I've had a lovely break from blogging (sometimes real life gets in the way) but am back to celebrate World Nutella Day!

Here is an easy pancake cake - the pancakes are sandwiched together with Nutella and Frangelico cream, then drenched in ganache and topped with hazelnuts. A variation could be to add roasted chopped hazelnuts to the cream or sliced bananas to a couple of the layers.



Nutella Crepe Cake
The amounts are a rough guide, it depends upon how many pancakes you make and the size of them. I made about 12 and they were trimmed to 19cm in diameter.
The Nutella spreads more easily if it is warmed up a little - do this in the microwave.

1 stack of British pancakes - recipe here
200g Nutella
300ml double cream
2 tablespoons icing sugar
2 tablespoons Frangelico liqueur (optional)
Chocolate ganache to cover the cake (100g dark chocolate + 100ml double cream)
Hazelnuts dipped in caramel to decorate, or chopped roasted hazelnuts

Make the pancakes and trim them all to the same size using a round plate as a guide.
Whip the double cream to soft peaks with the icing sugar and Frangelico liqueur.

Assemble by spreading the Nutella onto each pancake, followed by the double cream mixture. Repeat with each pancake and stack them on a serving plate.
Spread the ganache over the top and decorate with hazelnuts.





Other Nutella recipes on Cherrapeño that you may like to try:
Nutella Cookie Tarts
Chocolate Covered Ritz Crackers, Filled With Nutella & Peanut Butter
Nutella Snowball Cakes
Nutella Filo Cups
Coffee Macarons with Nutella Cream
 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

This content belongs to Nic at Cherrapeno. All writing and photography copyright N Fowers © 2007-2011 unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
. 
.

I spotted these cute Santa hats on top of olive oil bottles at Vom Fass in Bath the other week!






♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

This content belongs to Nic at Cherrapeno. All writing and photography copyright N Fowers © 2007-2011 unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
.

Christmas cupcakes

Last week I was looking around for cake recipes to make something Christmassy, when I came across the Baking Mad website. There were some interesting cupcake recipes and I settled on this chocolate one for my cakes.



As well as cupcakes, I wanted to make a few round balls and turn them into Christmas cake baubles, for which I used my silicone sphere moulds. If you don't have these moulds, you could make cake 'pops'.


They won't really hang on the tree, they're too heavy!

Make the cupcakes according to your recipe and/or cake balls. Spread a bit of vanilla butter icing on the top of the cupcakes, or, if you made cake balls, sandwich two halves together with a little of the vanilla butter icing.

Roll out some ready made icing and cut circles to fit the top of the cupcakes. For the balls, you want to brush them with a tiny bit of warmed apricot jam (so that the icing sticks onto the cake) and cut out a larger circle of icing, gently easing it around the cake to cover it.

Decorate with coloured icing cut into holly leaves and chocolate beans, or any other decoration that you want. Dust with edible glitter.



I made two sizes for the cake balls


Some of the Baking Mad recipe ideas were lovely, but I went with my own design in the end


The cupcakes were moist with good flavour





I'm sending these little treats over to English Mum’s Big Christmas Bakeoff .

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

This content belongs to Nic at Cherrapeno. All writing and photography copyright N Fowers © 2007-2011 unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
.

I was recently asked to try some House of Castello® cheeses, how can I say no to cheese? It's one of my favourite ingredients and we do eat a lot of it.



There are currently 8 Castello® cheeses on sale in the UK, including Pineapple Halo and a fiery Black Pepper Halo. The cheese is produced in Denmark and can be found in all good supermarkets. I could only find two of the cheeses - the Castello® Creamy Blue and the Castello® Danish Blue Traditional.



The Castello® Creamy Blue is sharp, salty and would be perfectly paired with crackers and ripe figs. The Castello® Danish Blue Traditional cheese is perfect with grapes, toasted rye bread and quince jam.


Castello® Creamy Blue on a simple digestive biscuit, it's the sweet and salty combination that I like

You can find out more about the House of Castello® cheese range on their website, where you will find a unique cheese tool, called Host Your Own, to help you create your ultimate cheeseboard.
They are also on Facebook and Twitter.

Do you love your garden?

If so, take a look at the cracking Love Your Garden website. It's a wealth of information on looking after your garden, from lawn care to pest and disease control. There are even forums to discuss your garden problems, solutions and receive/give advice.

At the moment they are running a 'carrot' competition for bloggers and you could win a £200 restaurant voucher, or one of three copies of 'comfort & Spice' by Niamh Shields (from Eat Like a Girl) who is judging the competition.



I was the lucky winner of last month's 'tomato' competition judged by James Ramsden (with my summer tomato tart with a chilli cheese pastry) and I have chosen to go to the The Ledbury for my prize!

Thank you so much!



This content belongs to Nic at Cherrapeno. All writing and photography copyright N Fowers © 2007-2011 unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.

Sometimes my Google Reader throws up a real gem, like these pumpkin cinnamon roll pancakes. Lori from Recipe Girl says that this is the best breakfast treat she has ever made, and I have to agree! What a change from our usual boring pancakes with maple syrup and whippy.


Cinnamon filling

I'm not going to put the recipe here, because the only change I made was to use mascarpone cheese for the icing, just click the link for it: pumpkin cinnamon roll pancakes.
If you don't like pumpkin or can't find it (I got mine in Waitrose) just make ordinary American pancakes instead, adding the cinnamon filling and cream cheese icing - D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S.!

I believe the creator of the original cinnamon roll pancake recipe was Robin Sue from the Big Red Kitchen, she also has a recipe for 'baked' cinnamon roll pancakes, with a maple cream cheese drizzle..... WOW!


Remember to wipe the pan out between pancakes


Oh YES!

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

This content belongs to Nic at Cherrapeno. All writing and photography copyright N Fowers © 2007-2011 unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.

I love chocolate and I LOVE this book! Couture Chocolate by William Curley is one of those books that you can't put down. The glossy, beautiful photographs will have you drooling and wanting to lick every page!