Soft chocolate sandwich cookies

 

Bakers, I’ve got a goodie for you this week. These melt-in-the-mouth chocolate cookies are a sublime tea time treat and lots of fun to make too. I based the recipe on these custard and vanilla bean sandwich cookies. These were so popular when I published them last year that I decided to tweak the recipe slightly and create a chocolate version.

 

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Chocolate and pecan loaf cake

Chocolate and pecan tea loaf cake

 

I remember baking and photographing this particular loaf on a grey and rainy winter afternoon. The chocolatey aroma wafting from the kitchen was just heavenly, and the wait while it cooled and was being photographed felt like forever. This simple chocolate loaf cake is a delight with its soft crumb and crunchy pops of pecan nuts, all slathered in velvety chocolate buttercream.

 

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Chocolate and walnut yule log

Yule log Christmas dessert

 

We are counting down the sleeps until Christmas Day and there’s just time for one more Christmas recipe and my last post for 2018! This festive showstopper looks beautiful on the table and makes a decadent and delicious dessert. What is it exactly? My version is essentially a chocolate swiss roll filled with a walnut and cream cheese filling, smothered in chocolate icing and topped with chocolate curls. And in the mandatory log format! (Apologies in advance to your dentists and personal trainers… #sorrynotsorry.)

 

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Chocolate layer cake with dark chocolate ganache

Ottolenghi chocolate cake.

 

Helloo there. Welcome to March (say whaat?!) and my first blog post for the month. It’s a rather celebratory post and this recipe is inspired by one of my personal foodie icons, Yotam Ottolenghi. This easy chocolate cake recipe is adapted very slightly from one that appears in his book “Sweet” (co-written with Helen Goh) and the reason for this cake post is that this week Cupcakes and Couscous celebrates its fifth anniversary!

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The ultimate chocolate cake and October cake round up

November already and it feels as though we are hurtling towards the end of the year now. Hearing Christmas jingles on the radio, seeing mince pies on the shelves and receiving school newsletters reminding us that there are only five weeks (what?!?) left of this term do nothing to help quell the hysteria!

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Chocolate crunchies

 

Hello friends, it has been a while! Are we counting down to Christmas already?

The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster of ups and downs as we welcomed our new little boy to the world. It has been an absolute joy to enjoy newborn cuddles, watch the beginnings of sibling bonding and see good friends arriving at the door with a meal in their hands (a definite highlight)! Unfortunately though, we have also had to contend with an awful bug that has been hanging around us for weeks, on top of the expected sleep deprivation and exhaustion (what day is it?). Yet here we are, 6 weeks later and I can happily report that we are all adjusting and starting to settle into our new “normal”.

 

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