Category Archives: Sweet treats

Chocolate covered cookie dough Easter eggs

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Easter is totally one of my favourite times of year – spring is springing, we get a four day weekend and it’s completely acceptable to eat as much chocolate as physically possible. What’s not to like!

I wanted to celebrate this year by creating something a little different, because as much as I love chocolate eggs (and boy do I love them), it’s nice to mix it up sometimes too. We’ve got four days after all! Now these beauties may look and sound pretty fancy, but they’re actually really easy to make. You just need a handful of ingredients, a quick whizz in the food processor, and then a dip or three into the most delicious raw chocolate imaginable.

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The worlds most amazing quadruple chocolate truffles

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Ok, so you might have heard of double chocolate, or maybe even triple chocolate, but quadruple chocolate? Our unofficial motto in the Hollingsworth household seems to be ‘if in doubt, chocolate’ – both Mr H and I are long-standing chocoholics (we think it’s genetic, my dad and his mum are both of a similar disposition so we must have inherited the chocolate gene) and rarely a day goes by when we don’t both indulge in a little cacao (raw of course).

So now that Easter (an event high up on any chocolate lover’s calendar) is fast approaching I knew it was time to get chocolatey. I wanted to make something with a truffley chocolately centre and I also wanted to experiment with dark and white chocolate so these truffles are basically the amalgamation of everything I dreamed up!

They’re honestly just the most divine things ever, and I promise you even the biggest of sugar addicts will love them, despite the fact that they are completely free from refined sugar and anything remotely nasty. They’re also really simple to make, and you only need eight ingredients!

Makes about 10 of the worlds most amazing truffles

Ingredients 

For the truffles

  • 3 tbsp cacao powder
  • 2 tbsp cacao nibs
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup cashews
  • 1/2 cup cacao butter
  • 1/3 cup coconut cream

For the dark chocolate coating

  • 2 tbsp cacao powder
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup cacao butter

For the white chocolate coating

  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup cacao butter
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil

For the truffle fillings, combine all the ingredients except the cacao butter and cacao nibs in a food processor and whizz until you get a smooth, gooey mixture. While this is mixing, melt the cacao butter in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water until it is all melted.

Pour the melted cacao butter into the food processor and blend for another 30 seconds or so, until it is all mixed in. Spoon the mixture into a bowl and stir in the cacao nibs. Place the bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes, so that it hardens enough to be able to form it into balls. Remove from the freezer and shape into smallish balls. Pop them back in the freezer to set.

For the dark and white chocolate coatings, melt the cacao butter for each in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, then stir in the other ingredients. Remove the truffles from the freezer and dip them in the melted white and dark chocolate – the more times the better! Pop them in the fridge for ten minutes to set then enjoy!

Love, Mrs H xx

Barbie’s vanilla berry surprise cupcakes

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I’m a real girly girl – in my opinion you can NEVER have too much pink, it’s just not possible. I’m 30 years old, yet when I go into clothes shops I find myself drawn to the kids clothes section and wishing that some of their pink sparkly numbers came in my size. So when I gave birth to my daughter I was so excited that I could live my life through rose tinted everything vicariously through her. Turns out she’s a bit of a tomboy – sod’s law hey! Continue reading →

Frosted chocolate brownie batter balls

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Brownie batter and chocolate frosting, she said. Chocolate on chocolate, she said. Need I say any more? Probably not, but I shall. On my quest to create the world’s best brownies, I taste tested rather a lot of brownie batter (in the name of research, obvs) and it really got me thinking. It turns out brownie batter is just as delicious raw as it is post-bake. And chocolate + chocolate > chocolate.

Speaking of chocolate (because after all what better thing to speak about), I created this recipe to celebrate The Chocolate Show, one of the highlights of my culinary calendar,  which is being held at Olympia on 13th-15th October (tickets are available here) and is set to be one SERIOUSLY delicious weekend. There’s masterclasses, tastings and heaps more – I mean what more could a chocoholic want! OK, maybe Ryan Gosling and some chocolate body paint but this is totally the next best chocolatey thing!

So in honour of this wonderful weekend I set myself a challenge to create something extremely chocolatey and insanely tasty. The result? The most heavenly brownie recipe that can be rolled into balls and eaten raw, no baking necessary. And boy is it good. But what makes these bites even more special is the frosting. Honestly, the frosting on these babies is every bit as decadent and delicious as real life chocolate buttercream. Even Mr H, a harsh dessert critic and fellow chocolate fiend, declared these some of the best things I’ve ever made, which is high praise indeed from such a choconnoisseur (not a word but should be).

So in summary, think rich and gooey raw brownie batter covered with creamy and soft chocolate frosting. I’m practically drooling just thinking about them, and something tells me that I’m going to be making these rather a lot from now on, and you probably should too!

P.S. I seem to have recently discovered a love of piping. There’s no real need for it in this recipe, and it’s just as yum if you just plonk the frosting on top with a teaspoon but I do like making things look pretty. I expect there might be a lot more piping coming to the blog in the future…just call me the pie piper – get it? And on that note…here’s the recipe!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup medjool dates, pitted
  • 1 cup cashew butter
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 4 tbsp cacao powder
  • 4 tbsp cacao nibs

For the frosting

  • 1 ripe avocado
  • 5 tbsp cacao powder
  • 5 tbsp maple syrup
  • 4 tbsp cashew butter (or any other nut butter)
  • 4 tbsp coconut oil

Another super simple one here folks! Just bung the ingredients for the balls into your food processor and whizz for a couple of minutes until smooth, sticky and slightly crumbly. Roll the mixture into balls and pop them in the freezer for at least an hour to cool, as this will make the icing stick much better.

For the frosting, scoop the insides out the avocado and combine these with the other ingredients in a food processor. Blend for around five minutes until a super smooth and silky mixture forms. Remove the balls from the freezer and either use a teaspoon to spoon the frosting on top or get your piping bag and nozzle out!

I hope you love these as much as I do!

Love, Mrs H xx

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Ferrero rocher cups 

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I’m having a real hazelnut butter moment right now. I love nut butters so much that I buy them in 1kg tubs and they really don’t seem to last very long. At all. Sometimes (when I’m feeling particularly lazy) I eat them ‘on the rocks’ with a spoon, but I do try to be a bit more creative, as I love trying out new ideas and testing new recipes and of course sharing the best ones with you guys! Continue reading →

Choco banana crumble sandwiches

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Sandwiches for me are a bit of a thing of the past – I don’t really eat bread, I try to stay away from butter and I’m kinda fussy about fillings. BUT there’s a new type of sandwich in town – the crumble sandwich.

Now how did this creation come into existence I hear you ask? Well. I love a good crumble topping (it’s the best bit right?) and last time I was baking one I thought to myself ‘why can’t the crumble topping be on the bottom too’? I couldn’t think of any reason why not, so I got thinking and this is the result! Continue reading →

Chocolate covered caramel hobnobs 

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My hobnob recipe has been one of THE most popular recipes from my blog, and I can't say I'm surprised. Who knew that with just a handful of natural ingredients it would be possible to create the most delicious biscuits known to man!? I've made them so many times I've lost count (although that happens a lot these days – baby brain is apparently still a thing long after the baby has arrived), and the other day I had some leftover caramel that I needed to use up (I was very close to just eating it with a spoon but managed to restrain myself) so I decided to jazz up my hobnobs and take their amazingness to a whole new level.

And boy was it a success and a half. I think these might be even better than the original, they're just insane! All the tastiness of my original version but with a surprise gooey sticky caramel filling in the middle. Prepare to be transported to teatime heaven guys, you're (literally) in for one hell of a treat!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cup oats
  • 3/4 cup ground almonds
  • 1/2 cup cashew butter (or any other nut or seed butter)
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp Himalayan salt

For the caramel filling

  • 4 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup cashew butter
  • 1/4 cup almond milk
  • Pinch of Himalayan salt

For the chocolate on top

  • 1/2 cup cacao butter or coconut oil
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • 3 tbsp cacao powder
  • 1 tbsp cashew butter

To make the biscuits, just combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir well so that everything is all nicely combined. Preheat the oven to 180C and bake for 15 minutes – the biscuits might still seem a little soft in the middle but they will continue cooking after you take them out so don't worry!

Leave them on a cooling rack for an hour or so then make the caramel by blitzing all the ingredients in a food processor or blender until they form a sticky gooey mixture. Spoon this on top of the biscuits and spread out the caramel with the back of your spoon to cover them evenly.

Pop them in the freezer for 10 minutes to set then make the chocolate by melting the cacao butter in a  bowl over a saucepan half full of water and then stirring in the other ingredients. Dip the biscuits in the chocolate (you might want to do this a couple of times for each biscuit) and then drizzle any extra chocolate on top. Leave them in the fridge for a couple of minutes so that the chocolate sets, put the kettle on and get your favourite tea brewing and dig in!

Love, Mrs H xx

Chocolate peanut butter marble loaf cake 

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Marble cake is the indecisive dessert eater’s best friend. I’ve often been struck by the dilemma of which dessert to eat, and when there’s a choice between chocolate and peanut butter I honestly wouldn’t know which way to go – what a tough one! Marble cake also looks super pretty (who could say no to that gorgeous swirly pattern) but I’ll let you in on a secret, it’s really very simple to make! Continue reading →