white chocolate – Sweet Tooth Experiments

Raspberry Twist Cupcakes

Posted on September 4, 2021 Posted in Cakes .

Raspberry Twist Cupcakes recipe

The randomness of this recipe… I was cleaning out the cupboards this weekend and noticed we had raspberry twists in which have been in the back of the cupboard for forever….

Knowing that we were not going to eat them anytime soon and being stuck in lockdown I decided to experiment with the raspberry twists much like I have in the past with musk sticks, red skin and fizzer lollies.

Taking inspiration from my white chocolate cupcake recipe I incorporated the lollies into the mix. The outcome of this however resulted in a very very dense cupcake bake that drooped in the middle.

Attempt 2 was using my never fail vanilla cupcake recipe with the lollies incorporated into the mix. This time I got great results but the bake was not as flavourful as I would have liked…

Cue adding 50% more buttermilk and 50% more raspberry twists and increasing the bake time, in which resulted in cupcake perfection.

Ingredients:

Cake:

200ml buttermilk
240g raspberry twists
1 1/2 tsn vanilla essence
160g cake flour
1 + 1/4 tsn baking powder
1/2 tsn baking soda
150g sugar
1/2 tsn salt
2 eggs
125g butter

Frosting:

135g butter
100g white chocolate
40g icing sugar
70g raspberry twists

Method:

Cut up the raspberry twists into small, diced pieces.
Place the buttermilk in a bowl and microwave until bubbling.
Add the raspberry twist pieces to the buttermilk and stir for 3 minutes, leave aside to melt a further.
Pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees and line a large 8-capacity cupcake tin with patty pans.
In a bowl, pour the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. Stir together and whisk until well combined.
Soften butter.
Place the raspberry milk mix along with the butter and vanilla in a food processor and blitz until smooth.
Pour the buttermilk mix into the bowl with the flour along with the eggs.
Beat on slow with electric beaters until just combine.
Spoon the mix into the 8 large size cupcake patties in the prepared cupcake tray.
Bake in the oven for 24 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Place the cupcakes on a rack to cool.
Meanwhile, make the icing by melting the chocolate in a bowl on low in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth.
Cut up the raspberry twists into small, diced pieces.
Place the raspberry into the white chocolate bowl and whisk for 2 minutes, set aside in the fridge until set.
Melt the butter in a bowl and microwave until just soft.
Place the chocolate mix in a food processor and blitz until smooth.
Place the white chocolate mix in a bowl with the butter and beat with electric beaters until fluffy and pale.
Using a piping bag and star nozzle pipe the icing on the top of the cooled cupcakes.
Enjoy!

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Rosé Strawberry Vanilla and White Chocolate Pudding

Posted on January 16, 2021 Posted in Pudding .

Rose Strawberry Vanilla And White Chocolate Pudding

Frozen strawberries in a glass of Rosé on a hot summer day, strawberries coated in melted white chocolate to end a dinner party, strawberry and vanilla smoothies for a morning snack….all delicious strawberry treats with complimentary flavour profiles.

This recipe expands on these flavour profiles to combine them together to make a rich, decadent, alcohol spiked dessert.

Why a pudding? This gave me the best chance to really allow the Rosé flavour to own the show!

Ingredients:

Batter:

30g butter
60g milk
20g sugar
1 tsn vanilla essence
1/2 tsn strawberry essence
Pinch cinnamon
100g self raising flour
30g white chocolate
120g strawberries

Sauce:

20g butter
60ml milk
20g sugar
60g white chocolate
1/2 tsn vanilla essence
160ml Rosé (sparking wine)

Ingredients:

Pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees and spray 4-cup shallow overproof dishes with oil spray.
First make the batter by placing the butter, milk and sugar in a microwave proof bowl and heat on high until the mix is bubbling.
Stir to ensure the mix is well combine, adding in the vanilla and strawberry essence then leaving aside to cool to room temperature.
Sieve the cinnamon and flour into the milk mix and stir.
Finely dice the strawberries and finely chop the chocolate, stir into the batter mix.
Spoon the batter into the prepared 4 dishes to even amounts.
To make the sauce combine the butter, milk, sugar, chocolate and vanilla essence into a pan and place onto the stove on a medium heat, stirring until smooth and glossy.
Take off the heat and stir through the sauce the Rosé (or your preferred sparkling wine).
Carefully pour the sauce over the back of a spoon evenly into each pudding.
Place the puddings in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden and bubbling.
Serve hot with ice-cream or custard.

Rose Strawberry Vanilla And White Chocolate Pudding

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Rose Strawberry Vanilla And White Chocolate Pudding

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White Honey Blondies

Posted on January 1, 2021 Posted in Slice .

White Honey Blondies

Blondies are a brownie without cocoa powder and usually the addition of vanilla essence.

Why this is a ‘white’ blondie is due to the chocolate being different to a brownie/blondie, in which is milk or dark chocolate. In this instance I have opted for white chocolate and with keeping with this theme I also utilised white sugar instead of the usual brown sugar.

For a little variation on this sweet treat (and there are soooo many variations from different chocolates, nuts, dried fruit, essence), I decided to try something that is quite unusual while still keeping in with the blondies ‘warm’ theme therefore I introduced honey into the mix.

This is definitely a very sweet treat – keeping in with blonie/brownie traditional texture and expectations.

Ingredients:

65g honey
125g butter
120g white sugar
220g white chocolate
1 tsn vanilla essence
2 eggs
150g plain flour
50g macadamia nuts

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees and line a 20cm x 20cm cake tin with baking paper.
Place the honey, butter and sugar into a saucepan on a medium heat and stir until the sugar is melted and the mix is well combine.
Take off the heat and add in 140g of the white chocolate and vanilla, stir until the chocolate is melted and the mix is well combine, set aside.
Transfer the mix into a bowl and sift the flour into the mix, add the eggs and whisk with a hand whisk to combine.
Chop up the nuts and remaining 80g of white chocolate into small pieces.
Pour the mix into the cake tin and top by scattering the nut and chocolate pieces.
Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the top of the slice is set and firm to touch.
Leave the cake in the tin to cook completely and once cooled remove from tin and cut into pieces.

Notes:

This dessert is best served warm with a side of vanilla ice-cream.

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Jackfruit White Chocolate Macadamia Brittle Ice-cream

Posted on November 15, 2020 Posted in Ice-cream & Sorbet .

Jackfruit White Chocolate Macadamia Brittle Ice-cream

For some time Jackfruit has been on my radar, but being a vegetarian most of my experience with this fruit has been via savory dishes as a meat replacement. Being such a versatile fruit, I decided to make it the feature of a dessert.

With such an interesting taste to work out flavour combos I opted to look at the closest fruits I deemed most similar, these being mango, apricot and pineapple.

After playing around with a few apricot, pineapple and mango flavour pairings with jackfruit I landed on a killer recipe. White chocolate as the foundation flavour, macadamia brittle crunch flavour bombs and 2 different jackfruit textures for smoothness and chewiness.

I actually didn’t think this would be a successful bake but was so surprised I ended up redoing the recipe to this time write down the ratios!

Ingredients:

160g dried Jackfruit
50g caster sugar
30ml cold water
100g Macadamia, salted
10g butter
110g white chocolate
800g vanilla ice-cream
¼ tsn caramel essence (optional)

Method:

Place 100g of the jackfruit into a bowl of boiling water, leave for 10 minutes, drain then dice into small pieces, set aside for later.
Chop the remaining 60g jackfruit into small pieces.
Chop up the nuts into small chunks.
Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Place the 30ml cold water and sugar in a saucepan and heat on medium heat, cooking, stirring until sugar has dissolved.
Turn the heat to high, add the nuts and allow the mix to boil until it reaches 110c degrees on a candy thermometer or begins to turn golden, remove from the heat.
Quickly stir in the butter.
Pour mix onto the baking paper, leave aside until completely cooled.
Finely chop up the white chocolate.
Place the ice-cream into a bowl and allow to soften for 10 minutes.
Chop the nut brittle into small pieces and place into the bowl with the ice cream.
Add the jackfruits, essence and white chocolate to the ice-cream and stir until well combined.
Pour into a container and place into the freezer for 4 hours+.

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Jackfruit White Chocolate Macadamia Brittle Ice-cream

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Rice Flour White Chocolate and Coffee Brownies

Posted on May 10, 2019 Posted in Brownies .

Rice Flour, White Chocolate and Coffee Brownies

This recipe is the most simple and quick recipe you will come across. This took me a whole of 5 minutes to prepare and 5 minutes to decorate.

I recommend you read the notes to this recipe before planning to bake as it does have a defined ‘textural’ consistency.

This recipe made it to my blog due to the interesting texture, simplicity, gluten-free bake and cost efficiency. Also, it is quite the tasty flavor (hmm coffee).

Introducing the unique Rice flour, white chocolate and coffee brownies.

Ingredients:

90g white chocolate
70g butter
190g brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
½ tsn vanilla essence
½ tsn almond essence
160g-rice flour
1 tbsn instant espresso coffee granules
150ml thickened cream

Method:

Line a 30cm x 15cm baking tray with baking paper and pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees.
Place the butter and sugar in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on medium for 1 minute or until the chocolate is half melted. Stir with a metal spoon until smooth and glossy.
With a hand whisk beat in the instant coffee until dissolved then beat in the remaining ingredients.
Pour the mix into the tin and place in the oven for 30 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Tap the tin on a table lightly to get rid of air bubbles before placing in the oven (otherwise the brownie will get bubble like domes on the base).
Cool in the tin for 10 minutes for place on a cooling rack and cut.
Whip up the thickened cream with electric beaters until peaks form and pipe on the top of each brownie then sprinkled with a little coffee granules on top to decorate.

Notes:

The title of this brownie does state rice flour, however I have made this a few times and suggest that if you are not a real fan of texture (rice flour is much more granular than other flours) then substitute it with normal plain flour or gluten free plain flour to stay gluten-free.

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Chocolate Top-Deck Tiramisu Cupcakes

Posted on June 23, 2018 Posted in Cupcakes .

Chocolate Top-Deck Tiramisu Cupcakes

Tiramisu is my ultimate all-time favorite dessert ever. The only thing with traditional Tiramisu is that its not the easiest thing to eat – a bowl/plate as well as a spoon is a must. Unlike a slice or cupcake Tiramisu can really only be eaten sitting at a table.

So I decided that I would come up with a recipe that tastes like the traditional treat but as a cupcake.

For the cupcake recipe, I modified my never fail white chocolate and dark chocolate wedding cake recipes with the coffee and marsala flavor combo, as well as staying true to the traditional mascarpone cheese for my ‘icing’.

Though I have included the mix of white and dark chocolate in this recipe, in which is not traditional for this dessert, the chocolate batter works flawlessly with the traditional flavors.

Ingredients:

White chocolate layer:

85g butter
85g white chocolate
130g sugar
150ml water
105g self-raising flour
65ml milk
1 egg

Dark chocolate layer:

85g butter
85g dark chocolate
130g sugar
150ml water
20g cocoa powder
85g self-raising flour
10ml marsala
55ml expresso coffee
1 egg

Syrup:

30ml marsala
30ml expresso coffee
15g sugar

Icing:

200g mascarpone cheese
35g icing sugar
25ml marsala
2 tsn expresso coffee

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 160c degrees and line an 8-capacity cupcake tray with patty cases.
Spray the patty cases with oil spray.
In a saucepan on the stove melt the butter, chocolate, sugar and water on medium heat until smooth and glossy.
Pour the room temperature chocolate mix, milk and egg into a bowl.
Sift the flour to the chocolate mix and whisk with a hand whisk until smooth.
Spoon the mix into the prepared patty cases until 1/3 full.
Place the tin in the freezer for 10 minutes to slightly firm.
Meanwhile make the dark chocolate batter by placing the butter, chocolate, sugar and water into a saucepan on medium heat until smooth and glossy.
Pour the room temperature chocolate mix, expresso and egg into a bowl.
Sift in the flour and cocoa powder into the chocolate mix and whisk with a hand whisk until smooth.
Take the tin out of the freezer and spoon the dark chocolate mix into the prepared patty cases until they are 2/3rds full.
Place the cupcake tin in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Leave the cupcakes in the tin for 5 minutes before placing onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile make the syrup by placing the ingredient into a bowl and heating in the microwave until bubbling, leave aside.
Brush the syrup on top of the cupcakes with a pastry brush and remove the patty cases.
Make the icing by placing all the icing ingredients into a bowl and using electric beats whisk until the mix thickens.
Spoon the icing into a piping bag with a circle nozzle and pipe on top of the cupcakes.
Finish the cakes with a dust of cocoa powder and some grated white chocolate.

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Chocolate Top-Deck Tiramisu Cupcakes recipe

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White Chocolate Golden Syrup Cranberry Florentines

Posted on January 20, 2018 Posted in Biscuits .

White Chocolate Golden Syrup Cranberry Florentines





There are many many many versions of Florentine recipes that exist in magazines, recipe books, online etc so it’s quite rare for me to post a recipe that has so many variations and is so well known. Though most florentine recipes use the same standard base ingredients of cornflakes, condensed milk, milk chocolate and glaze cherries the secondary ingredients can span wide.


So when I came across a florentine in a café that had no cornflakes and was completely addictive I decided to create my own version, though deliberately without the 4 base ingredients for a good challenge.


I made a thin biscuit batter instead of the cornflakes, golden syrup instead of the condensed milk, dried cranberries instead of the glaze fruit, 4 different nuts instead of just focusing on 1 and lastly white chocolate instead of the traditional milk.

I identified that the golden syrup provides a malty caramel flavour which with the nuts tastes absolutely delicious. The white chocolate allows the nuts, golden syrup and cranberries to shine as it’s not as overwhelming in flavour as milk chocolate.A warning, this biscuit is moreish-ly addictive!

Ingredients:

50g brown sugar
50g butter
30ml golden syrup
45g plain flour
75g mixed roasted nuts (I used cashews, pecans, walnuts and almonds)
40g cranberries
90g white chocolate

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c degrees and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
Place the sugar, butter and golden syrup into a bowl and heat in the microwave until the mix bubbles.
Using a hand whisk beat until the mix is well combine.
Sieve the flour over the butter mix and beat until combine.
Chop the nuts into small pieces and add to the sugar butter mix.
Slightly dice up the cranberries and add to the butter mix.
Stir the mix until all ingredients are combined.
Roll the mix into balls, 15g each and place them onto the baking paper ensuring at least 5cm between each ball.
Place the trays in the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Allow the biscuits to cool and harden on the trays.
Place the while chocolate into a bowl and on a low/medium level heat in the microwave in 1 minute intervals until the chocolate is melted.
Use a bread knife or spatula spread the chocolate over the bottom of each cooled biscuits placing the biscuits chocolate side up onto a plate.
Place the plate into the fridge until the chocolate has set hard.

Boozy Mocha Yoghurt Ice-Cream recipe




















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White Chocolate Berry Balsamic Mousse Cake

Posted on August 5, 2017 Posted in Cakes .

White Chocolate Berry Balsamic Mousse Cake

Though somewhat common these days, for a while I have been meaning to make up a recipe that utilizes the complementing flavors of strawberries and balsamic vinegar.

As a kid my mum splashed balsamic vinegar in fruit salads, that would somehow sweeten berries (in particular strawberries) and make them even tastier.

I have experimented with balsamic vinegar in recipes in the past (check out my Beetroot Raspberry and Balsamic Cake or my Low Fat Dark Chocolate Balsamic and Almond Cupcakes) but never paired with white chocolate or as a mousse.

The outcome – super tasty, extremely moreish and so easy to make.

Ingredients:

Cake:

220g strawberries, hulled and diced
310g vanilla cake mix
Eggs, butter and milk as per cake mix
20ml balsamic vinegar
4 tsn strawberry essence

Mousse:

320g white chocolate
360ml thickened cream
2 + ½ tsn gelatine
65g icing sugar
70ml balsamic vinegar
1 tsn strawberry essence

Extra to decorate:

Buttercream icing (optional)
strawberries

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c degrees and line a 25cm cake tin with baking paper.
Place the strawberries into a food processor and blitz until they resemble a smooth puree.
Pour the cake mix into a bowl, add the balsamic vinegar, 60ml strawberry puree and the strawberry essence.
Add the eggs and butter per cake mix directions.
Measure out the milk according to mix directions minus 80ml of milk and add to the bowl (as you have added strawberry puree and balsamic vinegar in replacement).
Using electric beaters whisk the mix for 5 minutes until thick and well combine.
Pour the mix into the cake tin and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then invert onto a cooling rack until cold.
Wash and dry the cake tin, spray with oil spray and place 2 layers of plastic wrap into the tin, allowing for overlap.
Cut the top off the cooled cake to even the top and place into the tin, cut side up, on top of the plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for later.
Place 180ml thickened cream into a bowl and heat on high in the microwave until almost bubbling.
Add the chocolate to the cream and leave for 1 minute before stirring to a silky-smooth combined consistency.
Leave the chocolate mix aside to cool completely.
Place 4 tsn of boiling water into a small bowl along with the gelatine, whisk with a fork until the gelatine is completely melted.
Place the remaining 180ml cream, icing sugar, balsamic vinegar, essence, remaining strawberry puree and gelatine mix into a large bowl.
Using electric beaters whisk cream mix until smooth and the cream has thickened the mix slightly.
Add the cooled chocolate mix and whisk with electric beaters until combined.
Pour the mousse mix over the cake base, tap tin on bench for even distribution of mousse.
Place the tin in the fridge for 4 hours to set completely.
To remove the cake from the tin, pull the overlapping plastic wrap and place the cake on the bench.
Peel the plastic wrap away from cake sides and using a spatula transfer the cake to a serving plate.
Top with icing or grated white chocolate and extra strawberries for decoration.

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Pumpkin Pie White Chocolate Brownies

Posted on January 22, 2017 Posted in Brownies .

Pumpkin Pie White Chocolate Brownies

This recipe is interesting in the fact that I actually make 4 versions of this brownie each with different chocolates and different vegetable combos. I really thought that the dark chocolate and pumpkin experimental recipe would be hands down not only the winner but blog-worthy. Surprisingly it was the white chocolate and pumpkin brownie that was the star. This brownie is filled with a swirl of delicate white chocolate standard brownie with a pumpkin pie spiced swirly layer.

Yes you will need to be a pumpkin fan as this recipe does hero the pumpkin.

Eat this brownie warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and you will not be disappointed with the amazing results you create.

Ingredients:

150g butter
300g white chocolate
200g sugar
3 eggs
210g flour
1 tsn ground cinnamon
½ tsn ground cloves
½ tsn ground ginger
½ tsn nutmeg
1 tsn orange zest
300g cream cheese
800g pumpkin

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 160c degrees and line a slice tin with baking paper.
Deskin and dice the pumpkin and place in the microwave for 10 minutes or until the pieces and soft to touch.
Transfer pumpkin into a food process and blitz until the pumpkin is well pureed.
Set aside to cool.
Place the butter and chocolate into a saucepan on a medium heat and stir until the mix is smooth and silky.
Transfer chocolate into a bowl and add the sugar, whisk until combine.
Add the eggs and using a hand whisk beat until well combined.
Add the flour and spices and stir until well combined.
In a separate bowl place the puree and the cream cheese. Stir until well combined.
Spoon some chocolate mix into the tin, alternate with the puree until all the mix is used up.
Use a spoon to swirl the mixes until almost combine and bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow brownie to cool completely in the tin for 1 hour then place in the fridge for 1 hour.
Remove from the fridge, cut into slices and serve.

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Lemon Cranberry and White Chocolate Babka

Posted on December 4, 2016 Posted in Bread .

Lemon Cranberry and White Chocolate Babka

Apart from a little inclusion in my Quinoa Berry Christmas cake recipe I haven’t experimented with cranberries. After my eye catching them in the shop the other day I decided to purchase some and come up with a recipe. For something different I decided I wanted to make a bread with the cranberries.

As cranberries are so sweet I paired this flavour with the zesty taste of lemon and added in white chocolate to produce a marbled flavour effect throughout the bread.

Making the ‘Babka’ bread came about as a fourth attempted in this baking session as the original recipe experiment of a sponge roll log cake was not a success at all. The experiment aim was to make a sweet treat that allowed me to produce a spiral effect and a babka dough would allow for exactly this. Babka is bread that a) is rolled up and b) involves platting the dough together to intensify flavour bursts.

I actually had quite a few versions of this where 2 were serious standouts, this Lemon Cranberry and White Chocolate Babka being one of these.

Ingredients:

Dough

210g flour
25g sugar
4g yeast
1 egg
85g warm water
35g butter, at room temperature

Filling

80g cranberries
100g white chocolate
40g butter
30g icing sugar
3 tsn lemon zest

Method:

Place the flour, sugar and yeast in a bowl and mix until combine.
Whisk the egg and add to the mix with luke warm water.
Using a wooden spoon stir until the mix is combining and resembles a dough.
Flour the bench and place the dough on the flour. Kneed for 5 minutes of until the dough is elastic and smooth.
Place the mix in an oiled bowl and using hands massage the butter into the dough until it is combine and glossy.
Place a towel or plastic wrap over the bowl and leave in a warm place for 2 hours or until the dough triples in size.
Dice up the cranberries.
To make the filling place the butter in a bowl and heat until boiling in the microware.
Add the white chocolate and allow to sit for 1 minute. Stir the white chocolate until the mix is smooth.
Punch down the dough and knead until smooth.
Add the icing sugar to the chocolate mix, lemon zest and the cranberries.
Roll the dough out to 40cm x 20cm shape with a rolling pin.
Spread the filling over the dough evenly.
On one of the short ends brush water with a pastry brush.
Roll up the dough from the small end with no water and finish at the water end (the water will seal the roll).
Place the dough onto the baking tray, cut a slit down the middle longways, almost to the top of the roll.
Plat the 2 halves by crossing them over each other, place the towel or plastic wrap back on top of the bread and leave for 45 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 190c degrees and place the bread in the oven for 25 minutes or until the bread is golden brown.
Cut into slices and serve with a spread of butter, delish!