This month's We Should Cocoa challenge was to create something lovely using both rose and chocolate. Choclette really does like to keep us on our toes!!
My first thoughts were to team the rose with some white chocolate - there is something so delicate about a rose (and rose water) that I immediately thought to pair it with the subtle vanilla sweetness of some good white chocolate. White billowy meringues, perhaps? But then life got in the way (as it does), I was getting short on time and I needed a kid friendly, throw it all together type bake.
The kids are not great fans of white chocolate - milk chocolate gets the vote every time! So I decided to play around with one of my stock recipes - add some rose water and see what happens!!
I had a hit and a miss - the cake was very popular, the hint of rose being very subtle, gave an extra dimension (just a little something that stopped you wolfing down a slice and encouraged you to nibble it thoughtfully), it married very well with the milk chocolate, one flavour not overpowering the other. The icing on the other hand was not popular (even with me!!) Firstly the cake was sweet enough and did not need the extra sweet injection of the icing. Secondly the rose and orange flavours (which I thought would be fantastic together) just didn't jell, and thirdly it was all just too much when combined. Luckily I only iced a small section of the cake - so there was plenty of happy munching!!
Chocolate Rose Cake
200g butter
200g caster sugar
200g milk chocolate
250g self raising flour
1.5 tsp rose water
3 eggs, beaten.
Prepare a 24x33cm (13x10inch) tin by lining with baking parchment paper
Preheat oven to 180 C
Melt the butter and 75g of the chocolate.
Add the sugar and combine.
Gently stir in the flour.
Chop up the remaining 125g of chocolate and add to the batter.
Add the eggs, stirring gently.
Pour into the shallow tin.
Bake for 20 - 30 minutes.
Icing (though I wouldn't bother!)
100g icing sugar, sieved
1 tsp rosewater
orange juice to get to correct texture.
Combine.
Enjoy!
