Baking Post 2016 N0.36- November is almost at a end...😞😢

Hola!!

First of all, thank you SOO much for your lovely comments in last week's post. Every comment you post, gives me another reason to have a beam spread across my face besides the fact that it's almost December!! 

Since I'm totally honest on my blog and elsewhere, I would say that I am finding difficulty preparing my "festive-themed" blog posts for December. As I only bake, I guess it won't exactly be so difficult😥. But I actually want to acknowledge those who have been sharing "Blogmas Ideas" on their blog. It's been really helpful to me and given me  a few ideas on what I shall add. That's all I shall say as I don't want to give so much away.  Here's the recipe which I found pleasure in making.


For one of my best loved recipes, you'll need:

175g of unsalted butter

175g of dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa),broken into small pieces

375g of golden caster sugar

1 tbsp of stem ginger syrup(you can buy these from any good supermarkets or make your own-recipe will be left in the link at the end)

100g of plain flour

1tsp of ground ginger

50g of dark chocolate chunks


Method:

Firstly, preheat your ovens to 180C,160 fan ,gas mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking parchment. Melt the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water.

Remove from the heat and beat in the sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time,until smooth then beat in the stem ginger syrup. Sift in the flour and ginger into a bowl.

Fold into the chocolately mixture. Following on with folding in the chocolate chunks and the chopped stem ginger for a real spicy kick. 

Tip the chocolate mix,smoothing with the back of a spoon or spatula.

Give the tin a couple of sharp taps on the work surface, just to knock out any air bubbles. Bake this for one hour.

Just before, it's finished baking fill the sink with cold water, adding a handful of ice cubes. So once their baking time is complete, transfer the tin into the "ice bath" for 30 minutes to stop them from continuing to cook in the tin.

Once it's completely cool, turn and cut into the 16 squares.

This is an optional choice, but I made the executive decision of making a chocolatey-gingery buttercream frosting, to spread across. 

To make this buttercream, you'll need:

300g of icing sugar,sifted

100g of unsalted butter, at room temp

40g of unsweetened cocoa powder,sifted

3 tablespoons of whole milk,combined with ½ a tsp of ground ginger

Start by beating the icing sugar,butter and cocoa using either a free-standing mixer or handheld one on a medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and it's well mixed.

Turn the mixer down to a slow speed. Now add in that gingerly-flavoured milk to the butter mix gradually. Once the milk been incorporated,turn the mixer up to a high speed. Beat until the icing is light and fluffy for around 5 minutes. The longer the icing is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes.

Make sure the traybake is completely cool or else the buttercream will melt. 

Place the buttercream into the center of the traybake, using a spatula. Spread it across as much as you can. The with a palette knife any tool which spreads, expand the buttercream all round the edges until the cake is covered! And Volia! There is your Chocolate Gingerbread Traybake!!!

Photography (apologies for the delay)

  

 

Before you go...

Thank you SOO much for reading!

Stem Ginger Syrup Recipe

I'm loving Paperchase's Christmas Range!!! What about you? What things have you been loving as November ends? Let me know in the comments below.

If there are any recipes you know of which you'll like me to do or anything you want me to check out, you can mention it either in the comments below or to my e-mail: chcocolatecupcakes@gmail.com

It's been so long since I've mentioned a magazine, let alone read Shout. Their tumblr page is magnificent!

Shout Mag's Tumblr Page

I was lucky enough to get some shots in my area of the trees overhead which haven't exactly lost all of their leaves!😃😁



Finally, if you'd like to see what else I have to offer on BakingBoutique, please do follow me on my SnapChat and Pinterest(if you're lucky, I may just follow you back).

Pinterest name: Chocolatelover

What to expect on my page!!😊

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed this week's post!!!


#sweetreats xxx