Chocolate Whisky Cakes and a Book Shop Special
Last Sunday our fabulous local independent bookshop hosted an evening of talk, slides and music at our nearby community centre. I made a few cakes for it, as I do. One of the four bakes were these rather decadent mini chocolate whisky cakes.
For a small market town, we do well for events, with the Liskeard Book Shop hosting various talks from authors and the Liskerrett Centre providing all sorts of films, theatre, music, exhibitions as well as the Hub Cafe. This was a particularly good one which started with a talk by Lisa Woollett about her beach combing activities along the Cornish coast together with a show of her stunning photographs. If you get the chance, do take a look at her books: Sea and Shore Cornwall and Sea Journal.
After an interval of drinks, Michèle’s beautiful rolled pancake canapés, followed by my cakes, we were entertained by The Bookshop Band. The band consists of a couple with a vast array of musical instruments who sing songs inspired by the books they have read. They even get the authors to play along sometimes. It was a fantastic evening.
The chocolate whisky cakes went down a storm as did all the others. I tried to get a good balance of whisky to chocolate, so the chocolate was to the fore and the whisky was the supporting act. It worked.
- 125g unsalted butter
- 125g dark muscovado sugar
- 80g dark chocolate - I used 72%
- 2 large eggs - I used duck eggs
- 150g flour (half wholemeal, half plain white)
- 1 heaped tsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp mesquite powder (optional)
- 1 scant tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tbsp yoghurt
- 2 tbsp whisky
- 75g unsalted butter
- 120g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp whisky
- 75g 70% dark chocolate
- 24 dark chocolate tear drops
- Cream the butter and sugar together until pale in colour and fluffy in texture.
- Add the vanilla extract and beat some more.
- Beat in the eggs, one by one, adding a little of the flour if it curdles.
- Sieve in the dry ingredients and gently stir until just combined, adding the water near the end.
- Divide the mixture between 24 mini muffin moulds (cases optional).
- Bake at 180C for 15 to 20 minutes, when the cakes should be well risen and firm to the touch.
- Insert the chocolate centre nozzle into the cakes and inject a little of the filling into the centres.
- Leave in the moulds to cool for 10 minutes or so, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Melt the chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot, not boiling, water. Allow to cool a little.
- Beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth and creamy, then beat in the whisky followed by the chocolate.
- Spread onto the cooled cakes and decorate with a dark chocolate tear drop.
- Can make 12 cupcakes instead of 24 mini ones.
I am sending these chocolate whisky cakes off to Ness at JibberJabberUK for Love Cake. The theme this month is signature bakes and although the flavours may be different, I have become known now for making mini cakes like this.
I’m also submitting these to Bake of the Week with Sarah at Maison Cupcake and Helen at Casa Costello.
Gingey Bites
14th May 2016 at 11:47 amThis sounds like a fun evening! Those cakes look really good. I love the idea of the whisky with the choccy.
Choclette
14th May 2016 at 1:40 pmChocolate and whisky is my new favourite flavory combination.
Lucy Parissi
14th May 2016 at 6:50 pmOooh chocolate and whisky… Sounds like a marriage made in heaven – imagine it might be a little adult and smoky which suits me just fine 🙂
Choclette
14th May 2016 at 7:32 pmDefinitely one for adults Lucy. Luckily, there’s were no children present.
Angie@Angie's Recipes
14th May 2016 at 7:33 pmSounds like a really fun evening…bet these booze infused chocolate cakes were a hit! I definitely would go for a 2nd!
Choclette
15th May 2016 at 10:40 amThanks Angie and you would of course be very welcome to a 2nd 😉
Kellie@foodtoglow
15th May 2016 at 9:51 amThis sounds like my kind of bookshop talk! I can see why the cakes went down so well: they are gorgeous and quite adult. I bet the duck eggs make them extra rich too. MMM 🙂
Choclette
15th May 2016 at 10:41 amIt was a fun evening Kellie and luckily no kids around to be tempted by the spiked chocolate cakes 😉
Dom
15th May 2016 at 1:32 pmoooh, don’t they look so pretty… little cakes all in a row… and whisky and chocolate – quite frankly they are heavenly.
Choclette
15th May 2016 at 4:37 pmThank you Dom. Heavenly sounds an apt description to me 😉
Aimee
16th May 2016 at 11:54 amChocolate and whisky, how did you know these were two of my favourite things? These sound AMAZING!
Choclette
16th May 2016 at 7:51 pmAh, I’m not called a temptress for nothing 😉
J
16th May 2016 at 1:43 pmOh my goodness, these sound amazing!! What a creative and delicious combo!
Choclette
16th May 2016 at 7:52 pmThank you Jenn, whisky and chocolate is a fab combination 🙂
Sarah, Maison Cupcake
16th May 2016 at 7:01 pmThese look and sound fantastic, I like the idea of boozy whisky chocolate cake! Thanks for joining in with #BAKEoftheWEEK !
Choclette
16th May 2016 at 7:53 pmThanks Sarah, whisky and chocolate is my latest favourite combination.
Nayna Kanabar
16th May 2016 at 10:40 pmLooks like a lovely event and I am sure your cakes were appreciated by all. They look delicious.
Choclette
17th May 2016 at 8:53 amThanks Nayna. It’s always nice to get positive feedback.
Chris @thinlyspread
17th May 2016 at 11:49 amSounds like my kind of evening and those cakes look irresistible! It’s also nice to be able to get those bakes out into the community, a lovely thing to do!
Choclette
17th May 2016 at 6:01 pmYes, it was fun – the baking, the evening, the eating, the plaudits 🙂
Henk Kooiman
17th May 2016 at 2:52 pmLovely cakes, again ! It surprises me that noone asks for the recipes of the 3 other ones 😉 I am rather intrigued by the those beautiful green thingies. And what is mesquite powder ? You seem to have a rather large cupboard full of secret ingredients.
Best regards to Cornwall, Liskeard, the bookshop and of course Michèle.
Choclette
17th May 2016 at 6:06 pmAh, the beautiful green thingies are already on the blog, only I made them small this time. In fact I made them for another of Michele’s events a few years ago. I think I put more matcha in this year’s batch though. They were a great conversation starter with everyone wondering what they were, but everyone seemed to like them – /2012/03/matcha-white-chocolate-cupcakes-we/ I keep trying to cut down on my ingredients, but it never quite seems to work.
Henk Kooiman
17th May 2016 at 4:30 pmYou do not have to answer my question about mesquite powder. I have already googled it myself. Always very interesting to know more about natural ingredients.
Choclette
17th May 2016 at 6:06 pmI often add mesquite to chocolate cakes as it gives them a slight caramel flavour.
Helen at Casa Costello
18th May 2016 at 9:26 amI love hearing about where you live – Sounds like my sort of event: Books & Cakes. Just perfect! Your mini cakes looks so well decorated and luxurious. #BakeoftheWeek
Choclette
18th May 2016 at 9:48 amThank you Helen. Coming from you that is much appreciated. One of my dreams was to have a bookshop/cafe.
Angela / Only Crumbs Remain
18th May 2016 at 3:52 pmOoh these sound absolutely heavenly Choclette…I can certainly see why they went very quickly! Whiskey and Chocolate Yum! Pinning
Angela x
Choclette
18th May 2016 at 9:09 pmThanks Angela. I really like these sort of cakes which have a good texture and are flavoursome but don’t really take too long to make.
Glamorous Glutton
19th May 2016 at 12:17 pmThat sounds like a great evening and those cakes must have gone down a storm. GG
Choclette
19th May 2016 at 2:16 pmThey certainly all disappeared very quickly GG 😉
Jacqueline Meldrum
21st May 2016 at 11:06 amI always want to tuck into your cakes Choclette. They always look so enticing.
Choclette
22nd May 2016 at 9:45 amThanks Jac – I do try to make them look appealing 😉
nessjibberjabberuk
25th May 2016 at 10:45 pmMy husband would love these but I would have to ask him which of his whiskies to use first! Definitely not one for the kids to try!
Choclette
26th May 2016 at 8:53 pmHahaha, not for the kids, no. A collection of whiskies? I’m intrigued.
the caked crusader
29th May 2016 at 4:36 pmLook lovely – I think I’d be tempted to try them with rum (any excuse to get rum into a bake!)
Choclette
29th May 2016 at 5:44 pmHaha, it used to be rum with me CC, but I’ve decided whisky works even better – for the moment 😉