Monday 5 March 2012

Dan Lepard's Chocolate Macaroon Cakes

This was another case of seeing a recipe and wanting to make it immediately! It was a little naughty of me, as the cakes contain butter, but I thought it was quite a small proportion compared to the amount usually in cakes of this type. Of course, there was the double cream too.......

Anyway,  the recipe is published in the March issue of the Waitrose Kitchen magazine as a Mother's Day treat - see here. There's no chance of me getting a Mother's Day treat unless I bake it myself, so why wait? The method is very similar to Dan's much loved Chocolate Custard Muffins, in that a cocoa based custard is made first, to which the other ingredients are added. The topping of crushed Amaretti biscuits was inspired - I love crunchy streusel toppings on cakes and this was an instant way of achieving one. I used 60g of the tiny ratafia biscuit to top twelve buns.

Of course, things rarely go smoothly, and I found I was short of a few muffin cases. I used squares of baking parchment instead, and although I liked the visual effect, working with pieces of paper which don't want to hold their folded shape and keep trying to spring flat again was quite frustrating. Fortunately there were only four of them, or the cake batter might have ended up on the kitchen walls.

The finshed cakes were richly chocolatey, dense and moist. They were unlike either spongey cupcakes or muffins - more like a cakey brownie, or the best sort of rich chocolate cake. The ground almonds in the cake mixture add nicely to the almondy flavour of the topping. This recipe is one to try for those not keen on muffins or over-frosted cupcakes, I think. I'll definitely be making them again for special occasions.

6 comments:

Lauralovescakes said...

Ooooo this looks really tasty...I need to get on and make some recipes from Dan Lepard's book...especially if they're this good! :-)

Caroline said...

They look great - I haven't been to Waitrose to pick up my copy of this mag yet, but am looking forward to it. I can imagine they taste fabulous if they're anything like the chocolate custard muffins, which are amazing!

Phil in the Kitchen said...

Funnily enough I've just been reading that very magazine and thinking that these look really good. I definitely don't qualify for a mother's day treat but maybe that doesn't really matter and I could indulge anyway.

Suelle said...

Everyone had a mother, Phil - that's all the excuse you need!

Snowy said...

They look delicious. Love the topping. Another one to try.

teawithhazel said...

these really look amazing..i'm looking forward to when the recipe is available..pity it's not today cause my chocoholic son who is coming for dinner would have love them..