Rote (und grün) Grütze (German Fruit Jelly)

My last offering from Germany - and it's a real winner! It's a dessert called rote grütze, an easy fruit dessert made from fresh red fruits with cornstarch to thicken. Rote is German for red, as this dessert is made with a mixture of red fruits. Traditionally, the main fruit used is red currants - which means mine is slightly lacking in authenticity because red currants really aren't available anywhere near me. You can use any combination of red fruits you like such as currants, raspberries, bilberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries etc. 

Mine also differs from the traditional in that it contains a touch of grün grütze (grün meaning green). Although red is the most common type, this dessert is sometimes also made in green, yellow or blue grütze. Green is made with kiwi fruit, pineapple, gooseberries, grapes and anything else green you like. Yellow is made from peaches, yellow gooseberries, golden kiwifruit, pineapple, banana and anything else yellow you like. Blue is made from blueberries, blackberries, plums, blackcurrents and grapes. So, I thought I might be a bit tricky and make my rote grütze with a little layer of grün on top - because it's pretty!

Rote Grütze

600g mixed red fruits (I used 200g strawberries, 200g raspberries, 200g sour cherries)

3 tbsp raw sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

3 tbsp cold water

To Make

1. Wash and slice the fruit and place in a saucepan with the sugar. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes. 

2. In a small cup combine the cornstarch and cold water and stir well until the cornstarch is completely dissolved. 

3. Remove the simmering berries from the heat and stir through the cornstarch, stirring continuously. Pour the berries (while still hot) evenly amongst your serving glasses and place in the fridge to chill while you make the grün grütze.

Grün Grütze 

500g green kiwifruit

100g pineapple, crushed

3 tbsp raw sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

3 tbsp cold water

To Make

1. If the pineapple is fresh, you may want to puree it in a food processor or blender to make is smooth. Scoop the kiwifuit flesh out and chop roughly in a saucepan with the sugar and pineapple. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes. 

2. In a small cup combine the cornstarch and cold water and stir well until the cornstarch is completely dissolved. 

3. Remove the simmering fruit from the heat and stir through the cornstarch, stirring continuously. Spoon a layer over the top of the red fruits in the serving glasses. Allow to chill for several hours before eating. You can decorate with fresh fruit if you'd like to make it even more pretty.

Makes 6 if you use martini glasses, or 4 if you use larger glasses (such as wine glasses or parfait glasses).

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Germany!

Check out my other German recipe posts:

German Apple Pancakes

Rohkostsalat (Cabbage and Fruit Salad)

Deconstructed Black Forest Cake Parfait

Rosenkohl in Bier (Brussels Sprouts in Beer)

Zwiebelkuchen (German Onion Pie)

Frankfurter Kranz (Bundt Cake Layered with Cherry Jam & Rum Buttercream)

German Potato Salad

Kaiserschmarrn (Torn Pancakes with Apple)

Vegan Frankfurter Kranz (German Bundt Cake with Cherry Jam and Rum Buttercream)

I generally have a rule that I never post more than one recipe a day. Today I am breaking that rule big time! Why? Because all my blogging events have happened to fall on exactly the same day. Today. Today I will be posting four recipes!

Firstly, at 8am this morning entries opened for the infamous Chopped/Vegan challenge hosted by vegan cooking guru Isa Chandra Moskowitz. The challenge was to create brunch dishes using butternut pumpkin, fresh rosemary, popcorn and apricot jam - quite a challenge but I really did enjoy it! Here are my two entries: Pumpkin Rosemary Popcorn Crumble and Lemon Rosemary Popcorn Cupcakes with Pumpkin Apricot Glaze. It was so much fun cooking with this unusual combination of ingredients and I have to say the results were actually quite delicious!

Secondly, it's time again for the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop, this month hosted by Jennifer from Delicieux with a 'High Tea' theme.

Thirdly, the Eating the Alphabet Blog Hop is kicking off as well featuring the letters S and T, I've put up these lovely Balsamic Strawberry and Cucumber Sushi Rolls.

Whenever I think of high tea I always think of tiny mini cakes and bundt cakes. I'm not sure what it is about cakes cooked in a ring shape that makes me think of sitting on a balcony drinking tea at a white table strewn with doilies. This month is also German Food month, so I am pleased to be able to combine this Sweet Adventures Blog Hop with my theme for the month and bring you Frankfurter Kranz - a German bundt cake which translates to Frankfurt Crown. It's not hard to see why, it does look rather like a crown.

I'll give you a heads up though! It's very sweet. Vanilla cake + cherry jam + buttercream + sugared almonds equals a whole lot of sweet! I thought it was fantastic though, so don't let this turn you off, just make sure you invite some friends around to help you eat it!

Thanks again to the lovely hostesses of the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop. Here are my entries from the previous months:

September's Saucy Hop - Afghan Brides Fingers with Orange Blossom Syrup

August's Berry Hop - Sugar Free and Vegan Raspberry Fudge

July's Nut Hop -  Best Ever Vegan Carrot Cake  (I got this one in just in time, but it never appeared on the link list so you may have missed it!)
June's Pie Hop - Easy, Sticky, Messy Banana Rum Pie

May's Tea Hop - Thai Red Tea Vegan Jelly with Poached Apples
April's Lemon Hop - Lemon Curd 'Cake Sandwiches'

March's Layers Hop - Rhubarb and Apple Sago Parfait

February's 'Love' Hop - African Almond, Pistachio and Orange Blossom Bites

January's Choc Hop - Black Forest Shots & Truffles in 3 Flavours: Paprika, Tahini & Strawberry Gum
December's Festive Hop - Chocolate Ice-Cream Christmas Pudding


Vegan Frankfurter Kranz

Ingredients

The Cake
2 cups soymilk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup canola or rice bran oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond meal
2 cups wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb soda

The fillers and toppers*
1 cup nuttelex (or other non dairy margarine)
3 cups soft icing mixture
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp vanilla rum (if you don't have vanilla rum just use plain dark rum - but don't use vanilla white rum!)
Black cherry jam
1/3 cup castor sugar
2/3 cup blanched almonds

*This recipe for buttercream makes enough to do a crumb coat and a top coat of icing, which is a good idea for a layer cake, as there will be plenty of crumbs to get though the icing. If you don't want to do a crumb coat then you can probably make about 2/3 of the icing quantity.

To Make:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Combine the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl and whist until frothy. Set aside to curdle.
3. Add the oil, sugar and vanilla to the soy milk and mix well.
4. Add the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.
5.  Pour into a well greased bundt tin and cook for 30-35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15-20 mins and then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
While it's cooling you can:
6. Cream the margarine, icing mixture, vanilla and vanilla rum together to make the buttercream.
7. Lightly toast the blanched almonds in a pan or a grill/oven.
8. Heat the castor sugar in a small saucepan until completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir the almonds through it until completely coated with the sugar. Then spread out onto a sheet of greaseproof paper and put in the fridge to harden up.
Now that the cake is cooled you can:
9. Cut the cake into 3 fairly even layers (the top one will obviously be smaller, don't stress).
10. Spread a generous amount of cherry jam onto each layer. Then top with a layer of your rum buttercream.

11. Reassemble your layers and you're ready to ice it.

12. Spread a layer of the buttercream icing all over the cake, don't worry about making it too neat because this is the crumb coat or 'undercoat'. Then put the cake in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

13. Take it out and do the top layer. Make this layer nice and neat and smooth it out as much as you can. 

14. Roughly chop/break/smash your almond brittle and decorate the top with it liberally.

Makes 1 ring cake.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Germany!

Check out my other German recipe posts:

German Apple Pancakes

Rohkostsalat (Cabbage and Fruit Salad)

Deconstructed Black Forest Cake Parfait

Rosenkohl in Bier (Brussels Sprouts in Beer)

Zwiebelkuchen (German Onion Pie)

German Potato Salad

Kaiserschmarrn (Torn Pancakes with Apple)

Rote (und grün) Grütze (German Fruit Jelly)

Deconstructed Black Forest Cake Parfait ("Cake in a Glass")

I'm sentimental about Black Forest Cake. I love the combination of sour cherries, rich chocolate cake and fluffy whipped cream. Honestly, what could be more appealing? Black Forest Cake just also happens to be a German invention (those Germans really know how to do their cakes!), known in Germany as Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte. So when I was requested to feature some German recipes by a reader, I knew that Black Forest had to be somewhere on the menu. I love the traditional cake, but I thought perhaps I would try something a little different. I love to experiment with chocolate and cherry, as you can see by my Black Forest Shots and my Chocolate Cherry Cobbler.

So what does "deconstructed" mean?

"Deconstructed" is a fancy term bandied about a lot these days by chefs and cooking shows. It essentially means taking apart the individual components of a classic dish in order to present them in a new way. Some people interpret deconstructed by simply laying out the individual components on the plate, rather than combining them. Others define a deconstructed dish as one which is first deconstructed and then reassembled in a new and interesting way, but still has the same flavour profile of the original dish. So that it should look like something new and interesting, yet taste just like the classic dish that you remember. Both ideas can be fun ways to play with classic dishes and create fun and new ways of presenting them. 

This Black Forest Cake is a bit different. It's essentially "Cake in a Glass". Unlike traditional trifles and parfaits, this is made primarily of cake (about 80% cake, 20% other things), which is crammed into a glass amidst dollops of whipped cream and cherry filling. If you like you can take a more structured approach and create layers with the ingredients, however, I prefer the haphazard approach for this one, so that it is sort of like Black Forest Mess :)

This is a literal deconstruction in terms of quantities, so you can also use these components in their exact quantities to make a traditional layered Black Forest Cake.

Ingredients
The Cake
2 cups soy milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
2 cups wholemeal flour (you can also use white)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
2/3 cup cocoa

Cherry Filling
1 1/2 cups morello cherries (from a jar or tin), pitted
1/2 cup plus 4 tbsp cherry juice (from the jar or tin)
4 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch

Whipped Cream
1 can coconut cream, chilled over night in the fridge (or ideally for a couple of days)
1 tbsp soft icing mixture
1 tsp vanilla extract

Plus
8 tbsp cherry brandy or kirsch
Cherries to decorate
Chocolate shavings to decorate

To Make
1. To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 180 degree C.
2. Whisk the soy milk and apple cider vinegar together and set aside for a few moments to curdle slightly.
3. Add the sugar and and canola oil to the soy milk and mix well to combine.
4. Sift in the flour, baking powder, bicarb and cocoa and mix well.
5. Grease and line a cake tin (you can use round or square, it doesn't matter), I used a 21cm/8 inch round cake tin.
6. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for about 50 minutes (you will need to modify this if you used a bigger cake tin, as it will take slightly less time). When a knife comes out of the centre of the cake clean, then remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a cooling rack.
7. To make the cherry filling: chop or break your cherries about in half (checking for seeds as you go, as in my experience about 1 in every 10 cherries in a jar of pitted cherries has a pit in it). Place in a small saucepan with the 1/2 cup cherry juice and sugar. Bring to the boil.
8. Combine the cornstarch the the 4 tbsp cherry juice and stir until completely dissolved. Remove the cherries from the heat and add the cornstarch solution. Stir continuously as it thickens. As it cools slightly it should make a thick filling. Allow to cool completely.
9. To make the whipped cream: When you open the tin of coconut cream you will notice that the top is a very solid thick cream. Scoop out all of the solid thick cream on top (you can reserve the liquid to use in another meal – like a curry).

10. Put the thick cream into a bowl and mix well using a hand held electric mixer. Move the beaters up and down to try and get as much air into the cream as possible. Add the sugar and beat until it pretty much resembles thick cream.

Assembly:
1. Make sure the cake and cherries are completely cooled before you assemble!
2. Chop up the cake into pieces.
3. Take 8 parfait glasses (depending on the size of your glasses it may make more or less than 8). Place bits of cake in the glasses and add dollops of cherry filling and whipped cream as you go. Don't forget they should be 80% cake. Do this amongst the glasses until you have used up all the ingredients. You can save a dollop of whipped cream to decorate the top of each glass with if you like.
4. Drizzle 1 tbsp kirsch or cherry brandy over each serving. Decorate the top with cherries, whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Refrigerate for 20 minutes before serving, or can be made several hours in advance.

Makes 8 servings (or probably 10-12 if you use smaller glasses, such as martini glasses).

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Germany!

Check out my other German recipe posts:

German Apple Pancakes

Rohkostsalat (Cabbage and Fruit Salad)

Rosenkohl in Bier (Brussels Sprouts in Beer)

Zwiebelkuchen (German Onion Pie)

Frankfurter Kranz (Bundt Cake Layered with Cherry Jam & Rum Buttercream)

German Potato Salad

Kaiserschmarrn (Torn Pancakes with Apple)

Rote (und grün) Grütze (German Fruit Jelly)

Cherry and Almond Bircher Muesli

I'm doing my best these days to eat breakfast. One thing that has helped me hugely has been making a meal plan so that I know exactly what I'm going to have for breakfast the next day. Most of the time I skip breakfast because I wake up in the morning and this is my thought process: 

"I should eat breakfast. I'll have some breakfast."

"What should I eat? Do I have anything in the house that I can eat?"

"I could make pancakes. No, couldn't be bothered, don't want to clean up the mess."

"Ok. I'll just have something quick. Toast or cereal."

"Yeah, maybe not because I don't actually like toast or cereal much. Also, there's no bread."

"Oh look, it's 11:30 and I still haven't eaten anything. Oh, well.... I might as well just have an early lunch instead."

I don't know if anybody else does that but I do it almost every morning. The only way I can get around it is if I already know exactly what I'm going to eat for breakfast and if possible I've made it the night before. That is why bircher muesli is the new breakfast appearing weekly on my meal plan. The best thing about it is that I spend 5 minutes on it the night before and 5 minutes more in the morning and then it's done. It's also incredibly versatile and I can use any fruits and nuts and seeds that I have. In short: love it.

What is your favourite thing to put in your bircher muesli?

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 tbsp pepitas 

1 tbsp sunflower seeds

2 tsp ground flaxseeds (linseeds)

1/2 cup whole almonds

1 cup apple juice

1 apple (I used a sweet and crunchy royal gala)

Morello cherries (or other sour cherries)

To Make:

1. Mix the oats, flaxseeds, almonds, pepitas and sunflower seeds in a small bowl. Mix the apple juice in and leave to soak in the fridge overnight (or minimum 1 hour).

2. The next morning, peel and coarsely grate the apple. Stir through the soaked oats. 

3. Serve with morello cherries.

Serves 2.

On another note - I've been nominated for the Best Australian Blogs 2012 People's Choice Award - you can vote for me by hitting up this link: http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/bloggingcomp/peopleschoice.html

Vegan Strawberry & Cherry Sago Trifle

Trifle has been something that has been on my to do list for a while - I have been working out the easiest way to veganise all the different elements for a while. The cake is easy, the cream is easy, the fruit is already vegan. So that leaves jelly and custard. I am currently still experimenting making my own vegan jelly - and have not yet perfected it, so for this trifle I used a packet of vegan jelly which I bought online (I've included a photo later on), the brand I used wasn't really that good - as the jelly set very runny. This is ok for trifle as it's all in there together anyway - but it certainly wasn't a very good substitute for jelly and definitely wouldn't have worked in molds or just to eat straight. I will keep working on my vegan jelly recipe using agar agar and keep you updated! The custard I found difficult until I had an epiphany one night when eating a big bowl of sago - sago is a very similar consistency to custard plus it's beautiful and creamy and actually easier to make than custard.

Fortunately all these trifle thoughts I was having coincided with 2 events: firstly a surprise birthday party I was holding for a friend, and secondly, the Holiday Recipe Club Valentine's Day Blog Hop. For this blog hop our host, Erin, chose the theme ingredients of beef, strawberries and heavy cream. Now, if you've read this blog before then you'll know you're going to be getting a recipe with strawberries - because beef and heavy cream just aren't a party of my vegan diet! However, this trifle is piled with delicious fluffy cream so is quite appropriate in the sense that it is really the closest thing to heavy cream a vegan is ever going to get.

Trifle is actually the perfect party dessert because it's generally huge by nature and also because almost all of it is done the night before. For a totally stress free party you should prepare the cake, sago custard, jelly and cherry mixture the day before and remember to put your coconut cream in the fridge minimum overnight (the more time the better so if you can do this a couple of days in advance then even better - I just keep a couple of cans in the fridge at all times). Then all you need to do is assemble it and whip the coconut cream for the top. You can then put it together a couple of hours before your guests show up and put it back in the fridge and it is totally amazing!

Strawberry and Cherry Sago Trifle

The Cake

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup canola oil

½ cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp orange extract (optional)

1 ¼ cups wholemeal plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarb soda

½ tsp salt

2 tsp arrowroot

Strawberry jam

Sago Custard

2 x 400ml tins coconut milk (or cream is fine too)

4 cups water

1 ¼ cups sago (tapioca pearls)

½ cup sugar

Fruit & Jelly

1 packet Vegan strawberry jelly

3 punnets strawberries, washed

600g cherries, washed and pitted

1 cup water

2/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

Coconut Cream

2 cans coconut cream, chilled in the fridge overnight (minimum- a few days is optimum)

2 tablespoons soft confectioners sugar

To Make:

The Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. Combine the soy milk and apple cider vinegar and set aside for a few moments to curdle.

3. Add the sugar, canola oil and extracts and mix well (I use a whisk for this).

4. Sift in all other ingredients and mix well to combine.

5. Line a medium sized lightly greased square baking dish with baking paper. Pour in the cake batter.

6. Bake for 20 minutes – or until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean when inserted.

7. Set aside to cool completely (you can work on one of the other trifle components while you wait).

8. Once cooled, cut into smaller, more manageable sections and slice in half lengthways.

9. Spread strawberry jam between the 2 halves and stick them back together. Cut into cubes that are about 2cm squared and set aside for later.

The Sago Custard:

1. Heat the water and coconut milk in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer.

2. Add the sugar and the sago. Reduce the heat as low as it goes and allow to simmer gently (with you stirring frequently) for about 30 minutes, or until sago is cooked and the custard is starting to thicken (it will thicken even more on cooling so don’t worry if it is a bit runny).

3. Pour into a bowl or container and allow to cool.

4. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (optimum is over night).

Fruit and Jelly:

1. Prepare the jelly to the directions on the packet. Refrigerate overnight.

2. Halve and pit the cherries.

3. Place the cherries with ½ cup water and the sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

4. Mix the cornstarch with ½ cup cold water until you have a smooth and watery mixture.

5. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the cherries and simmer for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Allow to cool and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (best over night).

The brand of vegan jelly I used - it set pretty runny and I probably wouldn't use it again.

Coconut Cream Topping:

1.  Refrigerate the 2 tins of coconut cream over night.

2. When you open the tin you will notice that the top is a very solid thick cream. Scoop out all of the solid thick cream on top (you can reserve the rest of it to use in another meal – like a curry).

3. Put the thick cream into a bowl and mix well using a hand held electric mixer. Move the beaters up and down to try and get as much air into the cream as possible. Add the sugar and beat until it pretty much resembles thick cream.

To Assemble:

1.  Wash and trim the strawberries. Cut in half (if they are big strawberries you may need to slice them).

2. Layer the bottom of a large glass bowl with the squares of cake.

3. Cover with the jelly.

4. Press strawberry halves around the outside to make a layer which is visible through the glass (see the pics if you’re not sure what I mean). Sprinkle a few bits in the middle as well.

5. Next, layer half of the sago custard over the top.

6. Next, layer the cherry mixture over the top of that.

7. Spread the rest of the sago mixture over the cherries.

8. Spread a punnet of strawberries over that (or however many strawberries you have left – remembering to keep some aside to decorate the top).

9. Finally, the last layer is the coconut cream topping.

10. Decorate with the remaining strawberries.

11. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.

Serves about 15 (with no seconds – so serves about 7-8 people with seconds!).

Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cobbler

The idea for this post came from this amazing recipe from The Littlest Anchovy. As soon as I read the recipe I knew I had to veganise it and try it! I've never thought of adding chocolate to a cobbler topping before but now that I've tried it it makes sooooo much sense! These little cherry cobblers are particularly decadent and very rich so are perfect for a special occasion when you want to impress and indulge. The other thing about cobbler is that it is so easy to make but so special to eat! This one makes a slightly more cakey-style cobbler than the traditional American ones, so has more of a pudding-y texture to it. I love the crunch of the top and the soft rich pudding and fruit underneath!

First - let's mention chocolate and veganism. You might think that they are incompatible but you would be wrong. Chocolate and Vegans are a match made in heaven and I'm NOT talking about substitutes (by which I mean 'dairy free' milk chocolate etc.), what I'm talking about is dark chocolate. Any dark chocolate which is over 70% SHOULD NOT contain any milk or any butter fat. I'm not saying that they all don't, however it should be. If you pick up a block of dark chocolate and you read the ingredients and it says 'butter fat' on the back then you know the company is being cheap and it is not good quality chocolate (and I'm talking about Cadbury and Lindt and a lot of others). Butter fat is used in dark chocolate as a cheaper alternative to using cocoa butter. 

Having said that the Lindt 70%+ varieties are all vegan friendly (however the flavoured ones are not). I still wouldn't buy Lindt though because it isn't fair trade and I don't like to think that I am putting money into child slave labour. My pick of the chocolates is Green & Black dark chocolate. It's incredibly delicious, it's fair trade and it doesn't have any cheap butter fat in it - and that's my holy trinity of chocolate!

Ingredients:

500-600g fresh cherries, halved and pitted

2 tsp sugar

3 tbsp cherry brandy or kirsch

1 tsp flour

1 cup wholemeal flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bi carb soda

1/4 cup caster sugar

7 tbsps nuttelex (or other non dairy butter or margarine)

100g dark chocolate (check to make sure it's vegan)

2/3 cup soy milk

1 tsp lemon juice

To Make:

1. Mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl and set aside to macerate for at least 30 mins (preferably about an hour).

2. Add the lemon juice to the soy milk and set aside to curdle slightly. 

3. Mix the flour, baking powder, bi carb and sugar together. Cut the butter into the mix and mix with an electric hand mixer. 

4. Add the soy milk. Mix well again.

5. Finely chop the dark chocolate into small pieces Add this to the mix as well and fold in using a spoon.

6. Distribute the cherries amongst 6-8 ramekins (depending on the size of your ramekins) - or alternately use one big baking dish.

7. Distribute the topping evenly amongst the ramekins, just blob it on top and don't worry about spreading it our evenly as the topping will expand while it cooks to form an even smooth crust.

8. Place the ramekins on a large baking tray and bake at 180 degrees C for about 30 minutes.

Makes 6-8 mini cherry cobblers (serves 6-8).

Black Forest Shots

Black Forest Cake always reminds me of my childhood because my mum made the best one ever and my brother used to request it as his birthday cake every single year without fail. However, doing shots doesn't remind me of my childhood at all because I had good parents. So... I guess this recipe is like combining the past with the future. Or something wanky like that. Really though - all you need to know is that these are sooo much easier and faster to make than a Black Forest Cake. Plus, what could be cooler than eating a whole (mostly liquid) cake in one mouthful? There is also something quite fun about shots which you have to chew as you take them. So, with that random group of good points about these shots, you can see that you obviously have to try them. I'm also planning Lamington Shots and Tiramisu Shots to go up at some stage in the same series.

Ingredients (per shot)

1 pitted morello cherry (see note below - for the love of god read the note!)

½ measure vanilla vodka

½ measure cherry brandy

2 tsp of the juice from the jar or can of morello cherries

1 tsp chocolate ganache (see recipe below)

2 tsp coconut milk

Chocolate Ganache (makes quite a big batch so if you are only making a few shots you may want to halve it)

1/3 cup soy milk

100g dark chocolate, broken up into small pieces

To Make

1. To make the ganache, heat the soy milk in a small saucepan until small bubbles start to appear on the outer edge of the milk (don’t let it boil). Remove from the heat and stir in the broken up chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is all melted and the ganache is deliciously glossy (don’t put it back on the heat!). Allow to cool slightly.

2. Put the morello cherry in the bottom of the shot glass.

3. Add the vanilla vodka, cherry brandy and morello cherry juice.

4. Add a generous teaspoon of chocolate ganache to each glass (it will sink into the middle of the booze).

5. Pour the coconut milk over the shot glass over the back of a teaspoon to make it sit at the top of the shot.

6. Consume immediately and make another :)

NOTE: I would highly recommend checking each cherry to make sure that it is in fact pitted before putting it in the shot, as my experience of buying jars of pitted morello cherries is that roughly 1/4 of the cherries in the jar actually still have pits in them. So - if you don't want your cocktail party guests choking on cherry pits I recommend checking by inserting a sharp knife or skewer into the cherry first.

This post is part of the Death By Chocolate Sweet Adventures Blog Hop, click on the list of posts below or on this badge to see all the other entries submitted to the hop:

P.S. I can't even tell you how many times I accidentally typed shit instead of shot when writing up this post - hopefully I noticed them all and changed them......