EAT DRINK LIVE

WHITER SHADE OF PALE.

I'm a day late and €0.632711 short but here is my sweet Daring Bakers challenge for this month. Morven @ Food and Random Thoughts was in the mood for a party when she chose Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake and left it up to ourselves to choose the flavour. The sponge and buttercream are made with egg whites only and are supposed to be pristine white in colour but Irish butter made mine a little less white and a little more ivory.  I stuck with the lemon flavour from the original recipe only adding a thin layer of lemon curd (there were a whole lot of leftover egg yolks) between the cake layers and a few crystallised rose petals because I need the practise for a wedding in June.

The sponge didn't turn out as fluffy as I would have liked but some guy in Greenwich stole an hour of sleep from me yesterday and I was a little on the cranky side all day. But the buttercream was beautifully silky and the curd just the right side of suck-in-your cheeks so as a whole the elements worked well together and all guinea pigs went home happy.

Morven has the recipe in full at her site and all the other Daring Bakers have their own versions just waiting for you.

THE SUM OF ITS PARTS.

1 bar of dark, dark chocolate. Check

1/2 full jar of peanut butter (I'm ever the optimist). Check

Flour. Butter. Eggs. Check. Check. Check.

Brown sugar. Check (but minus the Rolling Stone).

Handful of peanuts. Check.

Handful of leftover chocolate and peanut butter swirls. Check.

If Pi equals 3.14 and x = 5, carry the 2 and divide by 7 and you should end up with...

CHOCOLATE AND PEANUT BUTTER SWIRL BROWNIES.

Adapted from Brownies by Linda Collister.

• 100g 70% chocolate, chopped
• 175g unsalted butter, cubed
• 3 large eggs
• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 120g plain flour
• 2 tbls cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

Peanut Swirl:

• 180g smooth peanut butter
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 tbls plain flour
• 5 tbls milk
• Handful of roasted peanuts
• Handful chocolate peanut butter swirls (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line a 20 X 25 cm (or similar size) tin with tinfoil. Melt the chocolate and butter together gently in a bowl over a pot of simmering water or in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl until blended. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat with an electric whisk until thick and moussey.
3. Stir the chocolate into the egg mixture then sift over the flour, cocoa powder and pinch of salt. Fold in until completely combined and pour into the prepared tin.
4. Meanwhile mix all the ingredients for the peanut butter swirl in a bowl adding the milk gradually to make it easier to combine. Drop teaspoonfuls of this mixture over the brownie batter and use a skewer or the end of the teaspoon to swirl the two mixtures. Scatter the peanuts over the top and the chocolate peanut butter chips if using.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until there is only a slight wobble in the middle. Start checking at 25 minutes. Leave to cool before cutting. Will keep for about 5 days.

Makes a maximum of 16 brownies. Or maybe 9.

NEXT STOP MOUNT EVEREST.

I come to you cap in hand and pleading sweetly for a favour of a non-food related nature. Nick Cave (who as some of you may know I am quite partial to) is playing Dublin Castle in May with his band the Bad Seeds and I am ticketless. It would seem that getting a ticket at this late stage is on a par with climbing Mount Everest (unless you are prepared to pay four times the face value which is not an option I'm afraid), so I was hoping that if I brought you Mont Blanc on a plate you could help me conquer Everest. If anyone hears of a spare ticket for sale please e-mail me at the link above and I promise there will be a chocolate bonus in it for you.

If bribery is your thing please dive into this variation on the classic French dessert Mont Blanc. Typically a meringue base topped with sweetened chestnut puree and perhaps a layer of cream, it may not appeal to those with a less than sweet tooth but should give a good energy burst while doing a spot of mountain climbing. I have been to Angelina's in Paris but I didn't make it past the spoonable hot chocolate to the desserts, of which the Mont Blanc is one of their most famous. I had never got around to making it at home until this month's Olive Magazine threw up a recipe that only needed a meringue base to make a mountain out of a chocolate-chestnut mousse. If you buy in your meringue nests then this becomes an assembly job at most.

If the meringue is a step too far for you just pile everything else into a glass and serve in it's original incarnation as a decadent mousse.

This recipe is adapted from the chocolate supplement in this months Olive Magazine.

CHOCOLATE CHESTNUT MONT BLANC

• 200g 60-70% cocoa chocolate, melted and left to cool slightly
• 250g sweetened chestnut puree
• 2 tbsp dark rum
• 285ml double cream, very softly whipped plus an extra 150 ml for serving
• chocolate curls or shavings, just use a vegetable peeler to pare strips off a chunk of dark chocolate
• 8 meringue nests, shop bought or find a recipe here just leave out the elderflowers.

1. Fold the chocolate into the chestnut puree, then fold in the rum and the 285ml of whipped cream.
2. Put the mousse into a piping bag with a plain or star-shaped nozzle and pipe a mound of chestnut mousse on top of a meringue nest. Whip the remaining cream and dollop on a creamy snow-capped peak and shave over some dark chocolate curls.
3. Alternatively you can omit the meringue and just pipe the mousse into six wine glasses topping with the cream and chocolate curls as before and refrigerating until ready to serve.

Makes 8 Mont Blancs or 6 chestnut mooses.

WHO'S THE MOMMY?!

Lorraine is the mommy! Yesterday was Mothers Day here in Ireland (and the UK) but completely overshadowed in the blog world by the Irish Blog Awards. Italian Foodies won Best Food and Drink blog and as Lorraine was home nursing sick baby Val, Maz and I had no problem basking in her glory! Val and Maz collected the award in her honour, though to everyones bitter disappointment they did not give a speech. Squid @ Limerick Blogger brought another award home to Limerick in the shape of a tie for Best Current Affairs Blog and Val and Maz like the troopers they are collected that award too. A bottle of champagne accompanied both awards but I know nothing about what happened to those.

Kieran won Best Business Blog for the second year in a row, and thanks for the chocolate! I was the sober person who had to leave early to get back to my oven so I hope the mums of Limerick appreciated their buns yesterday morning. Thanks to Damien for the superhuman effort I can't even imagine went into putting on such a great night. Roll on next year!