Nutella Brownies

HAPPY WORLD NUTELLA DAY! 

Yes folks, it legitimately is World Nutella Day today, February 5th! I found this out a couple of days ago and I'm so glad I didn't miss it! Pretty sure it should be a public holiday, Nutella is of vast importance in contemporary society and it should not go unnoticed. So I think you should all get behind the cause and eat the delicious chocolate hazelnut spread armed with a spoon and a super big tub of the stuff!

What else has been happening in my life, you ask? Well I have just about recovered from my glandular fever (hooray!), and am feeling as fit as a fiddle, ready to do the things one should in the holidays preceding university. I've started packing to move out, it certainly feels odd packing the contents of my life into a suitcase (or let's face it, various suitcases, I have a lot o' junk). But other than that, just waiting, waiting, waiting for life to begin again.

But let's talk about these brownies. I went kinda crazy with the whole "Nutella Day" concept and made both brownies and ice cream, which I will save for a post in the very near future. Sooooo these brownies have Nutella in them, and on them in the form of a hella good frosting. You could have them without it, but I thought I'd go all out and whack it on anyway! Oh, and they have Ferrero Rocher chocolates in them too, just to add that extra level of "health". And insane goodness.

To top it all off I added sprinkles, because sprinkles are completely necessary.

In a hilarious episode of miscommunication, I bought a huge tub of Nutella even though Mum already bought said-needed-tub the day before. And for good measure I bought a little one too. So now we won't be needing to buy Nutella for pretty much the rest of our lives. But it's not a bad situation to be in I don't think!

People! Do not waste this opportunity! These brownies are pretty much the best thing ever. Like, EVER. Make them for your friends, make them for your family, hell, make them for your worst enemy!  I can guarantee they won't be your nemesis for long. And again, happy World Nutella Day!

Nutella Brownies

{Adapted from My Baking Addiction }

Makes 18

Ingredients:

For the brownies:

100g dark chocolate, chopped

3/4 cup Nutella

3/4 cup unsalted butter, chopped into cubes

1 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups plain flour

12 Ferrero Rocher chocolates, chopped in half

For the frosting:

1 cup Nutella

2/3 cup thickened cream

1 tbsp maple syrup

125g unsalted butter, diced

Sprinkles (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a brownie pan with baking paper.

In a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, melt the chocolate, Nutella and butter together until smooth and shiny. Whisk in eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla. Sift in flour and stir till combined.

Spread half the batter into the tray and scatter Ferrero Rochers evenly over the batter. Top up with remaining batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean, but DON'T OVERBAKE.

Remove to a wire rack and let cool completely.

For the frosting, heat the cream and syrup in a small saucepan until just boiling. Remove from heat and stir in Nutella and butter until smooth. Refrigerate until the frosting is thickened, then either spread over brownies and cut into squares, or pipe onto individual squares. Sprinkle with sprinkles and enjoy!

Chocolate Coffee Bread with Raspberries and Blueberries

Hello and yay! I'm very excited to start baking and posting again after an incredibly boring and fatigued couple of weeks with glandular fever. I have such an appreciation for baking, it just enriches my day and lets me put all my focus into something other than being sick and bored. So I hope you enjoy reading this (and hopefully eating this beautiful cake) as much as I did making it!

I tell you what, having glandular fever has been interesting to say the least. The days all kind of blend into one and you spend a lot of time feeling sorry for yourself, so bored, and yet too tired to do anything except watch a heap of Downton Abbey. And I mean A HEAP.  And then other than that A LOT of sleeping is done. But then, I found, after a couple of weeks of complete rest you start to feel better and can do things, like leave the house for the first time in 14 days to have coffee or, you know, bake!

Also during my recovery I crocheted a bunny and a heart garland (via here), and started drawing bunnies. Like, a lot of bunnies. So many bunnies. I think I have a bit of a bunny obsession going on. Maybe I'll put up a picture of one of them in the next post. 

 Here where I am, it has been raining non-stop for the past two days, and has been super heavy today. Like an "I want to take the doona off my bed and roll myself up in it like a crepe" miserable rainy day. And also an "I want to do nothing else but bake yummy things all day" kind of day. And that's what I did. I made another cake (which I will post about another day soon) but the one I want to show you today is this Chocolate Coffee Bread with Raspberries and Blueberries - aka. the perfect cake to eat while wrapped in your doona and drinking tea while looking out at the grey skies.

So this cake is super light and beautifully choco-packed with the use of real chocolate and cocoa. Putting a healthy dose of instant coffee in there gives it a real intensity too. And then, THE BERRIES. Oh the berries! I've used raspberries in chocolate before with my chocolate raspberry brownies, and this cake further gives the combination a good name. Then, a combination I haven't tried before, chocolate and blueberries, has won me over too! The raspberries give the softness of the chocolate a nice zing (and just look at that beautiful colour when you slice into the cake!), while the blueberries impart a dark sweetness which I love.

So go ahead and make this cake on your next rainy day! But then, you don't need an excuse for this beauty :)

Chocolate Coffee Bread with Raspberries and Blueberries

{via Always With Butter}

Makes two loaves

Ingredients:

1/2 cup softened butter

100g milk chocolate

1 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup cocoa

Pinch of salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp instant coffee

1 cup lite sour cream

1 punnet raspberries

1 punnet blueberries

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease and line two loaf pans.

Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and set aside.

In a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate. Dissolve the instant coffee in 2 tbsp of boiled water and add to the melted chocolate. Allow to cool slightly and add the sour cream, stirring until there are no lumps.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time.

In alternating batches, add the flour mixture and chocolate-coffee mixture. Mix until combined. Fold in raspberries and blueberries. Divide mixture evenly between the two loaf pans and bake for 30-40 min until a skewer when poked in comes out clean. Let cool completely on a wire rack and enjoy!

New Banner!

Hello!

I spent this afternoon drawing up a new banner for the blog - I thought it was about time I updated it. It now contains lots of my baking adventures, the things I like, and little bits about my life really (my pets make an appearance!). So I hope you enjoy.

I wish I could bake and post right now, but unfortunately I have glandular fever :(

It means I have to rest completely for a couple of weeks to a month, so that I wipe out the illness for good and don't get something even more nasty like chronic fatigue! So I'm pretty tired right now, but hopefully once I pick up, a new post will be on its way!

To keep myself out of the abyss of total and utter boredom, I've been drawing and crocheting my heart out. I love these things but haven't really had a chance to really get back into them until, well, now, when I am at home with literally nothing else to do!

So I thought I'd put up a drawing I did the other day. I love the simple art of sketching or using felt tip - it allows me to do the little details that I love, and frankly, I don't really think it needs colour. I have come up with this idea of drawing little "themed" circles - this one is a fairy tale one.

I have a lot of time on my hands, so if you have any suggestions for another theme, I'd love to hear it and attempt it! 

x

Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

It's super weird how things move really quickly, isn't it?

Well, things "in general", like, say attempting to maintain a blog for leisure, seem to pass in a millisecond and other things, sometimes unwanted and uncomfortable things (like the final exam period in your final school year EVER) take an eternity. In short, I'm sorry I have been away for so long, I have missed you, my little blog!

Much has happened over the time I have spent away from the joys of baking + photographing. Exams were done, holidays to Vietnam were taken, marks were given back, oh, and that little thing called Christmas happened too. Everything is happening and changing so fast now, I'm at the edge of this new huge part of my life. In one aspect, I absolutely cannot wait to go to university, and move out, and do all these things I've been dreaming of doing forever. I got the marks to get into my ideal course, I have everything sorted to move away, and I have been slowly accumulating vintage teacups and sewing bunting to decorate my room at college! But then, on the other hand, I'm scared. And nervous. And I absolutely positively have no idea what I'm about to get myself into. Help!

But then, change seems really scary until you're actually doing it. And everything seems really hard and scary until it's done. So I guess I'll keep on going with life, baking and taking photos and IN NO WAY THINKING ABOUT SCHOOL OR STUDY. 

^This is my vintage high tea stand. Do you like my vintage high tea stand? It is one of my most favourite things in the whole world, and I will use it and love it until it can be used and loved no more. I enjoy putting things on it, like these Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes I made.

Christmas was lovely, and I am hoping that yours was too, whoever you are. These would have been good to make at Christmas, I think, but hey, who needs an excuse to make Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes!

The cupcake itself is gorgeous and has a nice dense, but not heavy, crumb. Then I decided to put chocolate ganache in the centre to emphasise that this was not just a chocolate cupcake, but was a true ode to the delight of chocolate dipped strawberries that I have made with my mum and devoured from a young age. Nothing says love or family or summer like chocolate dipped strawberries. The buttercream has pureed fresh strawberries in it instead of strawberry essence to make it actually taste like strawberries, because really, strawberry essence tastes like sweetened medicine and nothing at all like the delicious berry we all know and love. Then I topped it all with a chocolate dipped strawberry... because it was necessary.

So please make these for your family and loved ones, they will speak for themselves. It's basically like giving someone a hug in the form of a cupcake! Enjoy baking, and keep doing the things you love, no matter how much time has passed and how out of practise you feel!

Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

Makes 12

{Chocolate cupcake recipe adapted from 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly}

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

300g milk chocolate, chopped

300g unsalted butter

5 eggs

115g caster sugar

115g self raising flour

Chocolate Ganache:

200g milk or dark chocolate

150ml thickened cream

Strawberry Buttercream:

375g icing sugar, sifted

225g unsalted butter, softened

200g chopped/ pureed strawberries

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries:

Chocolate ganache (see above)

12 strawberries

Method:

For the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 160 degrees celsius and place 12 muffin cases in a muffin tin.

In a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter together. Leave to cool a little.

Beat the eggs and sugar in a large mixing bowl until pale and thick, then fold in the flour, then the melted chocolate and butter. Mix well.

Spoon mixture into cases and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes in muffin tray. Then move to a wire rack. Leave to cool completely before scooping out little divets in the tops.

To make the chocolate ganache, Place the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring until it melts. Add the cream and stir until uniform and glossy. Place in the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour, until thickened. Then, spoon a teaspoon of the ganache into each cupcake - you should have scopped out toe divets into