Decedent Chocolate Fudge

I came home from a trip to Tasmania having one cooking ambition and that was to find a simple but perfect chocolate fudge recipe. It took a couple of experiments but this version adapted from Repeat Crafter Me is the closest one to the perfect fudge that I fell in love with at Chudleigh, Tasmania. I wanted to make it quickly and yet ensure that it is silky smooth. I hit the jackpot with this combination. Try it. I am so convinced that you will love it too.

 

MICROWAVE CHOCOLATE FUDGE

680g (2 bags) milk chocolate chips
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 Tablespoon salted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the chocolate, condensed milk, vanilla and butter in a microwave safe bowl & microwave for 2 minutes stirring once or twice, then zap in 15 second increments until the chocolate is melted. Be careful not to let it seize. Allow it to cool a bit (30 minutes) and then beat until the mixture is smooth and slightly thickened about 5 minutes.
2. Carefully pour the mixture into a lightly greased tart lined with non-stick baking paper and smooth over with the back of a spoon.
3. Set aside until set . A couple of hours at least, overnight if possible.
4. Using a sharp knife, cut the fudge into 4cm squares and wrap each piece in non-stick baking paper. Makes 16 squares

VARIATIONS:

Do you want to try different flavuors? Use different flavoured chocolate chips.
Or when you pour your fudge into the pan, first add a layer of candy or cookies
Try some sieved rasbpberry couli!
There are lots of different ways to add to this recipe!

MY NOTES:

My 1st attempt: I first tried it in the slow cooker: as per repeat crafter me. The original recipe calls for 30 minutes in the slow cooker, mine had been going for 60 minutes and there was still tiny blobs of un-melted chocolate about the size of a pearl head on a pin or smaller. I was scared of it over cooking and took it out at this point. It was still delicious and had a little texture of minute chocolate bits in it which didn't detract from the fudge as a whole. Beaut flavour.
My 2nd attempt: I decided to use the microwave and beaters as per above instructions. I used 100% milk chocolate. Beautiful texture - so smooth though I tried to 'pretty' the top and thus I disturbed the crusty skin so it didn't look as good.
Next time I want to try 50:50 dark:milk chocolate with or without some Raspberry couli

What flavours would you want in your fudge? One son wants caramel fudge and another says his wife adds crumbled honeycomb to hers and he loves it.

Some simple handmade cards

I have so many card making supplies left over from when I was teaching and publishing cards. I found I had lost a lot of motivation with being sick for months after the cancer diagnosis and then travelling in our RV when I was up and about at last.

Twisted Easel Card and co-ordinating envelope

Eventually I had to try and sort out my craft supplies and found I have so many half made cards and many beautiful background papers that I have made using various techniques. Both of these will make it very quick to make a bundle of cards in next to no time at all. As much as I generally prefer to make flowers and three dimensional cards, sometimes, it is just not practical nor appropriate. I will be looking for some charities to gift these cards to as I have far to many for my own needs and gifts and I doubt I will hold any more markets stalls in the future but certainly not any time soon.

Twisted easel card 'flat' for posting

So take a gander and see the variety that is possible even with simple quick cards especially once the background papers have been made. Feel free to ask any questions re techniques.

background is paint dry brushed with embossing powder effects

Lavender layer is from the side of a tissue box. "Love" is stamped under the vellum

Multiple stamped background on fabric dyed coloured card

Simple ripped card for a distressed effect

Pretty scrapbooking papers make cards very quick to do. I love my cuttlebug for dry embossed backgrounds too!

White Chocolate Mud Cake with Raspberry Coulis Swirl - the ultimate Wedding Cake & Recipe

This special cake is so delicious. It is extremely moist and very rich...it almost melts in your mouth and that swirl of raspberry coulis through it, is just inspirational. Here are the promised recipes: the white chocolate mud cake, the raspberry coulis as well as the lemon buttercream that we use for incing the cake. I have given the recipe for a regular size cake. For  Camille's wedding cake, the final quantity was six times this recipe in the end! I've given the quantity for a 8 inch cake.

Camille's wedding cake

CAMILLE'S WHITE CHOCOLATE MUD CAKE

adapted from Nigella's recipe

 Ingredients

250g chopped butter
450g caster sugar
150g chopped white chocolate
1 cup milk
225g plain flour
85g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 lightly beaten eggs

Camille helping me make the trial version

Method

Line base and sides cake tin with baking paper.
Combine butter & sugar in saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolved. Do NOT boil.
Add chocolate and keep stirring until melted.
Add milk and mix together.
Set aside to cool. (I found that takes quite a bit of time - like an hour or two.)

Now turn your oven on 170oC.
Back to the mixture: Add flours slowly, mixing continuously.
Add eggs and vanilla.
Pour mixture into your prepared 200mm cake tin. If you are adding coulis as I did, then do that at this point and swirl around through the cake mix with a knife edge
Cover the tin with foil.

Bake for  2 hours.

Cake just out of the oven

HINTS:

• If you make extra quantities may these size tins and associated baking times be a guide to you. Each oven may differ so watch your cake carefully.
• Bake 130mm size cake for minimum 1 3/4 hour. - takes approx half the recipe
• Bake 300mm size cake for minimum 2 3/4 hour - takes approx double the recipe
• I found the use of wet Bake Even Strips which are basically insulator strips around cakes helped prevent over cooked edges which is especially helpful with such long cooking times. (It definitely also increases the cooking time needed.) You could use a towel wrapped around the tin. It doesn't need to be dripping wet, but it needs to be quite wet. 

You can just see the Bake Even strip on this tin and in the back left corner

RASPBERRY COULIS RECIPE

250g frozen raspberries
1 tablespoon water
¼ cup sugar.

Heat the sugar & water in a saucepan on the hotplate stirring from time to time, until the sugar dissolves completely, about 5 minutes
Add the raspberries. It is quicker if the raspberries are defrosted but it is not necessary for success.
Give it a quick whizz in a blender to break up the larger pieces of fruit & puree it. For this cake I didn't sieve the sauce to remove the seeds - I like the seeds!
Swirl tablespoonfuls through cake mix before baking, ensuring that the coulis doesn't come too close to the edge of the cake as it makes it harder to ice afterwards.
The sauce keeps well, covered in the refrigerator for 4-5 days and freezes perfectly for several months. Raspberry coulis is the red sauce that chefs often use to decorate your dessert plate with either with swirls or a brush of sauce across the plate.
Any left over sauce is easily used in a multitude of applications: drizzle it on breakfast foods like oatmeal, granola, yogurt or pancakes. Spoon it into your smoothies. Add it to the top of a bowl of ice cream. Also makes a terrific dipping sauce for sliced fruit.

Do not add coulis too close to the edges of the cake as shown

LEMON BUTTERCREAM RECIPE

125g copha
125g butter * See note
500g icing sugar sifted (powdered sugar)
4 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Melt Cohpa in microwave until just soft and cool. Add room temperature or soft butter to the copha which you've allowed to cool and whip together until well blended.
Add  about a quarter of the sifted icing sugar gradually and blend into the butter mix.
Add 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Mix just enough to blend. Keep alternating more sugar and juice.  Ideally you want the buttercream to be the consistency of heavy whipped cream where it holds it's shape without collapsing. You can add more icing if it is too runny or more juice as desired.

If a decorative finish required then you especially need to crumb coat your cake first. This is where you apply a thin coating of buttercream over all the cake. Do not worry too much about crumbs spoiling the look, as this gets covered later with a second coating of buttercream after the crumb coating has had time to dry a little and harden. Spread the buttercream thickly over cake preferably using a palette knife.

Cakes wrapped awaiting the crumb coating.

Approx. quantities needed for icing a cake

130mm (5 inch) cake: 225g buttercream
200mm (8 inch) cake: 600g buttercream
300mm (12 inch) cake: 1.5kg buttercream

I made some thing close to 5kg buttercream with leftovers which I took to the wedding reception for touch ups if needed!

 NOTES: 

*If whiteness is not important to you, then double the butter and forego the copha. I really didn't notice a drop in flavour when it was half and half.

 

Trial Cake: Maybe you can see how yellow the buttercream was before the copha adaption!

 

Gluten Free Cake

It is easy to make this gluten free with the appropriate GF flours. My middle tier was Gluten Free as we had several guests that required GF if they were to join us in celebrating with cake. All my icings are done with Pure Icing Sugar (powdered sugar). Also each layer was physically separated by a cake board which not only ensured lack of contamination but also help support the various layers!

Freeze:

Did you know that most cakes freeze well when iced with buttercream especially if you follow these suggestions!

1. Wrap with plastic cling wrap after it is frozen.
2. Defrost cake completely wrapped so as no moisture escapes.
3. Defrost cake naturally overnight.

Make in advance & storage:

Buttercream icing can be made as much as a week in advance and it doesn't need to be kept in a fridge. You will however need to ensure it is airtight to stop the buttercream 'skin' from drying and crusting. I like to place a couple of layers of plastic cling wrap right down touching the buttercream as well as  sealing off the bowl or container.Once it is on the cake it will 'seal' the cake and stop the air from aging or drying the cake out. The buttercream itself will form a crust which is why I advise that you wrap the cake in plastic cling wrap after this crust forms or after freezing.

The happy bridal couple with their cake