Rainbow Cake in Stylist's Big Bake-Off Top 20

Remember the rainbow cake I made this summer? Well now it's made the Stylist Magazine's Big Bake-Off top 20. Stylist Magazine is one of my favourites so I'm v excited! If you'd like to vote for me just click here and look for the stripes... There is some amazing cake eye candy amongst the other 19 entries too!

Rococo Chocolate School

Last weekend I spent a lovely morning at Rococo's Chocolate School learning to temper chocolate (and true to my Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory fantasy, eating lots of it too). A small group of us gathered at their pretty Motcomb Street store and were taken through the process of tempering and piping into moulds by Laurent Couchaux, Rococo's very own 'Prof du Choc' (what a title!). Laurent has been working with chocolate for years and we took the opportunity to ask all sorts of questions as we scraped, poured and piped...

We got to sample the new autumn collection while our creations set (pear, apple, walnut and fig - yum!) along side a palate cleansing white tea and then lots of fun packaging up the goods with Rococo's beautiful bags and stickers. 

Glossy melted couverture chocolate at the start of it's tempering journey

Laurent - our Prof du Choc

Lots and lots of melted chocolate on tap!

Making flame shapes

Even clearing up is fun when chocolate is involved.

Gorgeous ganache flavours

Cocoa beans

Our tasting session with autumnal flavours and white tea

My wafers and decorative flame shapes

Laurent turns out some perfect poissons

Packaging up our creations

Pretty packaging

Triple Chocolate Layer Cake

Triple chocolate layer cake - chocolate cake in 3 layers with a white chocolate filling and chocolate ganache frosting decorated with candied violet petals. This beauty won a special Children In Need bake off judged by Mary Berry - I was so proud! I'm definitely going to work with ganache more in the future - a white chocolate one like this is next on my list to try.