I had a small bar of Prestat Choxi+ Dark Chocolate with Oriental Mint (70g) that I bought a while ago and had been waiting to use in a mousse so I took my chance with this recipe.  I realise that its 5g short of the recipe but it was still perfectly fine and lovely and refreshing and oh, so, chocolatey.  I also used regular caster sugar, not golden and left out the Cointreau.  Another great thing is that it literally took me about 10minutes to prepare and only uses 4 ingredients that I always have in the kitchen!

Try not to over mix the chocolate, egg yolk and melted butter mix, but if it does start to seize (goes from smooth the grainy) then don’t worry, it will smooth out again once folded with the egg white and sugar.  30mins is probably the minimum amount of time that you’d want to refrigerate this before serving.

When I’d stopped mixing, I didn’t think that it was enough for four portions, but once I’d tucked into it, it was deliciously rich and just enough.  I will definitely be making this again!  I hope you give it a go too.

Choco-love and mousse,

Natasha xx

Pink Vanilla Sprinkles

I recently found Bravetart‘s blog and with it a recipe for sprinkles, any colour or flavour you like!  So I went for it and had a go at making my own.  It really is as simple as Stella’s recipe and instructions, it was fun and relaxing too.  There’s also a great pictorial in the Kitchn:

Recipe

Ingredients

• 8 ounces powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp vanilla, or other extract
• assorted food colorings
• as many piping bags as you have colors, fitted with a small multi-opening or plain tip (Wilton #3).  (I didn’t have a suitable decorating tip to hand so just cut a small opening in the piping bag).

1. Mix the first four ingredients until a semi-thick paste forms (toothpaste consistency).
2. Divide the paste into as many portions as you have colours (I used Wilton Icing Colours), tinting each batch with the colour of your choice.
3. Put the coloured paste into a piping bag and, on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, pipe out long, thin lines. Take care the lines do not touch each other.
4. Repeat the process with the remaining colours and allow the piped lines to dry for 24 hours. Really. You will have an unworkable mess if you say, “Oh, it’s been 8 hours. I can go ahead and do the next step.” 24 hours. They need to be dried out to the core for this to work.
5. After the time has elapsed, use a bench scraper or knife to scrape off the dried sprinkle lines and then to break/chop the lines into fairly long pieces for “jimmies” or quite short for “hundreds and thousands”.
6. Store in an airtight container, indefinitely.

Home Made Sprinkles

As you can see, I went a little bit festive with the colours I used – green, red, white and pink of course!  I love pink!  They smell vanilla-ey and taste great.  I stored them in these separate bags and an air tight container.  I’m not sure how many cupcakes etc these would cover but I think they will keep you satisfied for a couple dozen liberally sprinkled cupcakes at least!

Love & cupcakes,

Natasha xo

My Christmas preparations have started and first was this vanilla extract. Earlier this week I went to the Spice Souk with my friend and we picked up some bargain spices for use over Christmas.

This is the first time I have tried to make my own extract and I chose to make a non alcoholic version of the fragrant extract.

It was really simple to make, took less than 5 minutes probably and I found the recipe here and scaled it down to a smaller ‘trial’ size version.  Here is the original recipe:

• 2 vanilla beans
• 1 1/2 cups glycerin
• 1/2 cup warm water

Directions:

1. Slit beans down the middle, and scrape down seeds.
2. Place both in glycerin and warm water.
3. Place in a dark jar (or a light jar in a dark place).
4. Let sit for a month or so.
5. Shake often.
6. Strain. (optional).

Vanilla Extract - Day One

I’m a bit late making this to use for my Christmas baking but at least in the new year I should have a great home made vanilla extract to incorporate into my baking!  I will give you an update.  Maybe I will cheat and taste my concoction in a couple of weeks!  I got the jar cheaply from Ikea and will be using them to store many of my home made Christmas gifts.