- 1 hour ago
The Chocolate Queen - Season 5 Episode 100 -
(special) christmas.special.2025
(special) christmas.special.2025
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00:00It is probably no surprise that Christmas is my favourite time of year and I've brought in some very special guests to join me in this year's Chocolate Queen Christmas Special. I have Khan and Alicia. So Khan, what are you going to be creating?
00:17Okay, so usually I'm all about the ham, but for you I'm making my Christmas coupes. They're super simple. It's a mixture between a trifle and a chocolate ripple cake.
00:26And Alicia, I am making a spiced gingerbread cake, which I think will be a perfect way to decorate as a family.
00:34And Kirsten, what about you? What are you making?
00:35Well, I've got a whole list, but I'll tell you a few of the things.
00:38I'm making a cupcake wreath, which is really simple, but packs a wow factor.
00:44Some pudding truffles with white chocolate decoration to look like custard.
00:48We're doing some almond chocolate bonbons and so much more.
00:52But we've got quite a big list of things to do, so let's get started.
00:56Khan, I'm so excited to see this. Now, what is the inspiration behind this recipe?
01:07Okay, so it's kind of like a chocolate ripple cake, kind of like a trifle, but I like a shortcut.
01:12I like easy things, so this is very simple.
01:15So I'm going to start with a little bit of cream.
01:16Okay.
01:17We've got some thickened cream here. That's just going to go into the pot.
01:21Okay, so we're just going to bring that to a boil with a little bit of vanilla bean paste.
01:27Vanilla bean paste, the perfect flavour for cream.
01:30I love it. It smells so good.
01:34Make sure you're generous with that.
01:36100%.
01:36Big teaspoon.
01:40It's Christmas.
01:40It is.
01:41Some glucose.
01:43So usually I actually use sugar with this, but you gave me a little tip on glucose.
01:46Why do we use glucose?
01:48So glucose is really good because it will actually hold the moisture in the cream.
01:52With this sort of recipe, you find the cream starts to evaporate moisture in the fridge and can crack.
01:58So this will help to avoid it cracking.
02:00Perfect. Love that.
02:01And it's not as sweet as sugar.
02:03Sticky stuff, isn't it?
02:04Sticky. Very, very sticky.
02:05So we're just going to bring this to a boil.
02:07And while that's happening, could you grab me some of the chocolate and I'll put a pinch of salt in.
02:13Salt makes all the difference.
02:15Always.
02:16Alright, some chocolate to go in.
02:19This is my sort of cream.
02:22Okay, that's come to a boil now.
02:24So I'm just going to pour that over the chocolate.
02:26This will melt it.
02:27Okay.
02:28And I love the use of vanilla bean paste because you can see all the real specks of vanilla.
02:31That's amazing.
02:32I love that you scrape it all out.
02:35Well, you don't want to waste anything.
02:37You don't.
02:38So you're going to spatula that or you're going to whisk it?
02:41Well, I'm going to whisk it.
02:42I was just trying to make sure that everything came off the sides and the bottom first.
02:46Thank you, my love.
02:48Okay, so that's looking really good, really smooth.
02:51The chocolate's all melted.
02:52We're just going to pour some more of that cream back in.
02:55Nice.
02:56So you would add the colder cream in, I'm guessing, so it doesn't need as long in the fridge.
03:00Exactly.
03:01We are still going to set this for about five or six hours, though.
03:04Okay.
03:05Okay, that's looking perfect.
03:07I'll take that for you.
03:09We're going to put a little bit of plastic wrap on this just so that it doesn't form like
03:12a skin.
03:13I'm going to pop this in the fridge and grab the other one that I've got ready while
03:17you get started on the chocolate shavings.
03:19All right, for the chocolate curls, I've got kind of a big chunk of chocolate.
03:22Becan dish is a thin one, but I actually microwave this for about 20 seconds to soften
03:28it and you'll get much better curls.
03:30I love that.
03:30We're all set.
03:40So this is beautiful.
03:42It's cooled down.
03:43It's got a lot thicker as well.
03:45We're going to give that a little whip.
03:46I get very, very nervous about this.
03:49I always am so scared about overwhipping my cream and especially because I don't know
03:54how to bring it back.
03:55Add a little bit of chilled cream to it if you've overwhipped it just slightly to bring
04:00it back.
04:00But it is better to always underwhip cream.
04:04100%.
04:04Now I've got a peeler and the first couple of these that I peel off are not going to be
04:10huge, but because I've warmed this a little bit, I'll start getting some nicer shavings,
04:17some nicer curls.
04:20I love it.
04:21You're doing that but staring over here to be like, is he overwhipping it?
04:27It was meant to be my side eye.
04:30They're very big, aren't they?
04:33They're bigger.
04:33Once you start getting closer to the center, you start getting some of the bigger curls.
04:38So how many of these chocolate curls are you wanting?
04:41Well, just go crazy because whatever's left over, I'll eat.
04:43Okay, good.
04:45See, this is the point where I'm about to get real scared.
04:48Not there just yet.
04:50Starting to get a little bit of body.
04:54I'm amazed at how clean you are.
04:57Well, I'm going very slow.
04:58Very slow.
04:59That's a trick.
04:59Very, very slow.
05:00Okay, I know I said you can go crazy, but I think you're good.
05:03Stop it.
05:03Yeah, yeah, you're good.
05:04All right, I'll stop.
05:05That's the last one.
05:06I'll get our glasses up.
05:13I'm just going to push that.
05:15Don't!
05:16No!
05:17About this point is when I would usually stop and start doing this because I get way too
05:22scared.
05:23But I think that's the right thing to do because I think you're almost there.
05:25Yeah, I would stop.
05:27Stop it.
05:29That's a beautiful consistency.
05:33And you don't want to lick the beaters?
05:35No, I'm really scared you're going to turn it on.
05:38So, assembly time.
05:42So, we have the chocolate ripple biscuits here.
05:44Yeah.
05:45It doesn't get any easier than this.
05:47All we do is scoop a little bit of cream into each of our glasses.
05:51Yeah.
05:51Break up some of those biscuits, then another scoop of cream, some more biscuits, some more
05:57cream, some berries, and then these shavings.
05:59All right.
06:00Perfect.
06:00So.
06:03Oh, look how beautiful that is.
06:06Can I do biscuit duty?
06:07Of course.
06:09Okay.
06:09And I always like to put the biscuits on the side so you can actually see the contrast.
06:17Yep.
06:18And do you think this is better than the traditional chocolate ripple cake, which is a classic Australian
06:24cake where we put these biscuits with cream in between?
06:27Well, I don't know if it's better, but it looks a lot more fancy.
06:31Okay.
06:32This is our last layer.
06:33This is so sexy already.
06:34All right.
06:36Should I go with the raspberries?
06:38Go for them, I love them.
06:38And some of those big curls.
06:42The big curls.
06:43I think the raspberry just cuts through really nicely as well, just a little bit of freshness.
06:47And I reckon you've chosen the most perfect glasses for this.
06:50The glasses are beautiful.
06:51A little bit of transparency, but a touch of colour.
06:55Love it.
07:01Oh my God, gorgeous.
07:02Khan, these look absolutely sensational.
07:04I would be happy to serve these on Christmas Day.
07:07They are a beautiful addition to any Christmas table.
07:10And honestly, they are so easy to make.
07:12Even better.
07:13Let me introduce you to my Christmas pudding truffle.
07:31All the best bits of Christmas in one truffle.
07:34And I've brought Khan along with me to give me a hand.
07:37Actually, you're going to do the majority of it.
07:39Love that.
07:39So for this Christmas truffle, I'm going to start tempering the chocolate.
07:42If you can basically mix all of these ingredients in with my leftover cake crumbs.
07:49When I have leftover cake crumbs, I basically put them in the freezer.
07:53And they're perfect for a truffle anytime.
07:55I love that little tip.
07:56I never freeze cake.
07:57I didn't even know you could do that.
07:58Yeah, if it's getting a little bit stale or I've got off cuts where I've trimmed a cake,
08:03I always keep it.
08:04I know that you just asked me to put all of this in there, but I want to watch you temper
08:07because I'm really bad at it.
08:09This is an easy way of tempering.
08:11So I'm doing it on the induction cooktop, just on a low setting.
08:15And I'm going to stir the chocolate while it melts.
08:18So I've got 50% melted chocolate, 50% solid chocolate.
08:22And then we transfer it immediately to a bowl and give it a stir.
08:25And then it's tempered.
08:27You're lying.
08:28I'm not lying.
08:28It's really easy.
08:29Okay, okay, okay.
08:30All right, well then I'll get started on this.
08:32So we've got some glacé cherries.
08:33Yes.
08:34And you can interchange these fruits and nuts for really anything that you like.
08:38Dried apricots, some pecan nuts, some raisins chopped.
08:43Pistachios, love that.
08:44I know.
08:46Some cocoa powder.
08:47Dutch processed cocoa powder.
08:49Oh, and condensed milk.
08:50My favourite.
08:51To bring it all together.
08:53Well, you can do this with your kids as well, can't you?
08:54Because you can just get them to like mix and roll while you're doing that.
08:57Absolutely.
08:58This is a great one with the kids.
08:59Now, you don't want me to like squish them, do you?
09:02It's just like a gentle mix.
09:02No, you can squish it together because we're going to roll them eventually anyway.
09:13So I've got half solid, half liquid.
09:16So scrape it immediately into a bowl and then give it a really good stir.
09:21Now, I've given you all the messy jobs.
09:23If you want to, do you want to start rolling those into little puddings?
09:27No problems.
09:28Okay, so how many am I getting?
09:30That is going to make ten.
09:31Okay.
09:32Ten little Christmas pudding truffles.
09:35This chocolate we have to really vigorously stir until all the solid chocolate is melted.
09:41Once all the solid chocolate is melted, my chocolate is tempered.
09:44We're ready to go.
09:45Oh my God.
09:46Are your puddings ready?
09:46No pressure.
09:47No, my puddings aren't ready.
09:48Yeah.
09:49I feel like I'm in a pressure test right now.
09:51Really?
09:52Yes.
09:52You're getting PTSD.
09:53They're so cute.
10:07They are really cute.
10:09Now for the fun part.
10:10This is the custard drip on top, which we're doing with white chocolate.
10:14So I'm just making a piping bag out of baking paper and then fold the base.
10:19Or you can use a Ziploc bag.
10:20Okay, that was so cool.
10:23That was really, really cool.
10:24I love that you just skipped right past that when we're making a piping bag.
10:27Yeah.
10:28There's yours.
10:29So we're going to put a little bit of chocolate in both.
10:33And this will set on top.
10:35I'm learning so much today.
10:37Really?
10:38That's good.
10:39I just don't know how to work with chocolate.
10:41I think it's intimidating for a lot of people.
10:43But if you know how, it can be really quite easy.
10:45So then when your seam is there, we always fold away from the seam.
10:49Seam is there.
10:51Fold away from seam.
10:53Yeah.
10:53Like so.
10:54Very good.
10:57Cut a small amount off the end of the bag.
10:59And then we just pipe in little drips to represent the custard on top of a pudding.
11:09Like a little star.
11:11Exactly.
11:11We want the drips to go down.
11:13And then we're going to replicate the holly and the berries by putting some slithered pistachios.
11:19And a little bit of glassy cherry.
11:24Ooh.
11:25All right.
11:26Here goes nothing.
11:26All right.
11:27No pressure.
11:29I'm feeling very pressured.
11:31No.
11:31They look beautiful.
11:32Hello, I'm walking.
11:36Cut.
11:38Oh, you're doing it very well.
11:42Cute.
11:43That's really good.
11:48Oh, my God.
11:50These are so adorable.
11:51And so many different versions.
11:55Even if your cake isn't chocolate, this will still come together beautifully with any sort
12:00of cake crumb.
12:01Oh, this is so cute.
12:04I actually think yours might be a little bit nicer than mine.
12:07No.
12:08You're just saying that because I'm the guest.
12:10I always think that this is going to be so much more difficult than it is.
12:14All right.
12:15Last one.
12:15Look at that.
12:25So adorable.
12:26That was so quick and easy.
12:28Now I've got the beautiful Christmas motive plate here.
12:33So we're just going to place them on the plate.
12:36And they're ready to serve.
12:37But these will actually last quite a while.
12:39So you could make these up to two weeks in advance.
12:42Wow.
12:42These make a perfect gift as well.
12:45They don't last long once you do make them.
12:47If they're just in a plastic container, I will tell you that.
12:50It's best to wrap them up or put them away.
12:57What's the verdict?
12:58They're really, really good.
13:00All the flavours of Christmas in a little individual Christmas pudding truffle.
13:05Thanks so much for your help, Khan.
13:06Mm-hmm.
13:08Mm-hmm.
13:08The way to my husband's heart is through coffee and dessert.
13:27And this is the perfect combination for the Christmas table as a showstopper.
13:32It's my coffee chocolate Christmas tree.
13:35We're going to start with some meringue dis.
13:37I have some egg white here at room temperature.
13:41The egg white at room temperature means you'll get up to 30% more incorporation of air.
13:46We add in some cream of tartar.
13:49This is a little bit of acid that makes the egg white creamy.
13:52It's not going to separate as quickly.
13:54I'm going to whip this up to a medium peak before gradually adding in the sugar.
13:59I've added in the caster sugar and then I've continued mixing for approximately a minute
14:18to ensure that sugar dissolves and has a stabilising effect on the meringue.
14:22I've got some Dutch processed coca powder that I'm adding in with the icing sugar and I'm
14:30going to sprinkle that over the top.
14:31These are both sieved.
14:35Then I just gently fold that through.
14:38We want to maintain as much air as possible.
14:41You can see I have drawn a template here.
14:56I'm doing four different sizes for the meringue.
15:00And I've done a template to make it easy to pipe to use as a guide.
15:03I have a French star piping tip, which is a fancy name for a star nozzle.
15:13I've set the oven at 140 degrees Celsius.
15:17Just before they go in, I'm going to sprinkle some pecan nuts on top.
15:21But you can interchange the pecan nuts really with any nut.
15:25And they're going to bake for approximately an hour or until they're crunchy.
15:33This is one of those decadent coffee chocolate creams that is perfect on its own, but it does
15:40make this dessert magnificent.
15:42I'm going to use some beautiful fresh cream.
15:45This is a family-owned Australian company and the quality of cream is absolutely exceptional.
15:51I'm going to place that directly into the pot and we're going to whip the other half for
15:56the dessert.
15:56In this bowl, place some sugar, some egg yolks, and we mix the two together.
16:05It's important when you put egg yolks and sugar together that you do mix it straight away.
16:10Otherwise, you can get dried pieces of yolk because the sugar actually burns it a little bit.
16:15Now for the true hero of the dish, which is the coffee.
16:18I'm using this beautiful coffee machine.
16:22It's as simple as pressing the espresso button.
16:26The perfect thing about using espresso from a machine of this quality is the flavour that
16:32you get in the coffee, which will shine right through the dessert.
16:37You're going to thank me later for the delicious coffee flavour.
16:41We place this in with the egg yolks and sugar.
16:44Whisk it in.
16:47I've got all of that ready.
16:49I'm now going to bring this beautiful cream to a boil.
16:51Next, we add chocolate into a bowl.
16:56So a combination of dark and milk.
16:59This is going to give us enough firmness in the cream that we can actually pipe it.
17:06Put a sieve on top.
17:07This is what we call an anglaise.
17:09When we create an anglaise, we always must sieve it because we sometimes get a little bit
17:14of cooked egg on the bottom of the pot.
17:18Cream's boiled.
17:19Pour it over our egg yolk, sugar and coffee mixture.
17:24And we place this mixture back into the pot.
17:31Now on a low heat, we're going to stir this continuously until we reach 80 degrees Celsius.
17:37Now I have a thermometer, I almost feel like I'm cheating.
17:40And I'm going to bring it up to 80 degrees.
17:42We're almost ready to assemble the tree, but first we have to create the chantilly cream.
18:10Make sure your cream is really cold, place it into the bowl, sprinkle the sugar on top
18:15and whip it up until it holds on the whisk.
18:25Place it into a piping bag with a plain round nozzle, then we're ready to go.
18:30Now for the assembly, you can do this on Christmas Eve, but I wouldn't do it much earlier than
18:35that, but the meringue disc can be made two weeks in advance and kept it airtight.
18:41Place a little bit of cream in the base and we start with the largest and that cream's
18:48just going to secure it onto the plate.
18:51Now we're ready for the decorating.
18:53We're going to alternate using the two creams that we've made, our beautiful coffee chocolate
18:58cream and our chantilly cream.
19:00Don't go too close to the edge, so leave about 10 millimetres and then we pipe in.
19:09I'm going to do two of each.
19:17That way you're not picking up and putting down the bag too frequently.
19:21Place the next layer on top, that is looking fantastic already, and we continue to build
19:32up those layers.
19:33Now for the last layer, this one I'm just going to do one of each cream.
19:58Getting smaller and smaller.
20:03Oh, it's fantastic.
20:05And we finish with the smallest meringue on top.
20:09Just pride a serving.
20:11We give it a good dousing of icing sugar.
20:14Who is not going to be impressed with this stunning chocolate Christmas tree?
20:19The flavour of coffee comes through beautifully.
20:22We've got fresh cream in there.
20:23What's not to love about Christmas dessert?
20:25Move over paper crowns and dad jokes.
20:40These Christmas bonbons come with something much better inside, caramelised almonds and
20:45chocolate.
20:46We start by cooking the almonds in a sugar syrup.
20:49So add water and sugar to the saucepan.
20:52Dissolve the sugar and bring it to a slight boil before we add the almonds in.
20:59Add the almonds in.
21:01You can interchange the almonds with any sort of nut.
21:05And make sure all the sugar is dissolved before you add in the nuts.
21:08Now the almonds are coated, I'm placing it onto a lined tray.
21:15Get all that sugar syrup out as well.
21:18If you want to make these a little more economical, you can substitute more of the almonds with some
21:25rice bubbles and they'll still be beautiful and crunchy.
21:27We're going to bake these in the oven at 160 degrees Celsius for approximately 10 to 12 minutes
21:34until they're a beautiful golden brown colour.
21:37I've roasted the nuts.
21:58This is the colour that you're looking for and you can see that they're beautiful and crunchy.
22:02I've tempered the chocolate and I've created some tubes just with some plastic.
22:08So just simply roll the plastic up and tape it to hold it in place.
22:12And I've pre-made all of these ready for our bonbons.
22:16Now we have all our wonderful ingredients which we're going to add into the tempered chocolate.
22:20So slithered pistachios.
22:22You can interchange any of these nuts and dried fruits for anything that you like.
22:26We have some candied orange.
22:28You can also use dried orange pieces or glacé cherries.
22:32Some rice bubbles.
22:34Rice bubbles is a great filler so if you don't want to spend as much on these, use more rice
22:40bubbles and less nuts.
22:44Mix that through.
22:46Make sure all the nuts and fruit are completely coated in the chocolate.
22:50I think that looks pretty good.
22:52It looks well coated.
22:53As tempting as it is to eat it straight from the bowl, I am going to put them in the tube.
22:59I'm going to use the same tray I had for the nuts.
23:03And we fill them with the mixture.
23:06If the mixture does go a little bit cold, you can gently reheat it while you're stirring
23:11with your hairdryer.
23:13Now once these are finished, they can go into the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes.
23:23Now our bonbon bases are all set.
23:44We're going to simply cut the tape off now.
23:48Make sure you don't leave them in the fridge for too long.
23:51If you leave them in the fridge for too long, they can get a little bit of condensation on
23:55the surface which you want to avoid.
24:01Unravel them.
24:02What I have here is some cellophane.
24:06So we simply wrap them in some cellophane.
24:09The cellophane is slightly longer than the chocolate bonbon.
24:14And then I'm going to tie some ribbon on the ends.
24:19Not only are these fantastic for your own Christmas, but they make a beautiful gift.
24:24This is a sort of bonbon that I would really want on my table on Christmas Day to receive
24:35as a gift.
24:37Beautiful caramelised almonds, a touch of pistachio, orange, and of course we can't do without
24:43the white chocolate.
24:54So excited to have Alicia in the kitchen with me, sharing one of your favourite Christmas
25:05recipes.
25:06It is.
25:07You know, I'm making a gingerbread cake today.
25:09I love the idea of this.
25:11So what would you like me to do?
25:12Okay, so what I'm going to get you to do is take our dry ingredients and pop them into
25:15this bowl here.
25:16We've got plain flour, self-raising flour, our beautiful spices.
25:19And over here, I am going to start melting our brown sugar, milk, butter, and our white
25:24chocolate.
25:25Okay, so some ground ginger in here.
25:28Yes, please.
25:29As soon as a cake like this goes in the oven, it just smells like Christmas.
25:33Good.
25:34And we've got some spices here.
25:37We have ginger, we've got cinnamon, we've got allspice, and we have clove.
25:42And some plain flour and self-raising flour to give the cake a little bit of a lift.
25:46A little bit of a lift.
25:47And some vanilla bean paste, so we'll add that in.
25:51Beautiful.
25:53So over here in my wet ingredients, I have the butter, the milk, and the brown sugar.
25:57And Kirsten, if you wouldn't mind weighing out 120 grams of white chocolate, please.
26:01I'm pretty good with my eye.
26:03Are you going to guess?
26:04Yeah.
26:05All right.
26:06Yeah, that seems about 120 grams.
26:09So we want to melt this down gently.
26:11It might take around 10 to 15 minutes.
26:13So Kirsten, I'm going to have you whisk this in very gently.
26:22I think I can do that.
26:23Lovely.
26:24Now you don't need two people in the kitchen to make this.
26:27Absolutely not.
26:27I think the beauty of a mud cake is they typically are a melt and mix recipe.
26:32And I love that you can mix this by hand.
26:34You don't actually need to get the mixer out.
26:37Now this is a recipe from your cookbook.
26:40It is.
26:41Everybody loves cake is the title of the book, which I think is pretty fitting because I
26:45certainly love cake.
26:46So I think it's time that those eggs can go into that batter now.
26:48It's going in.
26:50And just whisk that in.
26:51Excellent.
26:51Now I've pre-lined our cake tin.
26:54You want to make sure that there's baking paper on the base and on the sides of the cake
26:58tin.
26:59Beautiful.
26:59In that goes.
27:00Amazing.
27:01Pouring that in.
27:02That's perfect.
27:04Now a little tip that I have for baking cakes is I like to put a piece of aluminium foil over
27:09my cake tins like this.
27:11So this way, the cake rises evenly and you don't get that sort of domed top.
27:16We're going to bake this for around 60 to 70 minutes.
27:19It's low and slow.
27:32Now for the frosting.
27:33The best part, right?
27:34I know.
27:35Any tips with frosting?
27:37So what we do is we want lovely room temperature butter here.
27:40That is going into our mixing bowl.
27:42The secret to this frosting.
27:44Condensed milk.
27:45Exactly.
27:46So we're going to pop our condensed milk and our butter into the bowl here.
27:50We'll place our electric beaters on here.
27:53All right.
27:54And how long approximately do you think you'd whip it for?
27:56I think at least five minutes, which will give you a nice little arm workout along the
28:00way.
28:01Once you can see those starting to incorporate, you can add in the powdered sugar, but just
28:05turn the mixer off.
28:06I'm just going to give this a little stir and then turn that mixer back on up to high.
28:13So the buttercream, when you first make it, might look a little bit curdled.
28:16That just means it needs to be whipped longer.
28:21All right.
28:22So now that that buttercream is looking beautiful and smooth, we can add in a bit of salt and
28:26some of our vanilla.
28:27A little bit of vanilla.
28:29Lovely.
28:29We can add generous pinch of salt.
28:32I like this job.
28:33Yeah.
28:34Just being the ingredients adder.
28:37Right.
28:37We'll give that a bit of a mix.
28:38Now, we want to take just a scoop of white buttercream.
28:45That white frosting there is going to be what we decorate our gingerbread house with.
28:49And into this bowl here, we're going to add our spices and a little bit of cocoa powder.
28:53So add it in the clove, cinnamon.
28:56Gorgeous.
28:57And then we're just going to put in a scoop of the cocoa powder.
29:00A scoop.
29:00Exactly.
29:00Do you trust me to shake it?
29:01I do trust you.
29:02That's beautiful.
29:02Tell me when to stop.
29:03Beautiful.
29:03That's going to make that taste like a beautiful chocolatey spice buttercream.
29:07Beautiful.
29:11That is looking beautiful and silky.
29:14It's time to get it onto the cake.
29:15Okay, perfect.
29:16So here's a big reveal.
29:17The big reveal.
29:19A beautifully steamed cake.
29:21And it is really flat.
29:23The foil works perfectly.
29:24A flat top.
29:25The first thing we need to do is take our cake out of the tin.
29:27So pull this up and out.
29:30Just like that.
29:33She's gorgeous.
29:34The first thing that we need to do is because the top is a little bit uneven, we want to
29:37trim a little bit of the top off.
29:39So when you're trimming, always use a serrated edge knife.
29:42Exactly.
29:43And rotate the cake around so that you're not cutting from one side to the other.
29:48That looks like a beautiful, moist base.
29:50A very moist cake.
29:52So with the same technique, running that serrated knife around the edges to make two layers of cake.
29:58Beautiful.
29:58All right.
29:59So once you've got it marked, then slowly edge your way in.
30:04And do you want me to trim the edges?
30:06Yes, please.
30:07So you want to pick the vessel or the plate that your cake is going to go on.
30:10And we're going to trim this into a house shape from here.
30:14So you're going to cut me here and here.
30:16And then we can do all of the sides.
30:18Yeah.
30:19Beautiful.
30:20Now these won't go to waste.
30:21You know exactly what we do with leftover cake.
30:24I'm going to do this side.
30:25Okay.
30:25So you're happy with that angle there?
30:27I think that's fabulous.
30:28That's excellent.
30:29I always think that it's nice to trim the edges of your cake, particularly a mud cake that bakes for so long.
30:35Sometimes the edges can be a little bit drier.
30:37Nice.
30:39I think that's pretty square.
30:40You've got the beautiful plate there.
30:42I do.
30:42So let's put our bottom edge on first.
30:44Now we can spread our delicious chocolate buttercream on the inside.
30:48Okay.
30:48Shall we get a big scoop?
30:49How generous are we feeling?
30:52Perfect.
30:52So just levelling that out with a palette knife or a spatula, whatever you prefer.
30:56All right, so once we've got this on...
30:58That looks lovely.
30:59Now we can put our top layer on.
31:01Line that up.
31:03Now we can add on our beautiful finishing coat with that buttercream here.
31:06So taking another big scoop.
31:09And we want to spread this across the entire surface of the cake, just like we did with that filling.
31:17You can actually make this cake and completely frost it three days in advance.
31:21Perfect.
31:22Great.
31:22So we're just taking the buttercream all around the edges.
31:26Lovely.
31:28It's certainly looking like a house.
31:29It is looking like a house.
31:30I just want to smooth the top off.
31:32All right, I think we're ready for me to start bringing the decorations out.
31:36The most exciting part.
31:38Now wafer biscuit is a beautiful, delicious way to add a roof to a gingerbread house.
31:44What I'm going to do is pop these on the roof here, starting from the pointy bit here.
31:48So popping all of those shingles onto the roof here.
31:52Would you like to do the honours of creating two barn doors for a gingerbread house?
31:55Can we go double height?
31:57Oh, that's spectacular.
31:58That does look really good.
32:00I love that.
32:00I love this concept as well, because kids would take so much pleasure in decorating this with
32:07you.
32:08Beautiful.
32:09Now, at the start, we reserved some of our white buttercream.
32:13We're going to pop this into a piping bag and add in our last detail.
32:16Alesha, I absolutely adore this.
32:29Now, to finish, what do you think?
32:31A little bit of icing sugar?
32:32I think we've got to make it snow, don't we?
32:34A little bit on the shingles.
32:36This is absolutely beautiful and a must-have on any Christmas table this year.
32:42Such a brilliant recipe.
32:44Thank you for sharing it with us.
32:45Thank you so much.
32:46That was so much fun.
32:58Looking for the perfect Christmas tree.
33:01Look no further.
33:02These marshmallow chocolate Christmas trees are absolutely adorable and quite simple to
33:08make.
33:09We're going to start with a ganache.
33:10So we're going to place some cream in one saucepan and then in a second saucepan,
33:15I'm going to partially melt some chocolate.
33:18We want the chocolate melted 50% of the way.
33:21It's important when you're making things like this to use a really good quality chocolate.
33:25The cream we put on quite a high setting and the chocolate on a low to medium setting.
33:34Induction heats from the base, which is why you have to stir the chocolate.
33:38Otherwise, it will melt underneath and you really do want it to melt evenly.
33:42Once we've got 50% liquid, 50% solid chocolate, we can place it into a bowl.
33:48We do that because there's not enough heat in the cream or enough volume to melt all the chocolate simply by boiling the cream.
33:55I've put the two ingredients together and now we create a little bit of friction and vigorously stir it until the chocolate and cream become beautiful and glossy.
34:07Once we've mixed this all together, we place plastic wrap on the surface.
34:11We leave this at room temperature and it will take a couple of hours to set and we're then ready to pipe it onto our biscuit base.
34:21Next step is the base for our Christmas trees.
34:24These are a beautiful Australian made biscuit and they have that ginger flavour which matches perfectly for Christmas.
34:31So we're going to place 12 out.
34:32These have a beautiful crunchy texture so they're nice and firm.
34:36You don't want anything that's too soft because the biscuit will absorb a little bit of moisture from the ganache and the marshmallow.
34:44Now that we've got those out, I've put the ganache that has firmed up into a piping bag.
34:49So I pipe directly onto the biscuit and I pipe three dots on top of each other.
34:55This is going to give us a base to put the marshmallow around.
34:59So just three dots on top.
35:07Piping in the centre and then just go directly on top.
35:11Make it as tall as you can.
35:14And after we've piped them, we're going to give them probably at least 20 to 30 minutes to firm up before we start our marshmallow.
35:22Marshmallow is beautiful, fluffy and light and there's a few tips in how to make a great one.
35:35This is a simple recipe but keep in mind we do have three lots of water.
35:40The first lot of water is not measured.
35:42It's a bowl of chilled water so I've had this in the fridge and we use that to soak the gelatin.
35:47Place that into the bowl, make sure it's fully submerged and we want to soak the gelatin until it's hydrated and becomes pliable.
35:58So I'm going to leave that there soaking.
36:00Then I'm going to take the smaller amount of water and put it in a saucepan together with the sugar.
36:06What we want to do here is basically dissolve the sugar.
36:11You don't need to necessarily boil it and if you do boil it, don't boil it for a long period of time because you will evaporate too much moisture and your marshmallow will become really thick.
36:23Once the gelatin becomes pliable like this, gently squeeze out the excess water and place it into your mixing bowl.
36:30We then place a second group of water in on top of our gelatin.
36:35I'm just going to place some vanilla bean paste in and we pour the hot syrup on top.
36:44That's going to melt the gelatin.
36:46Now I'm ready to mix this.
36:47I'm going to mix this with a hand blender.
36:50It will take about 10 minutes but you'll see it change in colour.
36:54It will go from being transparent to beautiful fluffy white marshmallow.
37:00Look at that texture.
37:06You do want it to hold a little bit on the whisk.
37:09I'm going to tap those out.
37:12Now I'm going to pipe this on.
37:15I have a plain round nozzle in the piping bag.
37:26Twist the bag up so it doesn't start coming out.
37:29We're going to pipe on the bottom and coil it up around the ganache to make a Christmas tree.
37:36And then use that as a guide.
37:38Pipe around and slowly build it up.
37:43So I'm going to continue piping all of these.
37:47And then we'll just let them set at room temperature.
37:49As soon as they're set, we're ready to coat them in chocolate.
37:52Music
37:53Music
37:54Music
37:55Music
37:57Music
37:59Music
38:01Music
38:03Music
38:05Music
38:07Music
38:09Music
38:11Music
38:13Music
38:15So we're going to dip these in upside down and then you need a fork to pull it out.
38:24So put it in, press it in until it's completely coated, then use the fork to scoop it around.
38:31So we go in with the fork, as easy as that.
38:34Wipe the excess chocolate off on the side, otherwise you end up with a little puddle at the bottom.
38:40And then just gently slide it off your fork.
38:46Oh, so rewarding to make those.
38:49And then I have some edible silver flakes.
38:52You can get these at craft stores or cake decorating stores.
38:56And just sprinkle those on top, which adds a little bit of shimmer and a perfect touch of Christmas.
39:03I'm going to keep going with the rest of these and finish the tray.
39:06Music
39:07These are set and ready to be plated.
39:28These will certainly add a little bit of sparkle to my Christmas table this year.
39:33I'm placing them on the plate.
39:36This is perfect as a dessert, but I also think it's great leading up to Christmas as a little special treat when you have people over.
39:45Now these are not going to last long, but what they don't know is I have a few backups there on the tray, ready to refill when needed.
39:52Music
39:53I think the best Christmas decorations are the edible ones, and this is a perfect example of that.
40:17It's my chocolate cupcake Christmas wreath.
40:20Now to start, we're going to sieve some plain flour.
40:23So put that straight in.
40:25I much prefer a loose sieve like this.
40:28We've got some bicarb soda, a little bit of sea salt, which doesn't need to be sieved, so I'll put that in down the side.
40:34Some cocoa powder.
40:36And we sieve that all together.
40:42Separately, I'm going to combine vegetable oil, some vanilla bean paste, quite generous with the vanilla.
40:52One egg.
40:56And a full tub of sour cream.
40:58Now for the sugar, and I'm adding a beautifully locally made sugar, which is sunshine sugar.
41:06The low GI means that our body metabolises the sugar much slower, so it keeps us fuller for longer.
41:15Sprinkle that in.
41:17And now I'm going to whisk that all together.
41:19Music
41:20Don't worry about the sugar still being granule.
41:29It will dissolve.
41:32Now add this into the dry ingredients.
41:35I love these sort of cakes that you can actually mix by hand.
41:40I'm just going to whisk that together.
41:43Once it comes together, make sure you stop mixing because you don't want to over-mix it
41:47because it can make the cupcakes a little bit tough and can also make them shrink a little bit.
41:55Smells amazing and it's all mixed as easy as that.
42:01I'm going to fill these three quarters of the way.
42:05Oh, look at that.
42:06And I've chosen red patty pans.
42:08You can pick any colour that you like, but we will see the patty pans once this is finished.
42:13Once I've filled the tray completely, I'm going to place them in the oven at 170 degrees Celsius
42:19in a fan-forced oven for approximately 20 to 25 minutes.
42:24We're then going to cool them completely at room temperature.
42:28Now we're moving on to the custard, which I also refer to as creme patissiere.
42:33We start with the milk and I'm using the beautiful Chef Innoc saucepans.
42:37Now these saucepans are really the best conductors of heat.
42:42So placing that on the stove, milk goes in.
42:46I'm using a combination of milk and cream, so we've got a little bit more fat in there
42:50and a touch of vanilla bean paste.
42:53You know I love my vanilla.
42:55I'm going to turn that on a low simmer and we need that to come up to a boil.
42:58And in a bowl here, I mix some cornstarch, this beautiful sunshine sugar, sprinkle in there.
43:09We place some egg yolk in.
43:12Now the egg yolk is going to help to thicken the custard.
43:15So mix those ingredients together and this will help ensure that you don't get lumps in your custard,
43:20which is often a big problem.
43:21Let's come up to a boil.
43:25So we pour it over the egg yolk and sugar mixture, whisk it in slowly.
43:33Keep the same saucepan and keep your whisk.
43:37And we place that back into the saucepan.
43:41And then we're going to whisk it continually until it comes to a boil.
43:46Once it starts to boil, you must boil it for about 30 seconds before removing it from the heat.
43:50Now that has boiled perfectly and thickened really evenly.
43:55Scrape it all in and you can see these saucepans are fantastic.
43:59Nothing sticks to the bottom.
44:02Once again, we're going to whisk that with a fresh whisk while adding a piece of unsalted butter,
44:08one piece at a time.
44:10And whisk it until all the butter is incorporated.
44:13It's important that you only add one piece at a time so it doesn't separate.
44:16Now the butter gives us the most beautiful texture and flavour in our creme patissiere.
44:30To make the chocolate ganache is simple and easy.
44:33Place the cream into the saucepan,
44:36followed by a decent spoon of vanilla bean paste,
44:40a pinch of sea salt,
44:42and we're going to bring that to the boil.
44:43Place some milk chocolate into the bowl.
44:47Once the cream has come to a boil,
44:49pour it over the milk chocolate
44:51and whisk continuously until the chocolate is fully melted.
44:58Place plastic wrap on the surface.
45:01You can keep it at room temperature for a couple of days before applying to your wreath.
45:04Now I have brought in the lovely Alicia to help me because many hands make light work.
45:11We've made the cupcakes.
45:12I've got the creme patissiere here and we've also got the ganache which is set.
45:16So what I'm going to get you to do is with these cupcakes,
45:19I'm just going to cut the top off.
45:21So keep the tops.
45:23So I can't eat that?
45:25You can't eat that.
45:26Okay, all right, I'll resist.
45:28And then we're just going to scoop the centre out.
45:30So any leftover cake crumb that you have,
45:34don't throw them out.
45:35In fact, you can use these for the Christmas pudding truffles that I've made.
45:39So if we can do that.
45:41Okay, I can do that.
45:42We'll keep the same top to the bottom.
45:44Don't eat the tops.
45:44Got it.
45:45Don't eat the tops.
45:46So we're slicing these tops off.
45:47Slice the tops off.
45:48Okay.
45:48Now with a piping bag, I'm going to put this creme patissiere in the bag.
45:54Now with this creme patissiere, just give it a bit of a spoon.
45:59Yum.
45:59I'd be happy just with a spoonful of that.
46:01That's my type of dessert, just custard on anything.
46:03Oh, really?
46:04That's my son all over.
46:05Yeah.
46:06Now this makes eight cupcakes.
46:09So if you've got more than eight guests,
46:11you can actually make two of these wreaths quite easily.
46:14So I'm going to take a raspberry, place it into the base.
46:19Ooh.
46:20And then I'm going to pipe that creme patissiere in on top of the raspberry
46:25so it's level with the top.
46:28And we put the top back on.
46:30Oh, I love it.
46:31First one's ready.
46:32Great.
46:33Okay, so I should start pouring out the cupcakes to make that whole.
46:36Okay, I can do that.
46:37Pass them over and I'll start filling.
46:39Fabulous.
46:44Now, Khan, I've brought you in to join Alicia and myself
47:00for this epic chocolate cupcake wreath.
47:03What we're going to do first is we're going to temper some chocolate.
47:06Your favourite, Khan.
47:07I love that.
47:08You love it.
47:09So much.
47:09I'm so good at it.
47:10So, Khan, now that you've had a little demonstration on tempering,
47:16how do you feel about trying out the tempering for yourself?
47:19Look, I'll give it a go.
47:20You're both here, so I think I'm in good hands.
47:22Now, Alicia, we're going to put these cupcakes in a wreath shape
47:26on the plate.
47:28Beautiful.
47:28It is such a beautiful plate too.
47:30This is part of the Toys Delight Royale collection.
47:33So cute.
47:35So, ganache is going to go on top.
47:37That ooze of the ganache.
47:38If I scoop it on, Alicia, are you okay to start spreading it a little bit?
47:42Yeah, I'll go all the way around the wreath.
47:44All the way around.
47:44Okay.
47:45How are you going?
47:46Okay, that's looking gorgeous.
47:47I'm just going to pour that into here now.
47:50The plastic.
47:50Perfect.
47:51Yes, no glass and no metal.
47:53You did it.
47:55I'm learning.
47:57I love baking this together.
47:58We should make this an annual thing.
48:00I'd love to come over every Christmas time with this, Kirsten.
48:02He's fabulous.
48:03Super keen.
48:04We're going to make some space.
48:05Take that to the side.
48:07Are you ready?
48:07Kind of.
48:09I'm still a little bit nervous.
48:12We are going to make some chocolate curls.
48:15I'm going to show you how easy it is.
48:17Amazing.
48:18When you're making chocolate curls, the more movement you give the chocolate on the bench,
48:22the more elasticity it has.
48:24So, lots of movement until it starts to set.
48:27You can see it's starting to go dull.
48:29See, it's starting to get a matte finish.
48:31And that's when we stop moving it.
48:36And then you're going to get your scraper.
48:38And we're just going to make some curls.
48:41Beautiful.
48:42Oh, I love them.
48:43They're so ruffly.
48:44Okay.
48:44Okay.
48:44We're going to be very close friends.
48:46Okay.
48:46Ready?
48:47One, two, three.
48:50Oh, yeah.
48:51Oh, yeah.
48:52Well done, everybody.
48:53Okay.
48:54I'm a chocolatier.
48:56How many minutes have we got?
48:57Five minutes.
48:58Five minutes.
48:59Okay.
48:59Go, go, go.
49:00We can get this done in five minutes.
49:09We've done a fabulous job.
49:11Now, what we're going to do is try to keep them as whole as possible and gently place them on.
49:20And put these really nice, big, chunky pieces on rather than the little shavings.
49:25Okay.
49:25Generous, generous.
49:26And these chocolate curls you could make probably four weeks in advance.
49:30Oh, amazing.
49:31And just keep them in an airtight container.
49:33Next, we're going to place some raspberries.
49:35And we're just going to loosely scatter these on.
49:38Just dot them around.
49:39That pop of red is so, so lovely.
49:42And to finish, here we go.
49:44Are we ready?
49:45Yeah.
49:45We do Salt Bay Icing Sugar.
49:47Oh.
49:48You've got the technique, Dad.
49:49Look at you.
49:50Perfect form.
49:51This looks absolutely beautiful and it's going to be the highlight of my Christmas dessert table.
49:57I'm wishing you both a very chocolatey Merry Christmas and my dessert table is going to look better than it ever has.
50:04We'll see you next time.
50:34We'll see you next time.
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