Raspberry Cranberry and Chocolate Mini Cakes

As we are well into the festive season now I thought it was about time I brought you another Christmas recipe with these Raspberry, Cranberry and Chocolate Mini Cakes!

These were made in collaboration with Flower & White who make the most incredible gourmet meringues! The flavours available are dreamy and I urge you to check them out! For these I chose the Raspberry and White Chocolate Drops to decorate the tops of these Raspberry, Cranberry and Chocolate Christmas Mini Cakes.

I wanted to create something indulgent and spectacular that would be a treat for your Christmas visitors. You can really make them marvel at your baking prowess (when in reality they are super easy to make!). You’ll need a 12 holed mini cake tin. I used this Lakeland one from Amazon.

The great thing about these little cakes is that you can swap out the flavours for your favourite fruits. How about blackberries with white chocolate instead?

And if you are drooling over these little Flower & White meringue drops, I made another equally indulgent recipe using them here.

INGREDIENTS

• 125 g butter

• 125 g caster sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 125 g self raising flour

• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

• 2 tbsp milk

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 50 g cranberries (fresh or frozen)

• 50 g raspberries (fresh or frozen)

• 50 g soft light brown sugar

• 200 g dark chocolate

• 100 g white chocolate

• 6 Flower and White Raspberry and White Chocolate Drops

• A few extra berries to decorate

• A little icing sugar to dust

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Grease the cake tin thoroughly with a little butter and preheat the oven to 160 degrees C fan

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

3. Add the eggs, self raising flour and baking powder and whisk together

4. Add the cocoa powder and milk and whisk again to fully combine

5. Spoon the cake mix into the prepared cake tin, filling each hole approximately 2/3 full

6. Bake in the centre of the oven for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and the mix has pulled away from the sides of each hole

7. Remove from the oven and cool until the cakes can safely be removed from the tin. Place them on a wire rack and allow to cool completely

8. Once they have cooled, gently level each mini cake, removing any dome that may have occurred whilst baking. Set aside

9. Place the cranberries and raspberries along with the light brown sugar into a saucepan and gently heat on a low temperature, continually stirring

10. Jam reaches the correct setting consistency at 104 degrees C so a sugar thermometer is really handy to check this. You’ll see the jam begin to reduce and thicken up after around 5-10 minutes – remove from the heat when this happens

11. Pour the jam into a cool bowl and chill for 20 minutes or until fully cooled

12. Once cool, spread a tea spoon of jam or so onto the top of 6 of the mini cakes 

13. Sandwich the jam with a second layer of mini cake on the top

14. Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave in short bursts, stirring between each

15. Once melted, pour over each cake stack allowing the chocolate to drip over the sides

16. Whilst this is setting melt the white chocolate in a similar way. You can also use a bain marie if you prefer

17. Once melted drizzle in lines across the top of each cake

18. Decorate your cakes with a Raspberry & White Chocolate Drop and a couple of cranberries or raspberries

19. Dust with icing sugar to finish

NOTES

Please note in these images holly leaves have only been used as decoration for styling and storytelling purposes. Holly leaves are not to be eaten and should be removed before serving.