Chocolate Lime Cake - Retro Sweet Theme

Chocolate Lime Cake

I have decide to try and make a retro sweet themed cake or pudding each week so here is my first attempt...

Chocolate limes are one of my favourite retro sweets so I thought I would start with them as the theme for a cake- yummy!

Retro Sweet of the Week- Chocolate Limes
Picture source:
http://www.chewbz.com/blog/11/retro-sweet-of-the-week-10/

At first, I thought of making a chocolate lime cheesecake - but I didn't have any cream cheese in the fridge and I was too lazy to go to the shops... perhaps next time (I supose it is ok to have two cakes on the same theme).

 

 Cake Mix:

75g cocoa
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100ml boiling water
100ml cold water
300g caster sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 teaspoon of orange essence
180ml light olive oil
200g self raising flour

Yummy!

1 lime

To Decorate:

300ml pot of fresh whipping cream
Cadbury flake bar
1/2 a lime
Lemon curd






What to do:

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 degree's C
2. Mix the cocoa and bicarbonate of soda with the boiling water - once dissolved add the cold water and the juce of the lime; leave to one side
3. Prepare tins
4. Beat sugar and eggs together until light and creamy.
5. Add vanilla and orange essence and continue beating
6. Add the flour
7. Add the zest of 1/2 a lime
8. Add the cocoa/lime solution - beat until consistency of double cream
9. Pour batter into tins
10. Bake for 25-30 mins
11. When cool decorate put a layer of lemon curd and freshly whipped cream in the middle
12. Decorate the top with the rest of the freshly whipped cream, slices of lime and some of the crumbled flake bar!
13. Enjoy! 

The Finished Chocolate Lime Cake

CCK Hot Chocolate

Yummy!

While checking out pictures on pinterest I noticed this really attractive picture of a big mug of hot chocolate (click link to see photo). It just looked so yummy! When I clicked on the link to the Chocolate Covered Katie webpage it had been given the title "The Perfect Hot Chocolate" - so I thought that I would give it a go.

I really liked the idea of making it with coconut milk from a tin... I am not sure why, but it just appealed to me. I made it on the hob rather than the microwave and as I was making it for both myself and S I doubled the recipe.

So following the recipe chose to use:

What you need (non-vegan version)

1 1/3 cup of semi-skimmed milk

2/3 cup full-fat canned coconut milk

4 T cocoa powder

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

2 tablespoons sugar

Click here to see the recipe on Chocolate Covered Katie.

I combined all the ingredients on the hob and made sure that it was completely mixed and heated through.

Add the ingredients to the pan.

Mix well.

When poured into the mugs I let my creative side take over... yey for marshmallows!

Here is the result:

The finished hot chocolate!

Not only did it make two huge mugs (believe me the spotty mugs are massive!) but it also made a small hot chocolate as well! Rather more than I was expecting (probably my fault as I am more used to working in mls rather than cups). As hot chocolate goes - it was nice, although I probably wouldn't go to the effort of making it again as it was a wee bit too rich and creamy for my tastes. S seemed to like it - but I didn't manage to finish my mug.  However, it was fun to make and made the kitchen smell really chocolaty... I can't wait to try some more of the recipes from Chocolate Covered Katie!

Chocolate Orange Cake

Very Yummy!

This is one of my favourite cake recipes; i love it because it always produces a nice moist sponge and is relatively quick and easy to make. However, it is a rather rich cake so I would recommend having a small slice - although some of my friends have managed to eat huge slices in the past! Hope you enjoy this cake as much as I do...  

Cake Mix:

75g cocoa
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100ml boiling water
100ml orange juice
300g golden sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of orange essence
180ml light olive oil
200g self raising flour

To Decorate:

300ml pot of fresh whipping cream
glace cherries

This cake always turns out well and looks great!

What to do:

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 degree's C
2. Mix the cocoa and bicarbonate of soda with the boiling water - once dissolved add the orange juice and leave to one side
3. Prepare tins
4. Beat sugar and eggs together until light and creamy.
5. Add vanilla and orange essence and continue beating
6. Add the flour
7. Add the cocoa solution - beat until consistency of double cream
8. Pour batter into tins
9. Bake for 25-30 mins
10. When cool decorate with freshly whipped cream and cherries!

I love cutting into a freshly homemade cake!