Preview night at Roast and Conch

My sister and I were invited to an exclusive preview evening at Roast and Conch last night to launch the new menu and the delectable new range of cocktails.  After recommendations from many of the staff including the General Manager I went for the Salted Caramel Soother- and let me tell you -this was definitely worth the hype. The silky smooth and creamy cocktail is almost milkshake like in texture yet has quite the substantial kick!

Canapés were served throughout the evening including sausages in a chocolate glaze (divine) spiced aubergine (exquisite) and smoked  salmon with gin and tonic jelly to name but a few.

However my favourite would have to be the banana cake served with chocolate mouse. The moist, nutty cake was perfectly complimented by the light and fluffy mousse and I would have happily have munched on these all night.

Upon going upstairs to the main restaurant more canapés were to be had whilst we chatted to the chefs and despite our best efforts the recipe for white chocolate mash remains a secret.

I couldn't leave Roast and Conch before visiting the shop that is situated on the ground floor. Hotel Chocolat has always proved to me at least to be second to none in customer service and Shelley, who was working there that evening, was exceedingly helpful and informative when I was trying to choose what to buy. A very hard task as everything looked so good.

Having previously purchased the Cocoa beer and the gin ( not for myself btw) I was keen to get the Chocolate Port for my dad yet as I had two varieties to choose from I was faced with quite the dilemma.

I was advised that the Ruby Port goes best with dark chocolates as it very rich in flavour and full-bodied whereas the Tawny which is medium-bodied is much better suited for when eating milk chocolate. Nevertheless I bought both varieties :)

The new menu at Roast and Conch, like the chocolates sold by Hotel Chocolat offers a fantastic variety of dishes that are suitable for a variety of dietary requirements.  Including vegetarian, gluten free and dairy free options. 

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

After extensively scrolling through the internet for a good salted caramel cupcakes recipe and I was coming up short. This was not because a lack of recipes - there are hundreds out there but I didn't find one that I liked so I was left with only option; make my own.

For these cupcakes I used:

For the cake

150g golden caster sugar
150g butter
3eggs
175g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla essence

For the icing

100g  butter
200g golden icing
50g philadelphia

For the caramel

125g butter
125g golden caster sugar
1 tsp double cream (optional)
A pinch of salt

In most cake recipes, well if you are using the creaming method anyway, the first thing you will do with your ingredients is to cream the butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy but I wanted to make caramel ones so instead of creaming the two I melted them instead.  (For added saltiness to the caramel I could have added an additional handful of salt at this stage.) Once I was happy with the consistency of my caramel I removed the pan from the heat and left to cool.

Meanwhile I did a little dance and sung into down my hairbrush while the caramel cooled.

After singing along to MTV for a few songs I was satisfied with the temperature of the caramel and proceeded to beat in the eggs…one by one…..careful not to get any shell in. At this point the mixture looked very runny but fear not because this why I added more flour than the other ingredients. Yet before folding the flour trying to incorporate as much air as possible I incorporated the baking powder and vanilla essence.

The mixture was then divided equally (well I tried to make them equal but it didn't really work) between 12 muffin cases and baked at 180 degrees for approximately 17 minutes.

With stage one complete I moved onto making the caramel filling and icing.

For the caramel I melted more butter and sugar with some salt yet feeling a tad adventurous I also added a little double cream thus making my caramel a little thicker and more fudge like. In the same way as butterfly buns I cut a groove into the top of the cupcakes before filling the space with the salted caramel and placing the piece of cake on top like a hat.

I used golden icing sugar for my icing as not only does it have a nice golden tint to it (as the name suggests) but also because the icing has a subtle caramel flavour to it. 

For the best effect I should have piped the icing onto the cakes but I have come to realisation that piping really isn't my my forte so I used the trusty spoon and knife method.

 Finally I decorated using honeycomb and butterscotch pieces. Eh voila scrummy cupcakes!