Chocolate Pudding (warm or cold)

• 1 large egg
• 2 1/4 cups nonfat or low-fat milk, divided
• 2/3 cup sugar, divided
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Lightly beat egg with a fork in a medium bowl.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups milk, 1/3 cup sugar and salt in a medium saucepan; bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
3. Meanwhile, whisk the remaining 1/3 cup sugar, cocoa and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Whisk in the remaining 3/4 cup milk until blended. Whisk the simmering milk mixture into the cocoa mixture. Pour the mixture back into the pan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and glossy, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Whisk about 1 cup of the hot cocoa mixture into the beaten egg. Return the egg mixture to the pan and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until steaming and thickened, about 2 minutes. (Do not boil.) Whisk in vanilla. Serve warm.

TIPS & NOTES

• Make Ahead Tip: Pour the pudding into a bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface. Refrigerate for up to 3 days; serve cold.

Recipe from Eating Well

A Pirate Birthday Party - Treasure Chest Cake

THE CAKE - Chocolate Cake Recipe Here

The Base

The Detail

The Colouring - we painted on a mixture of 'Cake Decorators Rose Spirit' combined with 'AmeriColor 104 Chocolate Brown'

The Assembly

The End Product!

THE FOOD

Pirate Cookies

Rocky Road - A Must For Every Christmas

Chocolate Melts

Marshmallows

Jelly Lollies (I like to use Raspberries)

Unsalted Peanuts - optional

Quantities?????

Whatever you like really.

I usually do 1 large 500g bag of marshmallows, 2 packets of lollies, a couple of handfulls of nuts to about 3 x 375g bags of melts

Cut marshmallow and lollies in 1/2 and combine them with the peanuts in a bowl

Melt all the chocolate in a separate bowl

Pour 3/4 of the melted chocolate in with the marshmallows etc and stir until everything is coated well.

Before the chocolate sets spoon onto a tray lined with baking paper and even it all out so there are no big gaps between the marshmallows and it resembles a block.

Spoon the remaining 1/4 of melted chocolate over the top, swirling and smoothing to give a nice finish

Allow to set and cut into pieces to serve

Sometimes I like to drizzle melted white chocolate over the top

Christmas Cake Pops

Made with Oreo and Cream Cheese Truffles (Reindeer Poo)

See recipe here

Make truffles as per recipe above or make you own if you already have a favourite

Place rolled truffle balls into the freezer to firm up a little

When firm dip 1/2 - 3/4 of a truffle ball into the melted milk chocolate and before chocolate sets dip the tip of a stick into melted chocolate and insert straight into the ball. (This will stop the truffle sliding down the stick as the set chocolate will hold them in place)

Repeat for each ball and allow to set.

Now dip the top 1/2 of each ball into melted white chocolate and decorate before the chocolate sets.

I used holly made from fondant icing coloured with gel food colouring. The leaves were cut using a cutter purchased from a cake decorating shop and the berries were individually rolled by hand (boy was that a job lol)

By placing each cake pop (stick) into a styrofoam block once you have dipped them into the white chocolate makes it easier to decorate them and it is also a nice way for presentation if you pre wrap the styrofoam block in christmas paper.

A Different Kind of Fruit Mince Pie (Jamie Oliver Christmas)

Jar of Fruit Mince

Puff Pastry

Filo Pastry

Butter

Icing Sugar to dust

Two muffin trays (12 muffins each)

Jamie Oliver added these extra ingredients (I was too lazy)

Dried Blueberries or Cranberries

Zest of Clementines

Splash of Sherry or Brandy

Flaked Almonds

Egg, beaten

Pre Heat Oven 200c *

Roll out the puff pastry into a 20x40cm square**

(Jamie combined the fruit mince, dried berries, zest and brandy)

Thinly spread the fruit mince over the pastry, leaving a 1cm gap around the edges

Tightly roll up the pastry, lengthways, like a swiss roll

Wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge to firm up

Butter one sheet of filo pastry with the melted butter then place another sheet on top

Now butter this top sheet of filo pastry

Place both sheets (now stuck together) butter side down onto a muffin tray and ease the pastry into each hole. (you may need to repeat this to cover the whole tray depending on the size of your sheets of pastry)

Brush with melted butter again (this would not have been done yet as the bottom of the sheets are now facing upwards)

Repeat for the other tray

Take the puff pastry roll out of the fridge and cut into 24 slices with a sharp knife

Place each slice, flat side down into a filo lined hole.

Brush with egg***

(This is where Jamie then sprinkled the top of each pie with the flaked almonds)

Bake in the oven for about 25mins until cooked and golden brown

Leave to cool, then crack the individual pies out of the trays

Dust with a little icing sugar before serving

* I lowered oven temperature as I was using fan bake

** I used pre rolled sheets of puff pastry, doubled the thickness of each sheet by sprinkling one sheet with water placing another on top and then gently rolling them together. To get the length required I then joint two (doubled up) sheets together side by side, then trimmed down to size.

*** I dont think I will bother to brush with egg next time as the filo turned out quite dark

A Jamie Oliver Recipe

Christmas Lamingtons - Red and Green

1 packed of red jelly crystals

1 packed of green jelly crystals

Make Lamington squares as per Lamington Recipe

In separate bowls prepare each of the jellies as the directions on packet.

Allow to cool for around an hour, do not allow jelly to set.

Dip cake squares into the jelly mixture until fully coated then roll in coconut

NOTES

I cut the cake squares slightly smaller to make them more bites size.

I used slightly less water than indicated on the packet directions when making up the jelly mix

I also added extra food colouring to the jelly mixture for a brighter coloured lamington

Lamingtons

125g Butter

200g Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

Vanilla

1/2 cup Milk

300g Self Raising Flour

Pre heat oven 180

Grease and line 27cm x 17cm tray

Combine butter and sugar in a bowl and mix until light and creamy

Add eggs and vanilla, mix

Add milk and flour, mix well

Place in lined tray and bake for 30-35mins

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 1 hour

Cut into 12 even squares

TIP : freeze the cut squares before dipping them into the icing sugar mixture to stop it soaking too much into the cake and making them soggy (they dont need to be fully frozen, an hour or so should be enough)

ICING

50g Cocoa Powder

300g Icing Sugar

2 tea spoons Butter

300ml Boiling Water

Coconut (for rolling in)

Place cocoa, icing sugar, butter and boiling water in and deep bowl

Mix until butter is melted and all ingredients are combined

Dip cake squares in runny icing mixture until fully coated then roll in coconut