam who is definitely a fountain of cake wisdom, turn to show us all how to make/ice/decorate a cake. The choices (not made by us!) where coffee cake, chocolate cake and lemon cake. I got coffee cake. For someone who doesn't drink coffee or has never liked coffee cake this was definitely one to help me not lick the bowl! Obviously not forgetting how unhygienic that would be….

Second myself and Pam, who as Darina Allen says 'once seen never forgotten', had been doing some recipe testing with left over marzipan and sour cherries.  It's a delightful mix of fluffy rich cloud with hint of almond with random red sour cherry bursts topped off with crunchy marzipan. Today was the day I got it right. 1 hour of cooking (and worrying) and 1 plate of pieces sent to the office later I received two fantastic compliments. 1 from Rory Allen (I'm still happy as Larry over this one) and 1 from Darina who then said, 'yes we'll put it in the book as Jette's marzipan and sour cherry bake'. Yep. That'll do me thank you very much.

After our cakelunch but before demo foraging was next on our schedule.  Off we tootled down the country lanes off to Garryvoe Beach with Darina. Perrywinkles, horse winkles, sea spinach, urchins and the list goes on and on of our salty treasures. Not long enough on my opinion as I am utterly into foraging. I've found a new obsession reading any foraging blogs (a fave is this one).

And so now it's Friday night, as a little treat for all of you who read this (thank you by the way) here is the fantastic Marzipan and Sour Cherry Bake. Enjoy this over the weekend.

6oz salted butter
6oz self raising flour
60z caster sugar
3 eggs
roughly 2oz of homemade marzipan (a little kept behind to sprinkle on top)
100g of dry sour cherries.

Mix butter, flour, eggs and sugar in a food processor. Fold in the most of the  marzipan and the cherries. Put in a low tray/tins and sprinkle with remaining marzipan. 180degrees in the oven for about 15 minutes. Nom nom nom.