I love chocolate cake – but I think I love chocolate cake pops more. A bite size little ball of fudgy amazingness, all covered in chocolate. They’re so easy to make and a great way to use up any leftover chocolate brownie mixture or cake mixture. Most cake pop recipes use frosting to bind the cake together but I’ve been experimenting using my homemade yogurt in them instead and it’s just so delicious!

I adore anything cinnamon, and if asked I think I would say it’s my favourite spice. So when I was thinking of what recipes to try out with my homemade coconut yogurt, it was a bit of a no brainer! Traditional cinnamon rolls use a mixture of milk, eggs and butter in the dough, so of course I wanted to use a dairy free alternative instead. Enter coconut yogurt.

I also wanted to make them yeast free, as I am a little intolerant of both yeast and also faff, and there’s a lot of faff that goes into activating yeast, kneading and proving dough that I just don’t have the patience for.

These sweet, fluffy cinnamon rolls are not only delicious, but cinnamon is amazing for preventing blood sugar spikes, and the homemade yogurt contains natural probiotics, so it’s a win win all in all!

I’ve never thought about making my own yogurt before, despite being a yogurt fanatic, but it turns out it’s so easy to do and a really inexpensive way to enjoy it too. All you do is mix your milk (I’ve used soya because it gives the best consistency of plantbased milks) with some agar agar to thicken it, a little coconut sugar and a probiotic sachet, powder from a capsule or a bit of live yogurt as a starter.

Are they brownies? Are they fudge? I’ll tell you one thing I’m sure of, these are divine. I wanted to make something chocolate orange for Christmas this year and these are just the thing.

Although I disagree with people who say chocolate orange is ‘festive’ (as in my opinion it is so good it should be enjoyed throughout all four seasons) I do love it at this time of year in particular. These brownies are just the most perfect little bites and such a yummy way of showcasing my most favourite perennial flavour combo.

This cake in my opinion is an absolute blinder. It might be small in size, but whoever said quality over quantity was oh so right in this case. Three layers of the fudgiest most indulgent cake, sandwiched together with a creamy and rich chocolate ganache.

It’s so easy to make, and showcases the divine delights of HU chocolate that have recently hit the shelves in the UK. Their bars are just unreal, the filled ones in particular are my favourite – quite how they make them so delicious with only natural ingredients is truly mind blowing!

This cake is the perfect bake if you’re looking to wow people at a dinner party, or for a small celebration, be it a birthday or simply just getting to the weekend! It serves upto 8, although you might just want to slice it and freeze it and keep it all to yourself. What would Mrs Hollingsworth do? Exactly that.

I really can’t wait for you guys to try this cake – using chocolate in the cake and ganache just makes it next level indulgent, but not too rich that you won’t be craving another slice! I’m so excited to hear what you think!

Ingredients

• 60g Hu Cashew Butter and Vanilla Bean Dark Chocolate
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup cacao powder
• 1/2 cup cashew butter
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 2 flax eggs
• 1 cup ground almonds

For the ganache

• 120g Hu Cashew Butter and Vanilla Bean Dark Chocolate
• 2/3 cup full fat coconut milk

Preheat your oven to 180C. Add the almond milk and vinegar to a bowl and stir. In another bowl stir together the cacao powder, coconut sugar and ground almonds.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan with two inches of water in on a low heat, stirring gently then remove from the heat and stir in the cashew butter. Add this, the milk and vinegar mixture and the flax eggs to the bowl with the dry ingredients, stirring until just mixed. Spoon this into three lined and greased 4” cake tins and bake for 20 minutes. Leave to cool completely before frosting.

Melt the chocolate for the ganache in the same way as above, then remove from the heat and stir in the coconut cream. Allow to cool, then place in the fridge for an hour to set. Spread this over the cakes and sandwich them on top of each other.

Store in the fridge for upto a week or freeze for upto two months.

Love, Mrs H xx

I remember back in 2016, when I was pregnant with baby H and we went on a ‘babymoon’ to New York one February. It was bitterly cold, but I insisted we walk everywhere anyway. I also insisted we visit Hu Kitchen for breakfast one day, because I’d heard really good things about their food (and their chocolate).

Neither disappointed, in fact the chocolate was the best plantbased chocolate I think I’ve had, so as such I forfeited clothes space and stuffed my suitcase with it on the way home. I’ve been dreaming of it ever since so you can imagine how excited I was when I heard it was coming to the UK. Even more so when they asked if I’d like to work together to create some recipes to celebrate with!

These truffles showcase their amazing almond butter and crispy quinoa filled chocolate, as well as their Salty dark chocolate. Of course toi can use another chocolate if you’d like but I definitely recommend you give the Hu ones a try!

You’ll be blown away by how divine and indulgent these truffles are, and by how easy they are to make! They’d make wonderful presents all wrapped up nicely, but let’s be honest you won’t want to give any of them away once you try them!

Ingredients

• 120g Hu Almond Butter and Crispy Quinoa Dark Chocolate
• 1/2 cup coconut cream
• 60g Hu Salty Dark Chocolate for coating

Chop the chocolate finely, then place in a mixing bowl and set aside. Place the coconut cream in a saucepan and heat on a medium heat until it begins to simmer. Pour the coconut cream over the chocolate, leave for a couple of minutes with a tea towel on top then stir gently until the chocolate is melted.

Place the mixture in the fridge for around 2 hours, until the chocolate is firm. Use a tablespoon to scoop out spoonfuls of the mixture and quickly roll them into balls.

Place them back in the freezer, then melt the rest of the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan with two inches of water in on a low heat, stirring gently. Dunk the truffles in one by one, retrieving them with a fork and placing them on a chopping board afterwards. Place them in the fridge for 15 minutes to set then dig in!

Love, Mrs H xx

Trifles are great for people like me who are very indecisive and love all sorts of flavours. They take me back to being younger when traditional trifles were all the rage. My version features my current obsession, chocolate and raspberry, as well as Nature’s Charm coconut custard and whipping cream which are seriously game changing when it comes to vegan baking. I’ve been lucky enough to work with them on this recipe and I think it really showcases how good these products are!

These trifles are single serve, and very easy to assemble. They’re also a great way to use up any leftover brownies (or even chocolate cake), I’d recommend making the brownies the day before though if you are making them specifically for this recipe, so that they are nice and cool before we start layering!

I think these are the perfect dinner party dessert as they are so easy to assemble, look rather fancy and you can have them ready in the fridge to wow your guests with after you’ve finished your main course! I think I might need to host a dinner party now just to serve them! Anyway, on to the recipe…

For the cake layer

1/2 batch of brownies, I love this recipe

Custard layer

Nature’s Charm custard

2 tbsp cacao powder

Cream layer

Nature’s Charm coconut whipping cream

1 tbsp pure maple syrup

Raspberries

Chocolate, for decoration

First get all the layers ready to assemble; I like to make the brownies the day before, or quite often I have leftover brownies to use up and these are a great thing to make with them!

For the cream layer, spoon the cream into a stand mixer with the maple syrup and whip gently for a minute or so until fluffy.

To make the chocolate custard, gently heat the Custard in a saucepan on a low heat, then stir in the cacao powder.

Crumble the brownies and place 1/4 cup of the brownie mixture in the bottom of each glass, pressing it down to make sure it is nicely compressed. Add a layer of raspberries, then 2 tbsp of the whipped cream mixture, followed by 1/4 cup of the chocolate custard.

Add another layer of the raspberries and then top with some more whipped cream, and chocolate shavings and any extra raspberries too.

Place the trifles in the fridge for half an hour to set then enjoy! Store in the fridge for upto 3 days.

Love, Mrs H xx

Although baby H is as big a chocoholic as both her parents, she loves a bit of carrot cake from time to time too. Girl after my own heart for sure. So whilst we adore brownies in our house, and we love blondies too (especially ones with chocolate chips in) I figured it was time to make a carrot cake blondie tray bake as surely that could only end one delicious way?

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It’s that time of year when all the cosy flavours come out. And on those days, where the rain is pouring and the wind is blistering there’s no place I’d rather be than cosied up at home under a blanket with a cup of tea and a cake.