#LetsGetFoodieChallenge Week One

The amazing Amanda Bootes has created a fun blogger challenge series called the Lets Get Foodie Challenge. Each challenger is given two weeks to complete the set challenge and the first one is possibly going to be my favourite as it's all about CHOCOLATE! And, not only is this weeks challenge going to be incredibly fun, it's going to an amazing cause as well, TheBigChocTeaParty in aid of the Sick Children's Trust.

For this challenge, we were challenged with making and sharing our best recipe including chocolate as the main feature, so what better place to turn to for inspiration than Mary Berry and The Great British Bake Off! While searching through, I found an amazing recipe using chocolate and amaretto to make small present shaped parcels which I have tried to make once before at Christmas and they turned out pretty good. This recipe does contain alcohol but you don't have to add it. 

I initially changed the recipe to include Pimm's rather than Amaretto as I found a similar recipe online that made cake from Pimm's, however they didn't pass the taste test by my dust bin of a boyfriend, therefore I tried again, sticking to good old Mary and remade everything with Amaretto - they taste much better, trust me!

Ingredients 

200g glacier cherries

1tbsp Amaretto

100g dark chocolate

50g milk chocolate

150g unsalted butter

120g caster sugar

6 medium eggs 

60g ground almonds

90g plain flour

For the topping
60g unsalted butter

1 tube icing (any colour)

2tbsp Amaretto

100g dark chocolate

100ml whipping cream
60g icing sugar (not in image)

Instructions

These instructions can also be followed from The Great British Bake Off book

1 | Heat your oven to 180°C. Place aside 16 glacier cherries into a small bowl and cover with the Amaretto. Stir, then leave in the fridge to soak until needed.

2 | Put the chopped chocolate (dark and milk) into a heatproof bowl. Set over a pan of hot water and melt gently. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir the chocolate until smooth, then leave to cool.

3 | Put the soft butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer or wooden spoon until light and creamy.

4 | Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5 | Beat in the cooled chocolate.

6 | Sift the almonds and flour into the bowl and fold in with a large spoon or spatula.

7 | Put the egg whites into a large bowl or electric mixer and whisk until they form soft peaks.

8 | Spoon the mixture into a pre-greased rectangular tin and leave to bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside until completely cooled. Whilst waiting for the sponge to cool, make up the icing by beating the butter an icing sugar (for the topping) until creamy. Add 1 tablespoon of Amaretto and mix thoroughly.

9 | Cut the sponge into 16 equally sized squares. Turn the squares upside down and remove a plug of cake from the centre of each piece (using either a small knife or an apple corer). Make sure the hole is large enough to fit one cherry in. Add a cherry into each of the holes in half the sponge squares, and fill the other halves in with the icing. Squash the halves together so each cake square has one cherry and one icing side.

10 | Make a chocolate ganache by melting the dark chocolate as before. Heat the whipping cream until hot, but don't let it boil. Stir the chocolate and cream together until completely combined and leave to cool slightly. Stir gently before use. Carefully dip the cake squares one at a time into the ganache and use a spatula to smooth down the sides and put the ganache on the top. Using the icing tube, decorate the parcels however you wish.

11 | Leave in the fridge to cool and harden for approximately 75 minutes and you're all done!

So...they don't look anything like Mary Berry's and look more like a five year old made them, but for a second attempt I'm pretty proud...at least Pete agrees that they taste yummy!

You can find more about Amanda, the Lets Get Foodie Challenge and the work of the Sick Children's Trust by following the links in the introductory paragraph!