Peanut Butter and Chocolate Brownies Recipe

Here's a little recipe for what is quite possibly the stickiest, gooiest, sweetest, richest, scrummiest Chocolate Brownie I have ever had (and I have tried a few...)

Chocolate Orange Syrup Loaf Cake Recipe

I am a big fan of Nigella Lawson's no nonsense if sometimes a little over-indulgent attitude to cooking. Her 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' is my go-to book when I am looking for something yummy to bake just for the hell of it, and the Lemon Syrup Loaf cake is a definite favourite in our house!
Sometimes, however, only chocolate will do so a few weeks back I had a play with the Lemon Syrup Loaf recipe and came up with a gorgeous chocolate orange version...

 

Scrummy Chocolate Orange Cake recipe

You may have noticed I have a slight obsession with traditional home baked cakes and puddings.

Duerr's - producers of jam, marmalade and peanut butter of extreme yumminess who have already featured a couple of times on this blog - have obviously noticed this too and sent me some more of their lovely jams and asked me to test out a few more recipes from their 'Baking for Boys' series on YouTube.

I was more than happy to oblige!


Last weekend we made the gorgeous Victoria Sponge with Raspberry Jam and Cream - it was lovely. In fact it was so lovely we kind of got carried away and ate it all before I had a chance to photograph it for bloggy purposes... oops!

On Sunday we were heading over to the inlaws for a family Sunday dinner so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try out another recipe in the series - Chocolate Orange Cake. I can tell you it went down an absolute storm. And I actually managed to take a photo or too before everyone tucked in...

Scrummy Chocolate Orange Cake

Ingredients

 For the cake
100g softened butter
50g cocoa powder
90ml warm water
3 large eggs
300g caster sugar
175g self raising flour
1 rounded tsp baking powder
zest of one orange
 For the icing
150g good dark chocolate
150ml double cream
some Duerr's Fine Cut Orange Marmalade

Method
Place the cocoa powder in a large bowl and mix to a paste with the hot water.
Add the eggs then the butter and mix it in.
Stir in the sugar (but don't over stir it!) before adding the flour and baking powder.
Finally add the orange zest.  If the mix seems dry add a little milk to loosen it up.

Pour into two prepared cake tins (I used the liners like the ones used in the video but you could just grease, base line and flour the edges of each tin)

Pop them into a preheated oven 170c/GAS5 for about 25 mins.

While the cake is baking break up the chocolate and put it, with the cream into a bowl placed over a pan of water. Heat the water gently to melt the chocolate into the cream. Once it's all melted remove from the heat and allow to properly cool, for about half an hour, giving it an occasional stir.

When the cakes are done, allow to cool for a few minutes then sandwich together with a big dollop of marmalade. Smooth some more marmalade over the top of the cake and then cover with the cooled chocolate ganache (posh name for cream/choc mix ;-) )

If you want you can grate more chocolate over the top to decorate.

The original recipe called for Apricot jam in the middle but I wanted a full on choc orange experience so went with marmalade all the way - it was well worth it!

To watch the boys baking this cake check out the video below...




As you can see this show stopper is dead easy to make and the smell as it was baking was heavenly!
Also, I can guarantee there won't be any left overs for later unless you stash a slice in the fridge, behind the butter... *cough*

Happy Baking!

Luxury Handmade Chocolates giveaway!

 For most of us there are only two weeks of Summer Holidays left *listens for collective sigh of relief*

Lets be honest it's not been a brilliant summer - opportunities to let the kiddies run riot outside have been few and far between which means there has been lots of running riot *inside*. I don't know about you but some much needed 'mummy pampering' is needed, and what better way to do this but with some luxury handmade chocolates?

Chocolate by Genevie is a brand new website selling exquisitely packaged handmade chocolates delivered free (within the UK) to your door. A family run business, Chocolate by Genevie pride themselves in using only the finest ingredients to produce their gorgeous range of luxury chocolates. You won't find these chocolates anywhere else either - they are only available exclusively through their website.

Genevie sent me a small selection of her lovely chocs to try and I can confirm that they are, indeed, delicious. I particularly enjoyed the dark chocolate orange praline with it's little candied orange slice decoration.

Genevie has also, very generously offered to send one of my readers a lovely box of chocolates to try too!  This tasty selection of handmade chocolates retails at £36.99 and comes beautifully presented in a red silk covered, heart shaped box finished off with a luxury bow.

 This box would make a lovely gift but don't feel guilty about treating yourself. It's been a long six weeks. You deserve it ;-)



Just follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget to enter. You must leave a comment on the blog (that is mandatory) All the other options give you an extra entry each but are entirely optional.

The competition ends on Wednesday 29th August - winner will be announced on Twitter and Facebook and notified by email on Friday 31st August. 


Good Luck! xx

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ps. Have you left a comment on this post? Your entry will not be valid without a comment left below!

Easter with Nick Jr

I love surprises, don't you?

This morning our chirpy postie delivered a lovely surprise parcel from our friends at Nick Jr...

Included was a DVD preview of brand new episodes of Dora the Explorer - Dora's Easter Adventure and the Little Man's favourite Nick Jr show, Team Umizoomi - The Umi City Egg Hunt plus two episodes of a brand new show, Tickety Toc, coming to Nick Jr in April. A cute CGI animation featuring twins Tommy and Tallulah Tockety and their friends who live 'on the other side' of the Tickety Toc Clock. Fast-paced and funny and appealing to both boys and girls I can see this show becoming a firm favourite in this house!

Wanna see what was in the beautiful box?

Of course you do....

Hotel Chocolat - Christmas Chocolate Giveaway

Recently Hotel Chocolat put a call out for bloggers to review chocolates from their Christmas Gifts and Stocking Fillers ranges. Naturally, I replied. I mean, who wouldn't?
When I got an email saying I had been picked I may have danced around the room a little bit....

As a former Chocolate Tasting Club member, I have already experienced their extremely special, artisan created chocolates first hand. Beautiful to look at, almost orgasmic to eat (yes, they are that good!) I eagerly looked forward to my monthly selection box. These days I have to settle for the 'Best of the Best' yearly selection. But it's a little treat well worth waiting for....

I was sent the fab Christmas H box selection to munch...*cough* review and wasted no time getting to work!

Thirteen individual chocolates, bringing together the flavours of Christmas - cinnamon and spice, gingerbread, and mulled wine all get a nod (Happily there was no sign of brussel sprouts anywhere! ) . Creamy truffles, smooth pralines and silky caramel all feature.
A handy 'menu' is included to tell you a little about each chocolate and help you decide which one to go for first...

House Praline

First up for me was the House Praline - a lovely thick milk chocolate shell with the HC logo stamped on the top filled with super smooth, mellow praline. Would go down a treat a cup of proper coffee...

That was followed swiftly by the Gingerbread Truffle (scrummy smooth truffle centre with ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Quite intense flavour - smokey, almost bitter... I LOVED it!),  Star Anise (white truffle with the consistency of soft caramel. Distinctive liquorice flavour with just a hint of alcohol) and one of my all time favourites - Salted Soft Caramel (I would, quite honestly, be happy with just a box full of those...)

Sea Salt & Caramel Bauble

There are several chocolates in the selection containing alcohol (which gives you a really good excuse to keep this selection well away from the kiddiwinks!) You can almost taste the bubbles in the Champagne Truffle (which, incidentally, is definitely my preferred way of ingesting the bubbly stuff!) but for a real kick the Rum Truffle - generously laced with premium Saint Lucian golden rum - will blow your socks off. Or make you sit back and smile for a bit at the very least...

My favourite? One chocolate in the box that really encapsulated the whole flavour of Christmas for me is named, simply,  Mulled Wine. All those traditional Christmas flavours - cinnamon, orange and clove with a generous measure of ruby red port all wrapped up in a milk chocolate shell.... mmmmmmm Christmas Chocolate Heaven.

There really is something for everyone in this selection.

But, trust me, you won't want to share!

Now I bet you are all drooling... so here's the best bit. Hotel Chocolat are giving away a Christmas H Box to one of you lucky readers!

To enter all you have to do is tell me what your ultimate Christmas chocolate would be. Do you go nuts for praline? Or crazy for caramel? Love a bit of alcohol or just a simple truffle?   Just leave me a comment below, along with a means of getting in touch (Twitter ID or register your email address when commenting).

For an extra chance at winning you can do one (or all) of the following:

• Follow this blog using GFC and comment to say you have done so
• Like the Tales from Mount Pleasant Facebook page and comment to say you have done so
• Tweet 'I want to WINscrummy Christmas chocolate from @HotelChocolat and @ForestFlower23 http://bit.ly/tKusZo  '

This giveaway runs until midnight on Saturday 19th November. Any entries received after that will not be counted. Winner will be drawn at random and announced on this blog, Twitter and Facebook. If the winner has not got in touch with their details within 7 days the prize will be redrawn.
Competition open to UK residents only.

Don't forget, if you want to keep up to date with news and offers, you can follow @HotelChocolat on Twitter and like their Facebook page


Good Luck x

Update 22/11/11 This competition is now closed! 

Congratulations to the winner.....

Lorraine Cooper (aka @meedja)

Thanks to everyone for taking part and revealing your ultimate Christmas chocolate!