When you have a flat of peaches on your kitchen counter, ripening by the second, there’s a lot of pressure to come up with recipes to let the little fuzzy things serve their purpose in life. Then I saw this picture of a stone fruit lattice pie, and knew immediately it was going to be my muse.

The recipe from Bon Appétit suggests using orange flower water in the pie filling, and my mind immediately went into overdrive with ideas. I eventually settled on using orange zest instead of the always dependable lemon juice and zest combination in pie fillings. The addition of orange zest turned out to be subtle when baked, gave the fruits a light citrus-y finish that’s familiar, yet a little different. I’m a big fan.

  

Ingredients {makes 1 7″-pie}

• 6 large peaches, peeled, cored, and sliced
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 small orange, zested; divide zest into 1 tsp + “the rest”
• 2 packed tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup frozen (or fresh) raspberries
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 300g/200g/100g ratio of my fail-proof pie crust recipe, or your favourite pie crust recipe
• 1 beaten egg and some sugar, for brushing and sprinkling the top of the pie crust

Directions

1. Toss peaches, nutmeg, orange zest, and the sugars together in a large bowl. Let sit at room temperature while you work on the crust.
2. Prepare the crust, and mix in “the rest” of the orange zest with the flour if you’re making the crust from scratch.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Line the bottom of a pie dish with pie crust, and cut the remainder into strips for the lattice top. Set aside the strips.
5. Drain peaches, and save 1/4 cup of the liquid.
6. Mix reserved liquid with cornstarch and whisk well, then pour back into the peach mixture. Add in the raspberries, toss everything together evenly.
7. Throw the filling into the pie dish, and top with the strips arranged in a lattice pattern.
8. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle on some sugar. I used granulated, but coarse sugar would be best.
9. Bake on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbly. Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes before digging in!

Although the peaches and raspberries were super juicy, I think the cornstarch really did its job in the mixture of holding back the moisture from soaking the bottom of the pie crust. The end result was one very flaky pie on both the top and the bottom, with delicious soft peaches and raspberries soaked in syrup in the middle!

Read the rest of Peach Raspberry Pie on mango on an apple. © mangoonanapple.com 2009 - 2011

(Or tea cake, since Alex devoured two slices half a cake with a cup of tea.)

I love strawberry season in Canada. Strawberries were the only fruit that I missed terribly when we were traveling, despite the abundance of tropical delicacies in Taiwan and Thailand. Even though you could get imported grapes from Chile, cherries from California, and lychees from China, there just didn’t seem to be an overwhelming enthusiasm for summer berry season in Asia. Plus, unless you peeked into a Starbucks, things like berry crumbles or squares just aren’t part of the sweets lineup over there.

So I’m making up for the lack of strawberry lovin’ in my life now, especially because it’s a short season. Ever since I saw the strawberry summer cake over at smitten kitchen, I’ve been itching to try it out. My mom, on the other hand, seems to have perfected the Asian attitude towards berries. Sure, she bakes with blueberries and raspberries because it’s her job and all, but she has a vendetta against strawberries in baking, and isn’t terribly fussed about the little local beauties to begin with. She ranted for a good three minutes on how strawberries lose their colour and taste, not to mention texture, in baked goods. All I could picture in my head as she ranted, was an image of an army of strawberry ninjas attacking her, for her to have such strong feelings against them.

I plunged ahead with my plan to use up the last of the berries while my mom napped. It was a little difficult as I’m an intruder in her kitchen these days, and she’s kind of the guardian of the ingredients. Nonetheless, victory was mine as I plopped the cake pan into the hot oven. The end result was amazing. Strawberries dotted the warm, sweet, and buttery cake, and it definitely is one of the best tea time snacks I’ve ever made.

  

Strawberry Summer Cake – adapted from Smitten Kitchen

• 85g softened unsalted butter
• 188g all-purpose flour*
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 170g granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 400g strawberries, hulled and halved
• 2 big spoonfuls of sugar for sprinkling (about 2-3 heaping teaspoons)
• 2 big spoonfuls of chopped roasted nuts (I used a mix of almonds, pecans, and walnuts)

*Deb’s suggestion: swap 94 grams all-purpose flour with 75 grams of barley flour if you have it

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter, flour, and line a 9″ cake pan or a 8″ square pan with parchment paper.
2. Whisk flour or flours, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.
3. In an electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter and 170g sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. It may look a little curdled at this point if your milk and egg are cold, but not to worry, it will work itself out as you continue to beat.
4. Add flour mixture in, mixing until just smooth.
5. Pour into prepared pan. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar and nuts over berries.
6. Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. Let cool in pan on a rack.

The cake is best served warm, freshly out of the oven, with a dollop of cream (or ice cream if you’re feeling extra-indulgent). Alex may or may not have heaped a healthy-sized scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of the warm cake. Although the original recipe did not include nuts, I found that the chopped nuts really added a bit more of a coffee cake taste to them – something a little more complex, and nutty of course. The taste also inspired me to try swapping in some ground almonds for flour in my next batch, whenever I make this again!

Enjoy!

Read the rest of Summer Coffee Cake on mango on an apple. © mangoonanapple.com 2009 - 2011

My mom gave the lemon yogurt cake I made last weekend a facelift and we LOVE it! So it’s only proper that I now share the newer version with you on a Sunday.

Because of the addition of cornmeal, this cake is much more crumbly, but in a fantastic way. It is light, lemon-y, but not too sweet. I thought with cornmeal, yogurt, and an egg, it would be much heavier than my recipe – but it’s totally not the case. Adding blueberries also added moisture and nice little surprises when you eat this cake – it reminded me of something between a simple cornmeal cake and a yummy blueberry pancake breakfast! On that note, I’ve had a slice with breakfast, lunch, and dinner today. And then my mom made another one. I’m starting to feel like efforts we put into the past month of healthy eating are quickly going down the drain.

Continue readingSunday Supper: Lemon Yogurt Cake – Polenta-ized

Read the rest of Sunday Supper: Lemon Yogurt Cake – Polenta-ized on mango on an apple. © mangoonanapple.com 2009 - 2011

I spaced out and booked us so that we ate out all day on Sunday – even though I had planned and bought some lamb, chard, and potatoes for a nice treat for dinner. Instead, we had a lovely brunch at Morning Glory and a birthday dinner with my sister at Rivoli.

So, I’m going to distract you with sunshine and lemons.

This is a slightly dense and totally moist and flavourful lemon cake that goes well with breakfast, or is delightful as an afternoon snack. I love making it whenever I have plain yogurt on hand (which isn’t very often), and the bright citrus taste always brings a little sunshine to my day. It was with this thought in mind that I picked up some lemons on Saturday when we ventured out in the -19 weather to get groceries. In the middle of this bleak and freezing day, a slice of this cake with a warm cup of tea in the afternoon is perfect.

The recipe is from the Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook that I received a few years ago when I first started building my kitchen. The book is great for basic recipes, and there are quite a few staples in here that I tend to revisit quite a bit. I have also since read that yogurt cake is a very typical French snack, and from there have made my own adjustments to all the recipes for yogurt cake I’ve come across, to get to the one below.

Ingredients

• 250g plain yogurt (non-fat doesn’t work as well as the thick whole-fat good stuff)
• 200g (1 cup) sugar
• 3 large eggs
• zest of 2 lemons
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 250g (1 1/4 cups) flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100g (1/2 cup) vegetable oil (i.e. canola)

• juice from the 2 lemons
• 65g (1/3 cup) sugar

  

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter, flour, and line a loaf pan with parchment
2. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside
3. Whisk together yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed, but don’t over-beat
4. Fold in the flour until well incorporated. Drizzle in the oil and stir everything together until the oil is completely integrated in the mixture
5. Pour into pan and bake for 45 – 55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. The top always cracks for me. If you have any tricks/patience to try different temperatures or techniques, please feel free to share in the comments!
6. Let cool in pan for about 5 minutes on a rack before removing from the pan
7. Put the cake in a plate or on the rack but with a plate underneath. Heat up the lemon juice and sugar until sugar is melted and the mixture is warm, and drizzle slowly all over the cake
8. Let the cake sit in the lemon juice for 5 – 10 minutes before removing from any remaining liquid and cooling on a rack

Glaze (optional)

• 1/2 cup – 1 cup (80g – 160g) icing sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice or water – from your remaining lemon juice would be ideal

Mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice until it’s a thick syrup consistency, and drizzle over the cake. Let the icing cool and harden before slicing.

Hope you’re all keeping warm and cozy and doing the Summer dance with me!

Read the rest of Sunday Supper: Lemon Yogurt Cake on mango on an apple. © mangoonanapple.com 2009 - 2011

A simple recipe today for safe-keeping. I originally copied this down at a store, typing surreptitiously on my now defunct BlackBerry, but forgot to save it when I switched to my iPhone. All’s not lost, as I attempted to re-create the recipe this past weekend and am pleased with the results. So, before I lose another piece of technology, here it is.

Vanilla buttercream (American style) – adapted from the Sprinkles cupcake mix carton*

• 350g icing sugar
• 227 g (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• a pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp milk

Mix all the ingredients on low in an electric mixer with the paddle attachment until the icing sugar is incorporated. Turn up the speed to medium and whip, scraping down the bowl occasionally, for about 30 seconds until lighter and fluffier (but not too fluffy, or it’ll get runny).

Tint lightly with red colouring to get a lovely shade of pink – the best colour for an old fashioned American buttercream!

Happy birthday, Allison!

*I suppose I could go back to said store, and read the carton again, and see if I actually have everything down right…but I live so far away from the cool shops now! Yes, that’s an excuse, and I just used it.

Read the rest of Vanilla vanilla buttercream on mango on an apple. © mangoonanapple.com 2009 - 2011

I got lazy about Sunday Supper this weekend because I got a little too carried away baking for our “unhealthy eating break” that Sunday brings. We had chocolate chip cookies, a yellow cake, a lemon yogurt cake with a recipe to come, and the chocolate gingerbread cake pictured above.

For supper, we had an easy, but comforting grilled cheese sandwich with a lovely cheese we came across yesterday when we ventured out to the market during the snowstorm. I made a just-as-effortless roasted tomato and basil soup with some organic roma tomatoes and the teensiest bunch of basil found in the middle of winter. Everything’s familiar, and quick to whip up, so I could focus on the baking and the decorating that ensued. I promise, posts to come for these aforementioned sweets.

The chocolate gingerbread recipe is from Adam at Amateur Gourmet, whose posts I recently discovered, and enjoy reading immensely. I actually stumbled across Adam’s blog via Twitter, with this poignant post in support of LGBT teens. (It looks like Dan Savage will be publishing it in the upcoming book of essays – way to go!)

Chocolate Gingerbread – adapted from this recipe

• 60g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 30g (2 tbsp) packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 160g (1/2 cup) molasses
• 110g (4 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 110g (1/2 cup) brewed coffee, cooled
• 170g (1 1/4 cup) flour
• 6g (2 tsp) baking soda
• 2g (1/4 tsp) salt
• 1/2 tsp each of: ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and mustard powder
• a pinch of freshly ground black pepper

1. Butter and flour a loaf pan, and line the bottom with parchment. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl, and set aside
3. In an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy
4. Add in the egg and mix well on medium. Add in the molasses and melted chocolate and beat until thoroughly mixed. It may look slightly curdled first – just keep beating and it’ll all come together as an emulsion soon enough
5. Add in half of the dry ingredients and mix on low until incorporated. Add in half of the coffee and mix on low until incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour mixture and coffee
6. Once everything is well incorporated, scrape down the bowl and beat on medium speed for a couple of minutes
7. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until a tester comes out clean
8. Cool in pan until pan is cool enough to be handled without mitts, and reverse out onto a cooling rack to cool thoroughly

The cake rose quickly and had a cracked top, which, me being OCD, had to cut off before I poured on the ganache. In Adam’s original version, he kept the cracks as is and the cake looked just as impressive.

  

To finish off the chocolate gingerbread, I melted 2 oz. chocolate chips with 2 tbsp. of whipping cream, plus a dash of cinnamon. Once the ganache was cool enough to touch, I poured it onto the cake (with the cracked top already cut off), and spread quickly with an offset small spatula.

I was impressed with the texture of this cake – it’s somewhere between a hardcore chocolate cake and a lighter snack like a banana bread. It’s also slightly crumbly when you slice into it, but still manages to be somewhat fluffy. The best thing is that aside from the chocolate expectations, the spices really come through and make it quite flavourful and suitable for the season. I would highly recommend giving this a try before putting the cinnamon and molasses away until December!

Read the rest of Sunday Supper: Comfort Food Edition on mango on an apple. © mangoonanapple.com 2009 - 2011

When I was in high school, my family lived on a street where landscaping was a bit of a competition. I have not-so-fond memories of spending spring break carting yards and yards of dirt from the driveway into our newly dug up flower beds. Our next door neighbours were especially good at landscaping, and the lady next door was often seen in her garden on sunny days.

The family next door not only inspired everyone on the street to keep beautiful lawns and gardens, but they also served wonderful snacks whenever we went over for tea and coffee. The lady of the house, Pat, was generous and often copied the recipes down for my mom and me to try at home, and to this day my mom still has a folder with recipes handwritten by Pat on pretty paper. The last time I was home, I got them all down on my computer and have been meaning to recreate some of them.

Since I recently came across a really delicious jar of peanut butter, I thought I’d start with the Peanut Butter Cups. You can also make these into bars – just the peanut butter layer on the bottom, with chocolate on top – to make life easier.

Peanut Filling (makes enough for 48 cups, or a 8×8″ pan)

• 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 and 1/4 cups icing sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup melted butter

You’ll also need

• Chocolate chips, melted, for coating…or chocolate wafers. Don’t be quick to judge, there are better tasting wafers available these days! I’ve recently seen Ghiradelli candy coating, and the ones I buy are “Belgium premium chocolate wafers” from Bulk Barn. Alternatively, you could temper real chocolate. You’ll need about 3/4 cup for the Pan Method, or about 1 pound of chocolate wafers for the peanut butter cups.
• A peanut butter cup chocolate mould or a 8×8″ square pan, lined with parchment.

1. Mix all the ingredients for the peanut butter filling together thoroughly, and let chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes just until it gets firmer.
2. Roll into small balls about the size of table grapes, and press down slightly so it’s about the size of a quarter, just thicker. Or, if you’re making this in a pan, press all of the peanut butter filling firmly on the bottom.
3. Fill a peanut butter cup chocolate mould with a thin layer of chocolate. Tap the sides to get the chocolate to spread flatly, and put into fridge to set for a few minutes. Pan method – spread the melted chocolate evenly across the top of the peanut butter filling, and let set in fridge.
4. Put the flattened peanut butter in the middle of the chocolate cup, and drizzle melted chocolate on top, again tapping to ensure everything flattens out. Pan method – you may want to score the bars with a sharp knife halfway through setting to ensure you can cut through the chocolate easily once it’s set.
5. Return to fridge to set, about 15-20 minutes, before inverting the mould onto a clean work surface and extracting the cups one by one.

Read the rest of Homemade Peanut Butter Cups on mango on an apple. © mangoonanapple.com 2009 - 2011

Finally breaking the awkward silence – it’s been a while. Somehow life managed to get ahead of me ever since our vacation in late August to Vancouver, so only recently did I get a chance to slow down, take a hard look at my calendar, and wonder where the past couple of months went.

We have some wedding plans finalized, but I’m going to hold off talking about that for a while…I feel like the plans are a little out of control right now, what with me being so busy that I’ve been playing perpetual catch-up to all the little details that need to get done.

So instead, I’m going to distract you with Dora the Explorer. Dora and I recently had the pleasure to get to know each other very well, as her and her friends remained on repeat for a couple of days over Thanksgiving at the cottage. Dora showed me just how important she is in every little kid’s life, so that I was totally prepared when I was asked to do a Dora the Explorer cake for a little girl turning 2 (remember Ella?).

It was fun creating Dora out of a sugar cookie. I chose to shape her on a cookie and not a typical fondant or modeling paste because it’s slightly easier to capture her expression and control the “essence” of the character when it’s only 2D. I’m glad I did, because even with the cookie, Dora was being a bit of a diva, what with all the colours of her outfit.

  

Hint – I added a little bit of cocoa powder to the royal icing to make the colour for Dora’s hair. Somehow, using too much of my black food colouring paste wasn’t looking too appetizing to me. It worked out great, and I actually really liked the slight chocolate-y taste of the icing!

Read the rest of Dora the Explorer Cake on mango on an apple. © mangoonanapple.com 2009 - 2011

This recipe is probably from a lovely little Italian grandmother who not only makes the best tiramisu, but also the greatest pastas and tomato sauces. However, the live demonstration in my kitchen was done by an Italian man in his twenties. Nonetheless, I can guarantee that the recipe originated from a rustic kitchen in Italy, because this man eyed me with suspicion as I laid out my colourful measuring spoons, and was fascinated with my KitchenAid’s ability to improve his efficiency tenfold.

It was super refreshing to have someone else take control of my kitchen to show me something new. Not only did I get a chance to scribble furiously on my notepad, but I was also able to click away on my camera freely to get some action shots of the process.

After chasing this man with “how many spoonfuls of sugar?” and “can you please throw that into this lovely measuring spoon before dumping it in the bowl?”, I think I might have a recipe for you. Try it, and let me know what you think!

Ingredients

• 6 eggs, whites and yolks separated
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 500g carton of mascarpone cheese
• 6 tbsp sugar
• Two packages of Savoiardi cookies, also known by North Americans as ladyfingers
• A giant pot of coffee – at least 8 cups from your coffee maker. Espresso would make your Italian grandma proud, but drip coffee would do if you’re in Canada
• A little bit of cocoa powder

The “Right” Way to Assemble Your Tiramisu

1. In an electric mixer with the wire whisk attachment, whip the egg yolks and 2 tbsp of the sugar together until it’s light butter yellow. This should take about 5-8 minutes, and can be done at medium-high speed.
2. Meanwhile, whip the egg whites and salt together in a separate bowl, using an electric handheld mixer, until soft peaks form.
3. Add 1/3 of the carton of mascarpone cheese to the egg yolks mixture and continue to whip for about 3 minutes on medium-high speed. Then add in 2 tbsp of sugar and whip for about 3 minutes. Repeat this step. You should finish with the last 1/3 of carton of cheese.
4. Incorporate about 1/2 of the egg white mixture into the egg yolks and beat for 3 minutes on medium-high. Then add in about 2 tbsp of egg yolks at a time, whipping for about 10-15 seconds between each addition, until all of the remainder of the egg whites have been added.
5. Once everything’s been added, taste the mixture to make sure it’s lightly sweetened, but not too sweet. You can adjust at this point if you think you need more sugar, but we found that at 6 tbsps, it was just about right. Tiramisu isn’t meant to be a super sweet and dense dessert! Whip for another 2 minutes on medium high.
6. Dip the cookies quickly in a shallow pan full of coffee, and then arrange on a dish. Usually the Pyrex glass ones would work well. Drizzle the tiramisu cheese mixture over your layer of cookies lightly just until a thin layer covers the cookies evenly. Repeat until you get to the top of the pan, and finish off with the layer of tiramisu cheese.
7. Refrigerate for at least 12 hours prior to eating. Just before serving, dust some cocoa powder on top and if you’re feeling really decadent, maybe also some chocolate shavings.

Enjoy!

Read the rest of Tiramisu on mango on an apple. © mangoonanapple.com 2009 - 2011

I just think it’s so quaint when someone refers to that cake that they always had at family gatherings. The “it” cake of the family, if you will. Growing up, my birthday cakes have been interesting and wildly different every year depending on geographical location and later on, the temperamental weather in May in BC. Suffice it to say, my family doesn’t have a go-to cake for functions, despite the fact that my mom is a pastry chef. (She only became an official pastry chef in the last 8 or 9 years, to be fair.)

A few years ago when Private Practice first came on and I discovered that there was a doctor show I could watch without feeling nauseous, I checked out the website on ABC. I was delighted to find chocolate cake recipes posted on there, as a tie-in to one of the episodes. There were three recipes, and one immediately caught my eye – “Holy Mother of Chocolate Cake”. I don’t remember anything about the other two recipes, but I’m so glad this was the one I hastily wrote down on a piece of paper before I went grocery shopping for ingredients. It has now become the “it” cake in the family, as most of my family fondly refer back to the last time we had it whenever we talk about cakes. Naturally, with Alex’s birthday just around the corner, this was the cake he asked for.

The cake is very moist and rich, but is not dense at all. Inside the punch of flavour, there is a lightness to it that makes it easy to devour a giant piece before you realize what just happened. Because of the moisture and the richness, it’s not a cake meant for typical butter-and-icing-sugar icing, either. Nor did it work out well with meringue buttercreams. There are a few ways to dress it up or down, but my favourite way remains the orange whipped cream that I concocted serendipitously the first time I made the cake.

Holy Mother of Chocolate Cake

• 3 oz. semisweet chocolate – I used Lindt 70% cacao
• 12 oz. / 1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
• 22 oz. / 650g sugar
• 13 oz. / 370g all-purpose flour
• 6 oz. / 170g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp. / 10g baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. / 2g baking powder
• 1 1/4 tsp. / 6g salt
• 150g / 3 large eggs – mine came to 170g when I measured, so I actually scooped out 20g before I added the other liquids. The extra 20g wouldn’t have made a huge difference, except you’d probably get a slightly denser and heavier cake (not necessarily a bag thing)
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 300°F. Grease and flour two 9″ or 10″ cake pans, and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
2. Break up the chocolate into small pieces, then mix with the hot coffee. Stir until smooth. Set aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl, sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. With the paddle attachment on an electric mixer, beat the eggs on medium speed for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Slowly add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to the eggs, beating until well combined and smooth.
5. Add the dry ingredients in parts, beating to combine with each addition. Don’t over mix once it’s all integrated.
6. Pour batter into the pans and bake on middle rack for about an hour. When it is done, your kitchen will smell really, really, really chocolate-y. (As in, this should be the new thing to pop into ovens when you have an Open House.)
7. Remove pans and let cool in pans until the pans are no longer warm to the touch. Cool completely on a cooling rack before handling, or else it likes to fall apart.

Orange Whipped Cream Icing: whip a 500mL carton of whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Stir in the zest of an orange and 2 crushed up Crunchie chocolate bars (the honeycomb gives it a light toffee flavour and sweetness. So if you don’t have access to Crunchie, find some honeycomb to mash up!). Cover and chill in fridge until ready to use. I recommend allowing the topping to sit for at least 24 hours before consuming, either as part of the cake or prior to icing, so the flavour can develop.

Orange Chocolate Topping: in a food processor, chop up 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips with 1 tbsp granulated sugar and 1 tsp. orange zest.

To finish the cake for a family gathering, I usually ice it with the orange whipped cream and leave it at that. The cake really shines on its own that not much else is needed. The sprinkled topping, though, works great if you want to give it a bit more oomph and also a bit more crunch when you eat it. It’s just that I hate cleaning additional appliances so I avoid this step when I know I can get away with it.

The orange whipped icing also isn’t the prettiest to look at. So for Alex’s cake that he took to the office, I covered it up with a new invention of mine – chocolate orange ganache. YUM!

Chocolate Orange Ganache – in a small heavy-bottomed pot, warm up just over 1/2 cup of cream, and the zest of an orange, on low heat. When the cream is warm and slightly bubbling around the edges, strain the liquid through a fine sieve to get rid of the orange zest (you don’t have to, but I prefer my ganache to be smooth, so I did this). Immediately pour the cream over 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate, stir until everything is melted. When the mixture is about room temperature, pour over the cake (it would be helpful to put the cake in the freezer when you start this process – it helps the ganache set quickly). Smooth out with a large spatula and voila! When the ganache is set and just before serving, sprinkle the orange topping on top.

Enjoy!

Read the rest of My Favourite Chocolate Cake on mango on an apple. © mangoonanapple.com 2009 - 2011