Monthly Archives: June 2012

Masterpiece – Zumbo’s V8 Cake

Recipes June 29, 2012 Comments: 59

Warm greetings everyone :) hope you’ve all had a nice week so far! Mine has been a mixed bag of lolly lol if you know what I mean ~ my parents left on Monday…meaning from now on until next year, I’m going to have cook, clean and organise everything, damn I’ve gotten use to them being here :P then I finally got the ‘cold’ so many of my friends and colleagues have been sick, but I managed to stay fine…but then on Tuesday…I finally fell sick >_<  and since then I don’t seem to be able to get over it :( would like to say a HUGE thank you to all my colleagues at work especially RiRi and Yue who have given me so much support and all the lovely messages I received on Twitter/Instagram ~

Anyway, enough of me ‘whinging’, I owe my dear friend Kirk an apology because I promised to blog about the AMAZING V8 cake last week but I’ve been too busy and sick. So I’m REALLY sorry!

The one and only V8!

Every month I participate in the Alphabakes challenge and have been convincing Kirk to make something because I knew it was going spectacular!

Finally this month Kirk decided to participate, we had to make something starting with the letter is ‘V’ so I made a Vanilla Honey Cheesecake and have talked to Kirk and knew he was going to make something with Vanilla but I didn’t expect 8 layer vanilla cake from Adriano Zumbo.

For those who are not from Australia or who have not watched Master Chef Australia, you may not know Adriano Zumbo, but he is currently one of Australia’s most well known pastry chef and is often described as the ‘Master of Macarons’ where he calls them Zumbarons :) The V8 cake is so popular in Australia that as soon as I posted a photo of it on Instagram everyone immediately knew ~ I have visited Zumbo’s patisserie quite a few times yet have never had the chance to try the ‘famous’ V8 so was SUPER DUPER UBER excited when Kirk said he was going to make it ~

Awesome!

I’m sorry but I’m not going to provide you with the recipe due to copyright issues but you can find it here on the Masterchef website :) But I will show you each component and share how Kirk assembled the V8 ~

There’s really more than 8 layers in this cake! It’s so complicated :) I don’t think I know anyone else who could tackle this apart from Kirk ~

Let’s start with the Vanilla Dacquoise which is like a meringue that is very similar to a macaron ~ and is the base for the V8 cake. Kirk mentioned that it is important that this is done well, as it will help support the other layers on top of it.

Baked vanilla dacquoise

Second layer is the Vanilla and Almond Crunch which is my ABSOLUTE favourite! It’s like a really delicious Nutella with more crunch :D I ate so much of it and all of the leftovers hehe ~

Vanilla Almond Crunch

Third Layer Vanilla Ganache ~ which is basically a white chocolate ganache with vanilla seeds :) sorry we didn’t take a photo of it.

Baked Vanilla Chiffon Cake with Vanilla Syrup

Vanilla Syrup

Fourth layer is a Vanilla Chiffon Cake it’s hard enough for me to make a ’round’ one let alone a square thin layer of chiffon cake :P and then there was the Vanilla Syrup used to brush over the Chiffon cake :)

HUGE creme brulee

Fifth layer another favourite of ours Vanilla Creme Brulee it’s the LARGEST I’ve ever seen and I never thought you could make it that BIG :P

Me & Creme Brulee

Sixth layer Vanilla Macaron this is very similar to the Vanilla dacquise but Kirk said he was impressed with Zumbo’s recipe that even though it such a ‘large’ macaron the texture was still quite nice.

Vanilla Water Jelly

Seventh layer Vanilla Water Jelly LOL I thought this Vanilla Water Jelly was quite funny looking with the little ‘black’ seeds through it :P Kirk did mention he used an ‘abundance’ of Vanilla pods to make this cake.

Vanilla Creme Chantilly

Eight layer Vanilla Creme Chantilly, I’m not usually a fan of the cream in or over cakes, but this Vanilla Creme Chantilly was so light and smooth :)

White Chocolate Glaze Finishing

Ninth and last layer White Chocolate Glaze Finishing , Kirk actually used another recipe and didn’t use Zumbo’s recipe :) There’s a few reasons why he did that ~ first and foremost its because to make Zumbo’s white glaze you have to buy chemicals such as titanium dioxide which is essentially what you find in toothpaste :P It was just too troublesome to get that so Kirk omitted it and used another recipe :) To me it made no difference and it still taste delicious!

Now that all the components have been made, it was came the crucial time of ‘assembling’ the cake! I’ve watched the episode where the contestants on Masterchef had to make the V8 and so many of them failed when trying to assemble the cake. Kirk didn’t follow Zumbo’s method as he thought it would be easier to put the layers on top of each other and pour the White Chocolate Glaze.

First layer Vanilla Dacquise and Vanilla and Almond Crunch

First things first, prepared a square tin with baking paper and placed his Vanilla Dacquise then he smothered the ADDICTIVE Vanilla and almond crunch over it :)

Then it was time for the Vanilla Chiffon Cake layer  and brush it with Vanilla syrup ~ I’ve never managed to cut the edges so ‘straight’ :)

More layers to come Creme Brulee, Vanilla Macaron and Vanilla Water Jelly :) I only had the leftovers of the Creme Brulee *cries*

Master at work :)

I was getting slightly impatient by now lol I just wanted to EAT this cake ~ Kirk the master was at work, putting the final Vanilla Creme Chantilly on top, popped it back into the fridge and after a good 20 minutes… he finally got it out and started trimming it :)

FINAL PRODUCT

White Chocolate Glaze over and the V8 cake is DONE :) now it’s just decorating the cake ~ Unfortunately, Kirk didn’t have enough time to make the ‘flower’ that Zumbo has one the cake, but I have no doubt that he has the skill to make it ~ maybe next time when he makes this cake again :D

So pretty ~

We may not have a flower but Kirk made another favourite of mine Brown Sugar Crumble ~ I’m always bugging him to make it and put it on all my desserts hehe ~

Wow…this is a long post lol this is definitely a cake that is time consuming to make and blog about, but definitely not time consuming to eat ~ I was SO lucky Kirk gave me literally half of the cake to take home ~ I don’t think I can really describe the flavour and taste of this cake because all the layers make it quite complex. But let’s just say ‘VANILLA OVERLOAD’ :)

What more can I ask for?

I asked Kirk how he felt after making the V8 cake and he said “I’ve been waiting to make it for 2 years, initially wanted to make it for a friends weddings…now they’ve been married for 2 years and have a child, yet I still haven’t made it, but I’m glad I did…I don’t think I would have been able to make it 2 years ago and my advice to home cooks who would like to make this cake is be prepared to use LOADS of vanilla pods and wash LOADS of dishes :) ” HAHAHA It’s true I witnessed it in front of me, Kirk kept washing the same bowl over and over again!

What more can I ask for? LOL Zumbo sells this cake for $125 at his store and I’d need to fly up to Sydney to get it ~ but thanks to Kirk, I got to eat V8 for breakfast, lunch and dessert for 2 days in a ROW! *WIN* I don’t think I’d ever be able to make the V8 cake at home…it’s simply too difficult and time consuming for me…but maybe Kirk will feel very ‘generous’ and make it for me again :)

Truffle Eggs – Maling Room

Australia, Melbourne, Reviews June 24, 2012 Comments: 55

There are some people you know you can trust for recommendations and Byran (Fatboo.com) is definitely one of them :) I remember meeting up with Bryan a couple of weeks ago and he mentioned that The Maling Room delivers a consistent cup of coffee and that I should go sometime soon, because it’s relatively close to where we live :) I then remembered vaguely that it was in last years Entertainment Book and it was expiring soon, so I immediately dragged Mr Bao to go with me.


I really liked the ‘look’ and ‘feel’ of the Maling Room ~ it’s situated on the corner of Maling St and it use to be a ‘post office’ and now changed into a lovely cafe. I’ve grown up in Melbourne and no matter how many city I visit, Melbourne is still home and I love how we have a good mixture of ‘historical’ buildings and also new ‘modern’ ones ~


The Maling Room is relatively well-known within the Melbourne cafe scene, and has won quite a few awards ~ Mr Bao has been interested in learning more about coffee and the different types, so I bought him a Coffee Guide, and inside Maling Room was rated 5 coffee beans meaning one of the best ~

Many awards ~

We arrived relatively early on a Saturday so it wasn’t that busy and didn’t have to wait for a table which is always good :) I hate waiting for a table with a passion but lol for good for it’s always worth it :P  It was a really nice day and we got lots of natural sunlight coming through the cafe, which is always good for us bloggers, because it makes taking photos so much easier hehe

The friendly waitress gave us a table in the middle of the cafe, close to the coffee machines ~ They had a pretty impressive Synesso machine, but I’m still an amateur and don’t really know the ‘mechanics’ of making coffee :) But I do know from reading Byran’s post that they roast their own beans here and you can buy them in individual packages and brew the coffee at home ~

Anyhow, coffee time ~ I always start with my mocha :)

Mocha $3.6AUD

I thought the coffee here was quite robust and this cup of mocha didn’t really have a strong chocolate taste, it was more like a ‘latte’ than a mocha in my opinion ~

Latte $3.6

I’m sorry, but Mr Bao and I don’t remember if this was a ‘House Blend’ latte or ‘Single Origin’ latte, LOL I tune out when Mr Bao tries to gets all technical with coffee :P He thought the coffee here had a strong aroma with good complexity  and not too acidic  ~ we both agree that the coffees here weren’t that ‘hot’ and its funny because they have it written on their menu that they don’t serve ‘hot’ coffees, and that you need to ask them if you like it ‘hot’ :D

Truffle Eggs – 18 month aged cheddar cheese with scrambled eggs with tomatoes and mushroom, drizzled with “truffle oil” $17AUD

Moving on to the food :) OMG! I was SO amazed by their Truffle Eggs! It was SO amazingly good I can’t wait to go back and have them again! It may seem like a simple dish, scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms, but the ‘TRUFFLE OIL” just gave the dish a whole new dimension, and so delicious! I wish I could get the recipe from them on how make the scrambled eggs so soft and delicate ~ basically melts in the mouth no exaggeration here!

Spanish Eggs – Serrano ham, scrambled eggs, spinach, Spanish onion, capsicum, tomato and grated cheese $17AUD

Mr Bao’s dish was just as good ~ but we didn’t really like the ‘Serrano ham’, it felt a little out of place as it was quite cold compared to the rest of the dish, especially on top of the hot scrambled eggs. Once again we really liked the flavours they put into the scrambled eggs and they were just as smooth and creamy as mine :)

Escargot pastry with raisins $4AUD

Couldn’t leave without trying their pastries, not sure if they bake them on site, but I wanted to try their chocolate croissant because I saw a little girl next to me devour it ~ but…I was too late and they had sold out…so we went for an escargot with raisins. I was a bit worried at first because I always thought ‘escargots’ were ‘snails’ lol but apparently they can also be a type of ‘pastry’ :P similar texture to a croissant with puff pastry that was buttery and fluffy. It also had custard and raisins all through the pastry, I can describe it as ‘buttery pleasure’ hehe

Aeropress coffee $6AUD

Mr Bao wanted to be a little adventurous and ordered his first ever ‘aeropress’ coffee hehe but when we asked the waitress, she couldn’t really tell us much information, and asked her manager to come over. Unfortunately, she wasn’t very patient and didn’t really answer our questions and simply said “Just try the aeropress, you’ll like it”, I don’t really like places that are so impatient…they should at least try to explain the coffees they have to their customers. Mr Bao didnt’ really like it mainly due to the preference for milk coffee, it was quite a light and watery type coffee with notes of strawberry and apple, however, he couldn’t taste the honey as they described.

Blood Plum Tart $3 or $4 AUD

Mr Bao then bought me a ‘Blood Plum Tart’ take away, because he knew at precisely 3pm, I’d have my daily sugar ‘craving’ LOL so I had the blood plum tart at around 3pm and it was quite nice, the pastry case was filled with custard and blood plums and topped with flaked almonds. I didn’t really like the pastry case, felt very ‘store bought’ and even though the filling was nice, I think I must prefer the raisin escargot more.

We highly recommend the Maling Room for both their coffees and food :) especially the Truffle Eggs is a MUST GET ~ it’s hard to find a cafe who delivers both excellent food and coffee so don’t miss out.

The Maling Room on Urbanspoon

Mystery Solved – What Cheesecake is it?

Australia, Melbourne, Recipes June 20, 2012 Comments: 50

Hello Everyone :) Please don’t hate me because I’ve kept you in suspense for the past couple of days :) For those lovely Readers who are a little confused about what I’m talking about lol let me quickly explain it hehe ~

Just the base :)

It all started with the mysterious cheesecake I made on Saturday and I posted it on Instagram (daisy_nevertoosweet) ~ I was quite nervous because it’s the first time I’ve made this type of cheesecake and it includes ‘folding’! Gosh I’m so scared of this ‘folding’ process >_<  but anyhow, it was a success YAY :) Many people commented on it and have been asking me what cheesecake it was :) Cuz i was very secretive about it hehe I even gave some to fellow bloggers Lianne (Food Made With Love) and Julie (I Dream In Chocolate), but even they didn’t know what it was hahhaa

Finished Product YAY!

Now it’s finally time to reveal the mysterious cheesecake *DRUM ROLLS PLEASE* it is a ‘Vanilla Honey Cheesecake’ :D

And I actually made it for the Alphabakes challenge this month ~ hosted by my dear blogger friend Ros (The More Than Occasional Baker) and the letter this month was “V”. As soon as I saw it…I freaked out…OMG what the heck am I going to bake for the letter “V”. Then Mr Bao rolled his eyes and said ‘Vanilla duh’… so that immediately comforted me hehe so then with the Queen’s Jubilee I wanted to make a ‘Victorian’ Sponge, but so many people were making it…so I was once again lost…was so close to just making simple Vanilla cupcakes…but what fun would that be >_<

Then I jumped on one of my favourite websites taste.com and typed vanilla and that’s when I found this recipe ‘Vanilla Honey Cheesecake’ that first appeared in the ‘delicious’ magazine a few years ago. Right then and there I knew I was going to make it because last year when I went to Beechworth I bought Honey Vanilla and had never used it like a lot of things I buy :P This was the PERFECT time to use it!

Honey and Vanilla Bean from Beechworth Honey

I’m sorry I don’t remember how much it was but unde $10AUD and not sure where else you can get it, because I bought it from the Beechworth Honey retail store in Beechworth, but you can buy it online through their website or find similar vanilla honey in specialty stores like ‘The Essential Ingredient’ or simply use normal honey :)

Essentially this is a baked cheesecake, but with the vanilla extract and vanilla honey it gives it another dimension of flavour ~ I hope you like it! Sorry I didn’t have my camera when I was making the actual cake, so I can’t show you the step-by-step, but I did take photos of making the biscuit crust ~ hope this will help you Winston (The Hungry Excavator) next time you make a cheesecake ~

Recipe – Vanilla Honey Cheesecake adapted from Delicious Magazine 

Ingredients (Makes 20cm cake)
75grams unsalted butter
150 grams caster sugar
350 cream cheese (Philadelphia)
4 tablespoon (20ml) Vanilla Honey
75ml thickened cream
3 eggs, separated
25 grams plain flour
1 vanilla bean, split or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract/paste
50grams brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
50g flaked almonds

Biscuit Base
250 grams digestive/plain sweet biscuits
125 grams unsalted butter, melted

Method
1) To make the biscuit base, release the base of a 20cm spring form cake pan and invert it. Spray with oil and line base with baking parchment, place it back into the pan and secure it.

My fave digestive biscuits :)

2) You can either use a food processor to blitz the biscuits until it resembles sand and add 125grams melted butter and blitz again until it resembles wet sand.

OR

3) You can place the biscuits into a Zip Lock bag and use a rolling pin and ‘crush’ or ‘bash’ them :)

Love doing this bit!

I love doing this by hand, even though I have a food processor, because it gives me so much joy being able to ‘hit’ something lol but the key here is not to do it ‘too hard’ because the bag will just pop and you’ll get biscuits everywhere and lol this may sound really silly but you kind of need to hit with a bit of a rhythm :) Hope this tip with help anyone who has trouble with this ~

All crushed!

5) When the biscuits is evenly crushed and looks like sand, you can mix the melted butter and combine until it resembles wet sand.

6) Slowly placed spoonfuls of the ‘biscuit mixture’ into the cake tin and pack it into the base firmly and the side of the pan using the back of the spoon. You may want to use a glass to help with the edges and keep an even thickness of crust around the sides.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill, it’s now ready to be used :)

To make the filling
7) Preheat oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan-forced
8) Cream butter and sugar in stand mixer or electric mixer until pale.
9) Add cream cheese, 1 tablespoon of vanilla honey, cream egg yolks and flour when incorporated add vanilla seeds/extract and mix well.
10) In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold into cheese mixture. Pour into prepared biscuit base.
11) Combine brown sugar, cinnamon and almonds and sprinkle over cheesecake then bake for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and allow cake to cool inside the oven.
12) To serve, drizzle with extra honey.

Drizzle drizzle ;)

I obviously drizzled my slice with lots and lots of honey lol my Dad had a slice and said it was ‘really’ sweet so for those who don’t really have a ‘huge’ sweet tooth maybe just drizzle a tiny bit ~

I am SO SO SO happy with this cake :) It definitely turned out better than I expected and lol the photos turned out better than I expected too and I tried to do a little food styling ~ I’m still a noob so please excuse the ‘amateur’ efforts ~

I hope I didn’t disappoint anyone with this cheesecake :) and thank you for all the support and lovely comments I received on Instagram and Twitter ~

Couponing – Percy Aeroplanes

Australia, Melbourne, Reviews June 18, 2012 Comments: 36

Mr Bao and I love brunching :) lol as a matter of fact I think we go out for breakfast and brunch wayyyy too much…it’s getting quite expensive…that’s why to save money yet still keep Mr Bao happy I try to ‘coupon’ as much as I can  lol and that’s another reason why I get the Entertainment Book each year ~ Recently I have bought so many coupons from a new couponing provider called ‘Living Social’. I find their deals to be one of the best, in terms of the cafes/restaurants they have on their website  are generally reputable ones that I know serve decent food.

I was a bit apprehensive at first, because I hadn’t exactly bought any ‘coupons’ for cafes before and have heard others having pretty bad experiences such as being treated differently. Anyhow, when there was a breakfast for two offer at Percy’s Aeroplane for $29 which includes 2 breakfasts of your choice, coffee and juice :) I immediately jumped at the offer because I knew fellow blogger Ashely from ‘I’m So Hungry’ recently visited, so it’s gotta be good ~

Such a cute board :)

It was a pretty simple process to buy and use the coupon, simply bought the coupon, called the cafe, told them the code booked in a time and we rocked up :)

I made a booking for a Saturday just before noon, which gave us a sleep in ~ it took us a little while to find Percy’s Aeroplane, because it’s on the corner of Denmark St and Wellington St and because we’re not that familiar with the area we drove past it and had to do a U-turn. Parking is a little annoying, but I think it was slightly better because it was the weekend, I suggest you parking at the back of the cafe ~

‘Fake’ paper plane ~

Once we stepped in we immediately liked the decor of the cafe ~ had all the right elements nice smelling coffee with lots of natural light :) we were given a table at the back and told that we could choose any breakfast we’d like and if we wanted to start off with a coffee.

Mocha ~

You got it lol another mocha :) I didn’t pay attention to the coffee beans that they used hee, my bad sorry guys! It was a decent cup of coffee, however, it was quite weak and I couldn’t taste any chocolate…a little disappointed

Latte

If you thought I was boring :P Mr Bao never changes he always starts with a Latte but then and again he has ventured into other coffees lately, I’ll save that for another post ~ He said it was a ‘decen’t cup but not as ‘smooth’ as he would have liked it to be.

Huevos Rancheros $16

Now onto the food, cause we were starving, it was a pretty chilly morning, so I wanted something comforting so went for the Huevos Rancheros. Which I assume it’s Spanish and basically their version of baked beans with chorizo and eggs. It was the perfect thing for me to eat and with the melted cheese on top YUMMY :) Mr Bao did say that he thought portions were a little small with only one egg and one piece of bread. Usually portion don’t really both me, because I am never able to finish my food…and Mr Bao needs to help me…but I think I was pretty hungry that morning or maybe because Mr Bao ate all my food…I was still feeling a little peckish ~

Pilot’s Breakfast $18

I knew Mr Bao was going to get the Big Breakfast again lol because that’s what he always gets when he’s hungry hehe we really liked the name of it ‘Pilot’s Breakfast’ very cute ~ a very average ‘big breakfast’ with all the usuals – fried egg, bacon, tomato, mushrooms and spinach. Mr Bao was so hungry, he ate the whole thing within minutes…I didn’t even have time to peck on the mushrooms! *RUDE*

Corn Fritters, avocado salsa and tomato vinaigrette $14

So we were both hungry after having the breakfast…a little embarrassed I asked the lovely waitress for the  menu again to see what else we could add. She told us nicely that it was not included in our ‘coupon’ and would need to pay separately for it ~ which of course was fine and I liked how they were upfront about it :) We didn’t really need to look at the menu for long, because we had seen other customers order the ‘corn fritters’ and I was already really interested ~ it smelt SO good :D

It was the perfect thing for us, because it was vegetarian and was quite light ~ We really enjoyed it, especially with the avocado salsa mixed with the sweet corn :) Really delicious! We also liked that the corn fritter wasn’t full of ‘flour’ because the worse are ‘dense’ and ‘floury’ fritters.

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie

Now brunch wouldn’t be brunch if it didn’t end with something sweet ~ I really wanted to get their banana bread…as soon as I walked in, I told Mr Bao I wanted their banana bread…and that maybe I should order it first…but nope :( he said ‘The banana bread isn’t going anywhere you can order it later…I’m hungry”. ARGH they sold out when I asked for it SIGH… She then suggested that we try the raspberry cheesecake brownie, she even gave us two because she felt bad :) how nice of her! But unfortunately, I didn’t like this brownies, it was really dry…very bland in taste you couldn’t really taste the chocolate or the cream cheese, and the raspberry felt a little out of place. I’m sorry but I wouldn’t recommend this.

Charlie’s Juice

We then finished off with two bottles of Charlie’s juice ~ as a whole we had a great time at Percy’s Aeroplane and was glad that they have now started to open on Saturdays as well, if not we wouldn’t have been able to visit if they only opened Monday to Friday.

Definitely recommend anyone in the area to go and visit for the corn fritters or if you manage to scoop up a nice brunch coupon like us ~ because it really was a great deal :D

Percy's Aeroplane on Urbanspoon

New Favourite – Chocolate Fudge Cake

Melbourne, Recipes June 15, 2012 Comments: 27

I am truly and genuinely flattered whenever my friends, colleagues and many lovely Readers compliment my baking  But I wanted to let you in a HUGE secret, not so long ago I’d say a year or two ago… I hated cooking…hated being in the kitchen and particularly hated washing up LOL but I’d always like baking…now back them my definition of ‘baking’ was buying loads of cake mixes, putting them into a bowl, throwing in some eggs and placing it into the oven. 

Betty Crocker was my favourite along with White Wings, and no disrespect to these cake mixes, hell I still buy them  and when I’m in a lazy baking mood, I’d still use them.

First Chocolate Fudge Cake using Milk Chocolate


But over the last year or so, I have really picked up baking and trying my best to make everything from scratch. So since my cake mix days, I have made lemon scones, Bailey cheesecake, hummingbird cake and most recently a chocolate fudge cake for a colleague (Yue’s) birthday.

His birthday was on a Wednesday but he took the day off, so I was going to give him the cake on Thursday, but I had tutoring and having dinner with some high school friends before I could go home and bake. So I was freaking out that I wouldn’t have enough time so I went crazy, searching for the easiest and yummiest chocolate cake, because I figured most people if not all liked ‘chocolate’. 

Yue cut me a HUGE slice :)

I went through so many blogs and asked so many bloggers for advice, then I finally found the perfect recipe on Shellie’s blog Iron Chef Shellie, she’s always sharing easy and yummy recipes and honest reviews :) Check her blog out when you have the time :D The cake was such a hit that many people have asked me for the recipe ~ wow that’s never happened to me!

Poor Mr Bao didn’t get the taste the first cake and taking the advice from my colleagues, I tweeked the recipe a little, so instead of using milk chocolate for the icing, I used dark chocolate :) This cake is now my friend Julz’ favourite hehe so happy that she’s gonna try making it this weekend!

Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake

Note – I actually halved the recipe and made 2 mini cakes instead of a big one :)

Recipe – Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake adapted from Iron Chef Shellie 

 Ingredients (Makes 22cm large cake) 
200 grams Milk Chocolate
200 grams Butter
200 grams Brown Sugar
100ml Sour Cream
100ml hot water
2 eggs, beaten
200 grams, Self-Raising Flour
5 tablespoons (15ml USD/UK spoon) Dutch cocoa powder

Chocolate Icing
100 grams Dark Chocolate (I used Lindt 70%)
198 gram/ml Condensed Milk
100 grams Butter 

1) Pre-heat oven to 160C or 140C fan-forced. Line a 22cm round cake tin with baking paper. 

2) Put the chocolate, butter, and sugar into a large saucepan with 100ml hot water and gently melt together (low to medium heat). Set aside for 2 minutes, then stir/whisk in sour cream until incorporated and then add the eggs ensure that combined well.
3) Whisk in the flour and cocoa powder until lump-free, then pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 50-55 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Sit in tin on a wire rack to cook.


4) To make the icing. Gently melt together icing ingredients in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, then chill or cool until spreadable.

5) Once cake is cool, carefully turn out the cooled cake and peel off the baking paper. Spread icing over the top and decorate :)

DONE ~

Even though it was a mini-cake Mr Bao managed to have a pretty huge slice :P

This has definitely become my  new favourite and ‘go-to’ recipe when I need to whip up a chocolate cake without a lot of time :) Would like to say a HUGE thank you to Shellie again for the recipe and the support while I was baking it!

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