Cakes for the School Fair

We have had a great weekend, with the highlight being yesterday's long awaited school fair. Little Miss 5 and her school buddies were positively bursting with excitement at all the fun fair activities on offer. With both of us busy helping out, our little blossom got to spend some quality time with Nana; then later some close friends of ours took over, so she had twice the fun of the fair! 

I made some cakes to go with the Devonshire Tea tent's bill of fair. This Chocolate Mud cake is always a favourite! For this one I made a chocolate butter cream, instead of the Toffee icing. The Passion fruit and fresh cream sponge roll sold out. With so much to do prior to the fair, the tutorial for this one will be coming later! 

I actually sold the Gluten Free Spiced Apple Cake in the first picture as a whole cake. The lady that brought it was so impressed with the piece of GF Chocolate Mud Cake she had, that she got the other cake as well. I left the walnuts out of the one for the fair: always worried about the nut allergy thing.

 My food class at school helped out by making these Chocolate truffles. 

This is the Gluten Free Chocolate Mud Cake. This cake received high praise from the people who tried it. I was so pleased they liked it. It's always a pleasure to make great cakes for the gluten free among us. No one should miss out on good cake. I used the GF Chocolate Mud Cup Cake recipe, but baked in a round tin at 170deg. C for 1 1/2 hours. Worth the wait, as the texture is amazing. I frosted it with the Toffee Frosting boiled to only 135deg so it stayed white. The Carrot Cake in the back ground is a good old classic standby recipe that I make all the time for so many occasions. It works just as well as cupcakes. 

Needless to say today has been a quiet day in our house! Thanks so much to all the amazing people that worked so hard to make the fair happen, and all the people who helped me out on the day. You were all stars! xx 

By Request - Delicious Chocolate Cranberry Truffle Recipe

 Recently a pair of my students completed a hospitality assessment by planning, preparing and serving morning tea to the school staff. They did a cracking job, and everyone was overjoyed with the lovely spread.
One of the things they made were these delicious Chocolate Cranberry Truffles. Lots of people have requested the recipe, so I whipped some up this afternoon so I share the love with this very, very tasty treat.

Chocolate Cranberry Truffles 

Makes about 40 medium sized truffles

150g icing sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa
175g butter - melted
125g dark chocolate - melted - I used Whittaker's 72% cocoa solids
1 x 250g packet of wine biscuits - any plain sweet biscuit will do
approx. 1/2 cup chopped cranberries

an extra 375g sweet dark chocolate and 2 tablespoons oil for dipping the truffles

Crush the biscuits using a food processor. Combine the biscuit crumbs, shifted icing sugar, cranberries and cocoa in a large bowl.










Combine the melted butter and first measure of chocolate. Stir the two mixtures together.










Roll in to small balls and place on a plate or baking paper and into the fridge to firm up.

Melt the second measure of chocolate with the oil. I used Whitaker's 72% cocoa solids chocolate for the truffle centres and 50% cocoa solids for dipping as it has a higher sugar content and a less bitter cocoa flavour.







Use a large fork to dip the truffles and place them back onto baking paper to set. Don't put them into the fridge or the chocolate will bloom and appear cloudy.

Now sit back with your coffee and enjoy.