31 Randomly Selected Chocolate Recipes

If you’re sort of feeling in the mood for chocolate, but not sure what to make, you’re bound to find something suitable here. It’s a lucky dip and who knows what you might find in amongst these 32 randomly selected chocolate recipes. It’s well worth taking a peek to find out.

Post Updated February 2025

The original collection of 37 randomly selected chocolate recipes has been updated. I’ve removed dead recipes and links, improved images and added alt text and titles to make the post easier to peruse. There are now 31 recipes. A loss of only six, given this is eleven years on, is not bad I reckon.

Back in the day, it was exciting times for We Should Cocoa in February 2014. The ingredient for our challenge was chocolate. It was the month of Valentine after all. Chocolate? But we all know about the chocolate bit, everyone proclaimed. Ah, but there was a bit more to it than that. We joined forces with Dashing Dom and his Random Recipe challenge over at Belleau Kitchen.

37 Randomly Selected Chocolate Recipes

Random Recipes is a hoot and my favourite challenge – after We Should Cocoa of course.  It forces me to use some of the recipes and books that are sitting on my shelves that might otherwise never get a look in. Sometimes I have to make something well outside my comfort zone. Mostly it’s a bit of fun. I’m chuffed to have played a bigger part in it this month. The idea was for bloggers to pick a random chocolate recipe then make it, blog about it and link to us.

So I was just a little bit excited to see what random chocolate recipes everyone selected. This combination of my two favourite challenges meant the result was more than the sum of its parts or, as CT put it, had hybrid vigour.

Two for the price of one in fact, as you can take a look at this round-up and then go over to Belleau Kitchen to see how differently it’s done there. Variety is the spice of life after all. Thank you to all who took part in these 31 randomly selected chocolate recipes. It was fun.

Here we go:

Chocolate Courgette Cake

And the very first to get randomly cooking was Dom himself over at Belleau Kitchen with this rather good looking chocolate courgette cake taken from the Riverford Farm Cook Book. Dom admitted he was a tiny bit disappointed with this bake as it wasn’t sweet enough. I don’t like overly sweet cakes, so I think this would have suited me fine. He says though, that eaten hot with custard, this would make a great pudding.

Choc Chip Madeleines

After first getting a book without a single chocolate recipe in it, Galina of Chez Maxima got lucky on her second attempt. She dipped into the glorious Green & Black Ultimate Chocolate Recipes and pulled out choc chip madeleines which proved to be very popular with the little ones. I have the book, I haven’t made the recipe – yet!

Gerbeaud Slice

Gerbeaud slice is a new one on me, but it sounds absolutely heavenly. It was named after the cafe that created them in Budapest apparently and is a layered yeasted dough filled with apricot jam and nuts, then topped off with chocolate. Cheryl of Madhouse Family Reviews was lucky enough to pick this from the Hairy Bikers’ big Book of Baking.

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Of the two chocolate book’s in Ren Behan‘s collection, she selected Rococo Mastering the Art of Chocolate. Poignantly, she chose the vegan chocolate cake dedicated to Mott Green. He was the inspiring founder of The Grenada Chocolate Company who died so unexpectedly last year. Made with prunes and plenty of chocolate, it’s a fitting tribute.

Chocolate Truffles

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Debby of Cooking up a Storm in a Teacup picked a recipe for Nigel Slater’s chocolate truffles from his book Real Food. These, her first venture into chocolate making, were a complete success – chocolate truffles at their simplest and their best.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

This chocolate and beetroot cake is another random pick that turned out to be a perfect Valentine’s recipe. Caroline from Caroline Makes selected this from the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook and baked it in a lovely heart shaped bundt mould and decorated it with pink icing – perfect for Valentine’s Day and healthy too 😉

And for another take on this combination, I have a recipe for beetroot chocolate cake too, here on Tin and Thyme.

Chocolate Rugelach

The next pick was made for a tree hugger’s pot luck dinner. I love the sound of this and would have loved to go along to try out these adorable chocolate rugelach. Susan of The Spice Garden had the luck to get this recipe from Nigella’s book Feast, a book I’ve heard a lot about, but haven’t yet seen.

Coconut Cake

Manjiri of Slice of Me also picked Feast. She decided to modify her random recipe, Nigella’s Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake, to make it into a Coconut Cake with Coconut Flavoured Icing for a Valentine’s treat as well as a birthday and wedding anniversary cake.

Sour Cream Chocolate Loaf

Another Valentine cake was picked by Grace of Life Can Be Simple. Taken from Carol Walter’s Great Cakes, this deceptive looking simple sour cream chocolate loaf cake has a not so simple surprise inside. BTW Grace, I was unable to leave a comment on your blog as you have Google+ turned on.

Chocolate Truffles

And the Valentine theme rolls on with more chocolate truffles. These were also a first for Vikki over at The Kitchen Adventure. Her recipe came from Sweets & Chocolates, one of the few books she could actually get at.

Red Velvet Chocolate Mousse

Kate over at Veggie Desserts made red velvet beet chocolate mousse, using the beetroot as her red velvet colouring – so much preferable to artificial colour.

Chocolate Florentines

A charming story involving florentines comes from Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary. These came after a first recipe was selected, baked and deemed not to pass muster. With true dedication Elizabeth selected another recipe from the same book, Green & Black’s Chocolate Unwrapped and found these chocolate florentines to be much more successful, if rather time consuming to make.

Chocolate Truffle Tart

Over at Culinary Adventures with Camilla, we have a very swish looking Chocolate Truffle Tart. Chosen by Camilla’s boys from Chocolate: Cooking with the World’s Best Ingredient by Christine McFadden and Christine France, they were more than happy to help her eat it too. This despite forgetting to put the cocoa powder in the tart case – oops!

Real Chocolate Brownies

My contribution to these 31 randomly selected chocolate recipes were these chocolate brownies. I got very lucky to pick this recipe from Chantal Coady’s Real Chocolate. Brownies have to be one of the easiest and tastiest chocolate bakes ever and these were no exception. In fact they were some of the best brownies I’ve yet made.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

I am so enjoying all this chocolate decadence. This deep dark chocolate cake over at The Law Student’s Cookbook looks to continue the theme, but looks can be deceptive. This cake replaces the butter with cashew nuts and beetroot is used too. I’m not sure the scoop of chocolate ice-cream won’t have undone the good work though! Taken from Cook Yourself Thin.

Apple Shortcake With Chocolate Chip Cream

Much as I love chocolate, it’s nice to see a bit of fruit. Chris from Cooking Around the World picked Peach Shortcake from Jamie’s America. He didn’t have any peaches, which is not really surprising at this time of year, so substituted apples instead to make apple shortcake with chocolate chip cream. Some mascarpone in need of using up found it’s way into the chocolate chip cream which sounds like a wonderful dessert in it’s own right.

Mixed Berry And Chocolate Popovers

Karen of Lavender and Lovage  picked a bake that is very close to her heart – Yorkshire puds. Only these mixed berry and chocolate popovers, taken from the Reader’s Digest Baking Bible, come in a sweeter American form. I’m rather taken with the perles de prune and the forks as well as the popovers themselves. Do take care when checking out her post though, you will find so many stunning photographs to gaze longingly at, you might never leave.

Chocolate Rock Cakes

I never imagined Pooh was going to make an appearance in this round-up, but fabulously he does with these chocolate rock cakes over at Dragons and Fairy Dust. I foolishly thought I was the first to add chocolate to rock cakes, but I should have known better. These “provisions” were randomly selected from The Pooh Cook Book by Katie Stewart.

If you fancy trying some prune rock cakes too, you’ll find the recipe here in Tin and Thyme.

Chocolate Tea Bread

This chocolate tea bread from Antonia of A Little Bit Greedy, sounds as though it should work, but sadly didn’t. It was taken, rather reluctantly, from Chocolate by Jacqueline Bellefontaine. However, the flavours sounded good and I suspect with a little adaptation, this would be a delicious loaf.

And for something a little bit different, why not try this recipe for chocolate ginger tea bread?

Chocolate Pithiviers

True dedication to this month’s challenge was shown by Nat of HungryHinny who picked chocolate pithiviers from Green & Black’s Ultimate Chocolate Recipes. This not only involved making her own puff pastry but also creme patissiere. Luckily, all the hard work paid off as you can see from the gorgeous photo – now if only I’d got to try one …

Magic Chocolate Mud Pudding

I’m desperately hoping that Hannah of Corner Cottage Bakery will not be put off joining in again as her magic chocolate mud pudding proved to be anything but magical and was in fact a total disaster. The recipe’s fault, not hers she assures us. Taken from Chocolate Ecstasy by Christine France, I suspect she might not be using it again.

Maple Chocolate Roulad

Alexandra from The Lass with the Apron, was at first disappointed with her random recipe as she thought it a bit boring. Luckily, she soon saw the error of her ways and ended up really enjoying both the process of making and of eating this maple-chocolate roulade taken from American Cooking: New England, part of Time-Life’s Food of the World series.

Chocolate Fig Cakes

Ooh chocolate fig cakes. This is a recipe I’ve had my eye on for a while. It’s from William Curley’s Couture Chocolate and I have the book. Jill over at Lapin d’Or and More has given a very favourable review and being the chocolate master she is, I’m inclined to take her word for it. After all figs soaked in red wine has got to be good.

Chocolate Pralines

That Nutty Tart ended up with a recipe that assumed when it comes to making caramel, you pretty much know what you’re doing, which isn’t a good start when you don’t. Add to this the lack of chocolate in the house when you are specifically making a chocolate recipe, things didn’t quite go according to plan. However, all came right in the end and these chocolate pralines from Creole, Cajun and Mexican Recipes by Mirjaliisa Nuuttila and Elinor Schildt were by all accounts like delicate cloudy fudge that were far too easy to eat.

Salted Chocolate Lime Mousse

Lime and chocolate is a favourite combination of mine. Combine that with salted chocolate and I’m sure I’d be in foodie heaven. Gary from Exploits of a Food Nut was lucky enough to pick salted chocolate lime mousse from River Cottage Fruit Every Day. Not having made mousse before, he was rather pleased to be made to do so.

Chocolate Filled Chocolate Cookies

My eyes opened wide when I read chocolate-filled chocolate cookies, the recipe picked by Stacy of Food Lust People Love. As you know I don’t believe there is such a thing as too much chocolate. The results, not surprisingly, were pronounced to be delicious. The pick came from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days with the Naked Chef. Amazingly, I don’t have a single JO book.

Chocolate Cornflake Roughs

Taken from a NZ vintage 70s Woman’s Weekly Cookbook, this recipe for chocolate cornflake roughs, is one I suspect we can all relate to. This was Lucy’s lucky dip over at The KitchenMaid. She suggests NOT sharing them with the children and I think I’m with her on that.

Chocolate Stout Bread

And here is a recipe very much in the style of my own recent baking, although this one is without yeast – chocolate stout bread. Jenny over at The Lazy Vegan Baker picked this from one of her favourite vegan baking books, Kris Holecheck’s The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes. Luckily for her stress levels, it was a simple mix and bake affair.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Slices

Kate over at Gluten Free Alchemist selected a recipe she was luckily able to adapt easily to a gluten free one. The Chocolate Box from Marks & Spencer gave her chocolate-peanut butter oat slices. Strangely I made something similar myself recently and can attest that it’s truly delicious.

Chocolate Yorkshire Pudding

Is it a cake or is it a Yorkshire pudding? Having just moved into a new house Sally of Recipe Junkie had rather a lot on. Amazingly, she dipped into this challenge and ended up not having quite enough time to bake the cake she’d selected from her Great Aunt’s notebook. The resulting slightly stodgy cake, she has renamed Chocolate Yorkshire Pudding.

Chocolate Chip Scones

Chocolate scones I have made many a time, but never chocolate chip scones with marmalade in. This was the recipe picked for Nikki over at Yummy! Mummy Cooks the Books by her teenage son. The recipe came from Great British Bake Off Everyday, but Nikki wasn’t too impressed and reckoned her own version was better. Having baked for her brother’s coffee shop, she sounds like she knows what she is talking about.

Keep in Touch

So there you have it, 31 randomly selected chocolate recipes. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make any of the recipes featured here, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have a favourite cookbook for chocolate recipes?

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For more Valentine inspiration, take a look at this collection of Valentine’s Day chocolate recipes. And if you’d like to take a peek at some other chocolate recipe collections, try this one for chocolate traybakes, this one for autumnal chocolate recipes or this one for no-bake chocolate recipes.

Choclette x