Recipes — The Boy Who Bakes (2024)

Place the butter and chocolate into a heatproof bowl and set over a pan and gently simmering water. Allow to melt, stirring occasionally until fully melted. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside for the moment. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or using an electric hand mixer, whisk together the eggs and sugars, on medium-high speed, for exactly 5 minutes. Once the eggs have been mixing for exactly 5 minutes pour in the chocolate mixture and mix for a minute or so to combine. Meanwhile mix together the dry ingredients, sieving the cocoa powder if it has lots of lumps. Add the dry ingredients and mix very briefly just until combined. Use your spatula to give one last mix, scraping the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is evenly combined. Use a ice cream scoop to form the cookies. The batter will be a little on the wet side, so invert the cookie scoop just above the baking tray to avoid spills. Make sure to leave plenty of space between each cookie as they will spread. Sprinkle each cookie with a little flaked sea salt before placing into the oven and baking for 12 minutes. The cookies will come out of the oven with that wonderful crinkled look and slightly domed. They will collapse a little as they cool but this helps form that perfect fudgy centre.The cookies will be very soft so allow them to cool on the baking trays for at least 20-30 minutes before removing from the tray to cool completley.

These cookies will keep for 4-5 days but will be best within the first 3 days.

Considering how many times I have made this cake recently you could easily expect me to be completely sick of it. This recipe, a twist on a classic pound cake, infused with passion fruit and glazed with dark chocolate, was originally made for my British Issue of the wonderful Bake From Scratch Magazine. One of the features I helped organise was the Bakers Potluck; we got some of the UK's best and brightest bakers together in a kitchen to bake, share and basically just enjoy each others company, it was an amazing day and a lot of fun. My recipe for the potluck had nothing really to do with British baking more my personal favourite styles and flavours. I am a big fan of Bundt cakes (I have way too many Bundt tins for my tiny kitchen) and the combination of chocolate and passionfruit which I go back to time and time again. The resulting cake was incredibly easy to make, a slight tweak on the all in one method and a cake that happily lasts for up to 5 days. When we set out on the Bake Like A Brit Tour with the magazine this was the recipe we decided to demo at each stop of the tour. We were also sponsored by the fabulous Guittard Chocolate of San Francisco and the brilliant bakeware company, and the inventor of the Bundt Pan, Nordicware from Minneapolis, so the recipe was the perfect fit.

Note: This version of the cake is slightly different from the version that appears in the magazine, that is because it was originally developed for a larger Bundt pan, so it has been reduced to fit the Crown Bundt pan that I used for this post (if you watch the video for this recipe you will see why I reduced the recipe slightly).

Chocolate and Passion Fruit Bundt Cake

6 large eggs
375g caster sugar
zest of 2 lemons
200ml light flavoured olive oil
135g full fat yoghurt
35ml passion fruit puree
165g self rising flour
75g ground almonds
75g fine semolina
1/2 tsp baking powder

Blood Orange Syrup
100ml passion fruit puree
100g caster sugar

Dark Chocolate Glaze
150g dark chocolate (I used Guittards 66% dark chocolate discs)
200ml double cream

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) and lightly grease a 10-cup capacity bundt cake pan. Lightly dust the inside of the pan with a little extra flour and tap out any excess leaving a thin coating. These steps will help ensure the cake comes out clean. I personally prefer to use a spray oil for this and it ensures a thin coating then gets into every nook of the pan.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, caster sugar and lemon zest using a electric mixer, on high speed, for about 5 minutes or until the mixture is pale and light. Meanwhile, in a jug whisk together the oil, yoghurt and passion fruit puree. Add the oil mixture to the egg mixture and whisk briefly to combine. In a separate bowl mix together all the dry goods, then add to the liquid goods and mix briefly just until evenly combined. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and set onto a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for about 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean.

When it comes to turning out a Bundt without damaging the cake I find the best thing you can do is place the cake onto a wire rack for exactly ten minutes before attempting to turn it out. If you try and remove the cake any earlier it will not have had enough time to fully set so is more likely to break apart. If you wait much longer the cake can become a little sticky and wedge itself inside the pan, so 10 minutes is that perfect sweet spot.

Once the cake has been removed from the pan and is cooling on a wire rack make the syrup. In a small saucepan bring the passion fruit and sugar to a simmer, cooking just until the sugar has been dissolved. Whilst the cake is still warm brush the syrup all over, allowing it soak into the cake. Set the cake aside until fully cool.

Once ready to glaze place the chocolate discs into a bowl and the cream into a small saucepan. Bring the cream to a simmer and pour over the chocolate, setting aside for a couple minutes before stirring together to form a silky ganache. Set the glaze in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes or until the glaze has thickened up but it still pourable. Set the cake, still on a wire rack, over a piece of parchment paper and pour the ganache all over the cake (the paper will catch any drips that fall from the cake).

Kept in a sealed container this cake will keep for up to 5 days.

This weeks recipe is the last in my healthy baking series with Weightwatchers, and this week its a simple thai inspired baked cod. Its a super healthy dish packed full of flavour and I love the taste of this dish, its bright and fresh and the fennel adds a great texture, lots of crunch. If you haven't seen the other recipes head to my youtube channel to watch the other three episodes.

To make this dish I make a paste full of herbs, gingers and a little bit of heat from red chilli, this is spread over cod fillets and baked, then served with fennel that is grilled with chilli, lime and soy sauce. Its a simple side but I love it, the fennel still retains a little crunch but is infused with great flavour, even if you dont serve this with the cod it is a great side.

Baked Cod

1 inch piece of ginger, peeled
2 stalks lemongrass, roughly chopped
2 green chillies, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
2 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
juice of 1/2 lime
small handful of coriander stalks (keep the leaves for garnish)
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 fillets of cod

Grilled Fennel
2 heads of fennel, sliced lengthways into 1cm thick pieces
1 red chilli, finely diced
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tbsp soy sauce

Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Blitz the ginger, lemongrass, green chillies, garlic, shallots, lime and fish sauce with and hand blender or a mini chopper until a rough mixture is formed. Place the fillets of cod onto the prepared baking tray and spread the paste over the top.

Mix together the red chilli, lime juice, olive oil and soy sauce and pour over the fennel, tossing to coat. Heat a griddle pan over medium/high heat and once hot, cook the fennel for about 4-5 minutes per side, cooking until dark grill marks appear.

Once cooked, surround the fish with the fennel and bake in the oven for about 22-25 minutes until the fish is cooked through.

It might be a dessert straight from the 80's but I still love chocolate mousse. Take me to a french bistro, give me that large bowl of chocolate mousse and let me dig in. I don't need many adornments but a little lightly baked rhubarb, to go with the dark chocolate, works wonders. This is another recipe that is part of my healthy eating series where I have paired with WeightWatchers for their new Flex Programme, and I know what your thinking, how is chocolate mousse healthy. When it comes to this recipe I have reduced the sugar and fat to make this a bare bones mousse, just chocolate, a little tough of sugar and eggs, no butter and no cream, but absolutely delicious.

75 g dark chocolate
2 tablespoons caster sugar
3 large eggs, seperated
2 tablespoons, level freshly squeezed orange juice
1 portion(s), medium rhubarb
1 tablespoon honey
1 inch slice root ginger

Preheat the oven to 190°C, 170°C fan.

To make the chocolate mousse place a small bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Add the chocolate and heat, stirring occasionally, until fully melted. Remove the bowl and set aside for the moment.

Place the egg whites into a large bowl and whisk with a hand mixer until foamy. Add the caster sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking for a minute before adding the second. Continue whisking on high speed until the meringue holds medium peaks.

Working quickly, add the yolks to a large bowl and mix in the orange juice. Pour in the melted chocolate, mixing until fully combined. Add a large spoonful of the egg whites and mix in. Fold in the rest of the meringue one third at a time. Once fully combined, divide the mousse between 4 glasses and refrigerate for 4 hours before serving.

Place the rhubarb into a small roasting tin with the honey, orange juice and the ginger, tossing together to coat. Roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until softened but still holding its shape. Top the mousse with the rhubarb and any syrup that is in the pan. Top with a few toasted flaked almonds.

Post sponsored by WeightWatchers