2008
Chocolate & Walnut RTE Cakes
About 20 minutes before RTE arrived yesterday, they called me up and said “We think it might be good to film you cooking.” YIKES!
I had easily the least well stocked fridge I’ve had in months, no time to shop or defrost anything and no idea what I could possibly cook. When I calmed down I realised all I could do was work backwards - look at what was there and then figure out what to make with that.
I had chocolate, cream, walnuts and mascarpone. Ok then, I’d make a chocolaty, walnutty…something.
I don’t know how the TV chefs do it, because I can tell you I didn’t find it one bit easy to cook with a great big camera in the kitchen. I was just thankful that, in the absence of taste-a-vision, it didn’t really matter how it turned out.
In the end they turned out fine, were eaten and enjoyed and will henceforth be known as RTE Cakes.
It’s a type of dessert I make fairly often, because it’s quick, can be made in advance and if you take some time to dress it up nicely can look quite impressive.
50g Walnuts
4 squares JD Gross Ecuador chocolate
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 oz butter
125g (half a tub) Lidl Mascarpone
50 mls cream
2 dessert spoons of castor sugar (or equivalent Splenda)
Raspberries
1. Make the nut base
Spread the walnuts on a baking tray with about a third of the butter and put into a medium oven for 5-10 mins, or until the nuts are getting slightly brown. Stir them well to coat with the butter about half way through.
Put the toasted nuts with one dessert spoon of sugar in a bowl and crush very finely. You can use a pestle and morter to do this, I use a stick blender, but you’ll need a high sided bowl or the nuts go everywhere.
2. Make the chocolate topping
Put the chocolate, cream and the rest of the butter in a microwaveable dish and microwave for about 30 seconds, until the chocolate has just melted. Mix until it is completely smooth.
Beat together the mascarpone, vanilla and the remainder of the sugar. Add the chocolate to this and beat together.
3. Assemble
To assemble the cups, divide the crushed walnuts between 4 cake cases* and press down firmly. Top with the chocolate mascarpone mixture. Then put into the fridge for at least 3-4 hours - overnight is also fine.
4. Serve
To serve, peel off the cake cases, surround with raspberries (or make a coulis if you are feeling more creative), top with cream and grate over a little chocolate.
* You can use paper cake cases, but I use silicon ones that are available in Dunnes at €4 for 12.
This isn’t the cheapest dessert you’ll ever have, but it tastes like it costs multiples of what it actual does. Here’s what it cost me.
Cost: Walnuts 50c; Chocolate 60c; Mascaprone 75c; Raspberries €1.00; sundry cupboard items 20c.
Total: €3.05 or just over 75c per portion.
The walnuts, chocolate and mascarpone are all from Lidl, but the raspberries were bought from a local grower and are a truly superior raspberry and exceptional value at €2.50 for a big punnet. If you live near Kilkenny, or are visting for the Art’s Festival, take yourself out to Purcell’s in Dunmore, on the road to Castlecomer, and get yourself some of these beauties.