Chocolate Banana Ice Cream

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 28, 2015 // 41 Comments

What’s that? Winter you say? Sounds like the perfect time for ice cream to me! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s never too cold for ice cream. I know lots of you are covered in snow right now, and I bet ice cream would make you feel better about that! Don’t believe me? Try this super chocolatey ice cream full of banana sweetness and I’ll wait for you to tell me I’m right, I won’t even tell you I told you so – I’m nice like that!

I’m on a bit of banana kick at the moment. I keep buying them and just waiting for them to go over ripe in the fruit bowl, so I can make something yummy with them! With this batch of bananas I was torn between two ideas, so I did the only thing I could – made one of them and bought more bananas so I could make the other thing too! This yummy chocolate banana ice cream was the result of the first batch – creamy, chocolatey, sweet and oh so delicious!

Now I know you’ve probably heard about that healthy banana ice cream that is pretty much just mashed frozen bananas, but you’re not going to find any of that kind of healthiness here I’m afraid – this is proper ice cream, full of real cream! It still has bananas in though, so it’s entirely bad for you right? All that potassium totally negates all the fat and sugar I’m sure of it! Come to think of it, with all that potassium this ice cream is sure to be a hangover buster. See, I’m looking out for you guys 😉

I originally thought about just banana ice cream, but then I remembered everything is made better by chocolate so I had to add it! I use both cocoa powder and melted chocolate in this ice cream, to really give it that chocolate boost. It doesn’t over power the banana though, both flavours punch through beautifully alone while also complimenting each other! I put a little cinnamon in there too a) because I’m me and b) cinnamon really does compliment banana so nicely. You will need an ice cream maker for this recipe, but it’s a worthwhile investment if you love ice cream as much as me!

So let’s do a headcount shall we? Banana? Check! Chocolate? Check! Real cream? Check! Deliciousness? Double check! Yep, this ice cream really does have it all! You won’t be sorry you made this, and neither will your family/friends/random people who show up at your house to eat your ice cream. Serve it up with some fresh banana slices or even on top of a nice warm pie, and you’ll have one awesome dessert! Since it’s homemade it won’t last as long as your store bought ice cream, but trust me when I tell you it won’t have a chance to go bad – you’ll be lucky if it lasts overnight!

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Chocolate Banana Ice Cream

2015-01-26 21:49:11

Delicious chocolate banana ice cream, simple to make and oh so worth it

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Ingredients

4 Bananas, very ripe
1/2 cup brown sugar
60g chocolate finely chopped
1 cup double cream
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 egg yolks

Instructions

Put the bananas and 1/8 cup of the sugar in a blender, and blend to combine. Only do a couple pulses if you'd like little chunks of bananas in your ice cream like me, otherwise blend until smooth. Set aside.
Put the chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat 3/4 cup the cream until bubbles just start to appear and pour over chocolate. Leave to stand for 1 minute and then stir until smooth.
Pour the cream and chocolate mixture back into the pan with the milk, rest of the sugar, cocoa, salt and cinnamon. Heat on medium, stirring occasionally, until sugar is all dissolved and it just starts to steam. Remove from heat
Whisk egg yolks in a bowl. Ladle 1/4 cup of the cream mixture into the bowl with the eggs and whisk in. Repeat with 2 more 1/4 cups of the mixture - until egg yolks are warm to touch.
Pour egg mixture into the pan and return to a medium heat. Stir constantly until mixture thickens. It's ready when it coats the back of the spoon - it will be about 80C/170F on a candy thermometer. Do not boil!
Remove from heat and stir in the rest of the cream and the banana mix. Transfer to a bowl.
Fill a bowl slightly larger than the bowl your custard is in with ice water, place the custard bowl in the ice water. Cool in ice bath for 20 minutes, until room temperature (make sure no water can spill into the custard). Transfer to the fridge and chill for 3 hours or overnight.
Freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to your ice cream maker's instructions.
Once it reaches a soft serve consistency, transfer to your storage container and place in freezer overnight.
Leave at room temperature for at least 10 minutes before scooping and serving

Notes

Keep in airtight container for up to 2 weeks in the freezer
I used dark chocolate, but milk chocolate will be good too - whichever you prefer.
Recipe makes about 1 quart (950ml)

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Chocolate and Raspberry Vodka Tonic

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 23, 2015 // 55 Comments

Happy 1st Birthday to Fiesta Friday!!! 52 weeks of an awesome virtual pot luck party, the only place to be every Friday! And after 52 weeks it’s only getting better. If you haven’t partied with us before, today is the day – because we’re having a party within a party! And even better than that, it’s a two week long party. This week it’s happy hour time, so there’s going to be plenty of appetizers, finger foods and of course cocktails! Next week the party will continue with main dishes and desserts! So come celebrate with us, whether it’s your 1st Fiesta Friday or your 52nd, you’ll be welcomed with open arms and you’ll have a great time, I promise. Our fab co hosts for part 1 of the party are Hilda and Julianna. Join up with the party here

I am bringing this awesome cocktail to the First Fiesta Friday Anniversary Block Party – because what’s a party without a cocktail or 5! When I brainstorming on what to make for the party I knew it needed to be something sweet, it’s what I do best after all. And I think our wonderful host, Angie, might appreciate how I happened upon these ingredients as I know she impulse buys random things in the store because she *might* find a use for them, just like I do – that’s how I got the two main ingredients for this cocktail! There’s a small international section in the mini Tesco by my house and I also browse it to see if there’s anything fun looking, and I found this bottle of raspberry syrup, I think it’s Polish but I’m not 100% sure, I picked it up because I thought it looked cool and I was sure I’d find a use for it – cue it sitting in my cupboard for 6 months unopened! Then when I was in Atlanta over Christmas, I went to the liquor store to pick up some bottles of wine and at the checkout they had little bottles of flavoured vodka, as soon as I saw the chocolate vodka I picked up one – chocolate and vodka, what’s not to love?! And again my rationalisation was “I’m sure I can find a use for it!”

When I thought about cocktails I could make from the chocolate vodka and raspberry my mind immediately went to a cream based cocktail, it seemed to make the most sense. But the inspiration this chocolate and raspberry vodka tonic came when I was enjoying my regular vodka tonic. Vodka tonic with a lime wedge is my favourite drink but it has to be good quality vodka, and it has to be polish. My favourite is Belvedere by far, I always pick up a bottle at duty free! A chocolate vodka tonic definitely sounded like a good idea to me, especially combined with raspberry syrup and with the addition of a little fresh lime juice and you have every flavour profile a cocktail needs – sweet, bitter and sour! It’s a simple cocktail to put together, but it will definitely impress your friends. And it’s perfect for a big party like this!

I’m no mixologist and cocktails definitely aren’t my area of any kind of expertise, but I knew if I got the right levels of sweetness from the syrup and vodka, the bitter edge to the tonic would make for a delicious cocktail. You don’t even need any fancy cocktail wear to make it, no shaker needed. You will want something mix it up, but even a spoon will do. Since this is a stirred drink, the amount of ice you use isn’t too important as it’s not used to dilute the drink – you just need enough to keep it nice and cold.

I’d never heard of this brand of vodka before and while it’s no Belvedere it was very tasty, if you can get your hands on some chocolate vodka I would definitely recommend it trying it! It has a bit of chocolate sauce taste to it which blended really nicely with the raspberry syrup. If you can’t get your hands on chocolate vodka right now, I would definitely recommend trying this with regular vodka I’m going to be adding raspberry syrup to my regular vodka tonics much more often – but please use good vodka, drinks are just like anything else, the better quality your ingredient the better it will taste!

This drink is not only great for this fab party, but with that beautiful pink colour and the chocolate theme it’ll be perfect to serve on Valentine’s Day – whether you’re spending it with a significant other or having drinks with your single friends! I’m certainly going to pour one for myself on February 14th!

So, get your party shoes on and grab a cocktail, there’s lots to see and taste! I can’t wait to see what everyone else has brought to the party, cheers!

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Chocolate and Raspberry Vodka Tonic

2015-01-23 00:32:20

A delicious cocktail made with chocolate flavoured vodka, perfect for Valentine's Day and any party!

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Ingredients

Ice
25ml Chocolate Vodka
25ml Raspberry Syrup
Tonic Water
2 Lime Wedges
Fresh Raspberries (optional)

Instructions

Add ice to a tall glass, filling halfway full
Pour over vodka and syrup, fill up with tonic water.
Squeeze lime wedges into glass before dropping them in glass
Garnish with fresh raspberries if desired, serve with stirrer to mix drink.

Notes

If you don't have stirrers, be sure to stir drink before serving

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Chocolate Banana Muffins

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 1, 2015 // 40 Comments

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and 2015 is full of non stop awesome for you! I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, especially diet related ones! I’m a baker and I’m very attached to my butter and sugar, dieting just isn’t for me even if I would like to lose a couple pounds. With that said, the first recipe I’m posting in 2015 is pretty healthy! I’m not a calorie or nutrition counter so I don’t know how healthy these are but they have no butter, the majority of the sweetness comes from the bananas with only a small amount of brown sugar supplementing it. They’re also made with wholemeal (whole wheat) flour – they’re practically a health food! These will also be dairy free if you use chocolate chips that don’t contain dairy (I use semi-sweet chips, which do contain traces of milk I believe). You could also potentially make them vegan with a little fiddling, replacing the eggs with applesauce would probably work but I haven’t tested that, so I can’t say for sure.

These chocolate banana muffins are also delicious, way more delicious than they are healthy which is my kind of muffin! They’re a nice dense, moist muffin, I hate those muffins that are like biting into air, I want some substance in my muffins – leave the light and airy for the cupcakes! They’re equally chocolatey and banana-ry, with a hint of cinnamon to give them a nice flavour depth. The chocolate chips are definitely a must too, they add little chunks of chocolatey goodness and a little extra sweetness,

These muffins came about because I had a few way too ripe bananas – my first idea was, naturally, banana bread, but I only had three bananas so it would have been a very small loaf! Muffins seemed like a great idea and they really were! Over ripened bananas are so great for baking, never ever throw away those brown bananas okay! They look pretty nasty and aren’t fun to eat, but the riper they get the sweeter they are, so when they’re all brown and mushy, there’s so much natural sweetness in them that’s perfect for baking, you can even cut down on your sugar usage because of all the natural sweetness. Next time you have some bananas getting a bit too comfy in your kitchen, you should definitely turn them into these muffins, you’ll love them! They’re worth buying bananas especially to make these muffins, you’ll have some waiting time but they’re so yummy it’s worth the wait.

Because of all the natural sweetness, you really can have them at any time. Grab one for a quick and tasty breakfast in the morning, pack one in the kid’s lunchbox for a snack or treat, or even pass them out as dessert after dinner – everybody will love them any time of the day. They have those wonderful domed and chewy muffins tops that are essential for a good muffin! The best way, I find, to get a good muffin top is to fill the paper cases up until they’re almost full and then bake on a high temperature for 10 minutes before lowering it to bake throughout – I never fail to get a great muffin top with that method!

So, 2015 is finally upon us! The year of my golden birthday, the rugby world cup, the year of general elections in the UK and, assuming she’s still reigning towards the end of the year, Queen Elizabeth II will be our longest reigning queen, beating Queen Victoria! And lots more yet to be determined I’m sure. I haven’t made any proper resolutions but I do plan on a few changes this year to help make it a good year – and of course, there will be lots of baking! Do you guys have any big plans for 2015? Have you made any resolutions?

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Spiked Black Forest Milkshake

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 22, 2014 // 8 Comments

This Spiked Black Forest Milkshake has the classic taste of Black Forest Gateaux with chocolate, cherries and kirsch. It’s the perfect festive milkshake!

Happy Monday! It’s Day 8 of my Countdown to Christmas Recipes! And here’s a confession, I’m a little unorganised with this, tomorrow may or may not be the last recipe I post in this countdown to Christmas. I haven’t baked Day 10 yet and really it all depends on when I get them baked! So watch this space I get. If this is your first encounter with my Countdown to Christmas, it’s pretty simple, I have just been posting one festive recipe a day in the lead up to Christmas. Day 1 was Spiced Caramel, Day 2 was a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake, Day 3 was Peppermint Puppy Chow, Day 4 was Mince Pies, Day 5 was Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake, Day 6 was Frosted Shortbread Christmas Cookies and Day 7 was Spiced Chocolate Orange Puppy Chow. And today I bring you this Spiked Black Forest Milkshake.

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Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 19, 2014 // 37 Comments

This Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake is full of delicious festive spices, filled with spiced caramel and topped with Kirsch Cream and Caramelised Nuts! Perfect for the holiday season.

We’re really on the final run to Christmas now, less than a week to go now! This amazing cake is day five of my Countdown til Christmas – where I’m posting a festive recipe every day up until Christmas day. The first of my Countdown til Christmas recipes, the spiced caramel, is the yummy filling in this cake! Day 2 was a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake, Day 3 was Peppermint Puppy Chow and Day 4 was Mince Pies

This Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake is kind of along the same vein as the mince pies in that I made it because I really don’t like traditional Christmas cake – you know, the dried fruit cake fed with brandy for weeks, don’t like it! Unlike my take on mince pies, this cake doesn’t take the same basic aspects of a Christmas cake it’s just what I want in a Christmas cake!

I start with my favourite Devil’s Food Cake recipe and make it a little more festive with spices and clementines. Then I filled it with yummy spiced caramel and topped it with Kirsch spiked whipped cream and caramelised walnuts. And I’m not going to lie to you, this is quite possibly the best cake I have ever made! I was really sad to send it off to work with my mum, but if I knew if I didn’t I would sit and eat the cake in one sitting! The cake is rich and chocolately with just enough Christmas spice to get anybody in the festive spirit, the caramel is smooth and warming and adds to that Christmassy feel, and the cream? The Kirsch spiked cream really is a must, that subtle cherry flavour combined with the festive chocolate is just to die for. And the Christmas goes all the way to the figuritive cherries on top, the walnuts are caramelised in sugar, clementine and cinnamon, so good! The actual cherries on top are just a nice little touch I think! It may not be what most people think of when they hear “Christmas Cake” but there’s no denying that this is one!

You really should bake this cake this holiday, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, you’ll blow your friends and family out of the water! And it’s not a lot of work to make, even the caramel is super easy to make! And any effort put into it is so totally worth it! I make and eat a lot of cake, but it really is hard to top this one! Bake it now, thank me later 😉

I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas are almost ready to go, and there’s not too much last minute panicking! I’m all done with m Christmas shopping, I’m just waiting for a last few things to arrive, once they’re wrapped and under the tree all I have is a couple things to bake on Christmas eve and I’m done!

I’m going to be bringing this delicious Christmas cake along to Fiesta Friday this week too, because what’s a party without lots and lots of cake? Plus, the next time we all party together Christmas will be all over with! So why not come join the party just in time for Christmas, there’s bounds to be lots of festive fun and treats, especially with the amazing Jhuls and Indu co hosting for us this week!

Come hang out with me on social media, I’d love to keep up with y’all this holiday season! You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook

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Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake

2014-12-19 16:11:52

A rich, delicious chocolate with christmas spices, spiced caramel, kirsch spiked whipped cream and caramelised walnuts

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For the cake

225g plain flour (all purpose flour)
375g caster sugar (super fine granulated sugar)
75g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2 clementines, zest and juice
240ml buttermilk, room temperature
120ml vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
1tsp vanilla extract
~230ml freshly brewed hot strong coffee

For the cream

300ml double cream (heavy cream), cold
3 tbsp Kirsch

For the nuts

50g walnuts
1 clementine, juice
15g butter
1 tbsp caster sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Also needed

1 batch of spiced caramel, linked below

For the cake

Preheat oven to 350F/170C. Grease and line two 8″ cake pans
Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, cornflour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, cinnamon, cloves and clementine zest and set aside
Combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla using a stand mixer or hand mixer then gradually add the dry ingredients with the mixer on low. Add the clementine juice to a measuring jug and fill jug up to 240ml with the coffee. Add the coffee mix. You will have a very thin, water like batter – don’t worry, it’s supposed to be like that!
Pour the batter evenly between the tins and bake for approx 25 -30mins or until your cake tester comes out clean.
Leave to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on wire rack and leave to cool completely before filling.
Spread generous amounts of spiced caramel on one half of the cake and top with the other half
For the nuts
Put the clementine juice, butter, cinnamon and sugar into a non stick frying pan and melt together. Let it gently sizzle for about 60 seconds and then add the walnuts. Stir to coat the walnuts and gently cook, moving the nuts around occasionally to stop them sticking. They're done when all the liquid has disappeared and your nuts are shiny and coated in caramel. Set aside to cool.

For the cream

Add the double cream and Kirsch to your stand mixer bowl and whip until you just have stiff peaks. Spoon generously on top of the cake.
Sprinkle the cooled walnuts on top of the cake and top with cherries if desired.

Notes

If you don't have Kirsch (cherry flavour), you could also use Grand Marnier (orange flavour) or even Baileys.
Store in the fridge, will keep for 2-3 days with cream. Without cream, will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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