December 2012 - Xmas! Chocolate Chestnut Roulade, Party Food, Fruit Scones

So obviously at xmas there must be chocolate and chestnut cake! To make this I made half the chocolate cake recipe and filled a baking sheet with high sides lined with baking parchment with it, baked for 8-10mins and immediately rolled it up and waited for it to cool.

When cool, I carefully rolled it out and covered the top with chestnut puree (you can usually buy this in most places around xmas) and topped that with a thick layer of sweetened whipped cream. Then I rolled it all back up, peeling off the paper as I went and sprinkled it with icing sugar.
It was SO good.

Every party need some snacks and having seen some similar ones at work I was determined to make some for myself. They are also by a happy coincidence vegetarian - something a bit more exciting to offer than the usual cheese and biscuits :p
They sounded so tasty but were so expensive to buy from the shops, but seemed so easy and cheap to make it seemed silly not to!

The top ones were mixed pepper and red pesto bites, and the bottom goats cheese and red onion marmalade.

To make the Mixed pepper and Red pesto bites Chop a red pepper and a yellow pepper and add some grated cheese. Slice a baguette into rounds, top each round with some red pesto, then pile some of the peper and cheese mix, plcae under a heated grill until the cheese melts and the top is slightly browned.

To make the Goats cheese and red onion marmalade bites, take a jar of red onion marmalade, and spread on the top of a baguette which has been sliced into rounds. Top with a slice of goats cheese from a cheese roulade, garnish with a sprig of Parsley. Toast under the grill until the cheese starts to bubble and the top s slightly brown.

Et voila. Told you they were easy!

Proof that even I have bad baking days! I was really trying to do too much at once and burnt my cupcakes.

Fruit Scones - Simply add 50g of mixed fruit or raisins to the scone mix. ALWAYS soak you fruit for a couple of hours first - otherwise you end up with dry scones. Soaking them in apple juice gives a nice flavour.