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The Australian Women's Weekly, Christmas Cooking With The Weekly, RRP $39.95, available where all good books are sold. Photographer: Anson Smart and Steve Brown.

It's already Christmas, and one of the great things about this festive time of the year is enjoying wonderfully delicious food with family and friends. We were very happy to create two recipes from The Australian Women's Weekly, Christmas Cooking With The Weekly cookbook this month, and let's just say, are these recipes will put anyone in a Christmas mood. So much so, that Gina jumped at the chance to bake them.

With the help of our trusty Powermix Planetary Bench Mix, Gina made:

Chocolate on Chocolate Tort

Christmas Blondie

Take it away, Gina.

I tried my hand at making the AWW Chocolate on Chocolate torte.  This recipe has 3 separate steps– the cake, the cream centre and the ganache icing - all using a good quantity of melted dark chocolate and is made over two days.   My Kambrook stand mixer mixed the cake ingredients together easily so although there were a few steps involved, it didn’t feel like hard work.  Also, just to simplify things, I used Cadbury dark chocolate melts in my Kambrook microwave and it still worked a treat.  I didn’t have two 8”x12”cake pans so I used two 8”x8” which meant my layers came out pretty thick and stacking them was a bit tricky with the top layers wanting to slide off the cream centre...in the end I prevailed, and judging from the ‘this is yummy’ comments, yet another successful outcome.

Chocolate on Chocolate Torte

Prep + cook time 1 hour (+ cooling & refrigeration) 

Serves 12

You will need to start the torte the day before.

INGREDIENTS

• 125g (4 ounces) dark chocolate, chopped coarsely
• 1 cup (250ml) water
• 180g (5½ ounces) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups (440g) firmly packed brown sugar
• finely grated rind of 2 oranges
• 4 eggs
• 1¹⁄³ cups (200g) self-raising flour
• ¹⁄³ cup (35g) dutch cocoa
• ²⁄³ cup (80g) ground almonds
• fresh cherries, to serve

chocolate custard cream

• 75g (2½ ounces) dark chocolate, chopped coarsely
• 125g (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
• ²⁄³ cup (180g) store-bought thick custard
• 1 tablespoon dutch cocoa
• 1 tablespoon icing (confectioners’) sugar

chocolate ganache

• 500g (1 pound) dark chocolate, chopped coarsely
• 300ml (½ pint) thickened (heavy) cream

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 180°C /350°F. Grease two 20cm x 30cm (8-inch x 12-inch) shallow cake pans; line bases and sides with baking paper, extending paper 5cm (2 inches) over edges.
2. Combine chocolate and the water in a small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until chocolate melts; cool slightly.
3. Beat butter, sugar and rind in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined between additions. Sift together flour and cocoa; stir in the almonds. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture; stir until just combined. Stir in warm chocolate mixture.
4. Divide mixture evenly between pans; smooth surface. Bake 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand cakes in pans for 10 minutes before turning, top-side up, onto wire racks to cool.
5. Make chocolate custard cream.
6. Cut cakes in half lengthways. Place one half on a platter. Spread with a third of the chocolate custard cream. Top with another cake half. Continue layering with remaining chocolate custard cream and cake, finishing with cake. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate overnight.

Make chocolate ganache

Spread torte with chocolate ganache. Stand until ganache is set before slicing; serve torte with cherries.

Chocolate custard cream

Melt chocolate in a small heatproof bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water (don’t let water touch base of bowl); cool. Beat butter in a small bowl with an electric mixer until as pale as possible. Combine custard, melted chocolate and sifted cocoa and icing sugar in a small bowl. Gradually, beat custard mixture into butter until combined.

Chocolate ganache

Combine chocolate and cream in a large heatproof bowl over a large saucepan of simmering water (don’t let water touch base of bowl); stir until chocolate melts. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, stirring frequently, or until ganache is thickened and is a spreadable consistency.

Tip: We used chocolate with 70% cocoa solids.

Christmas Blondies

Prep + cook time 1 hour 

Makes 16 squares

INGREDIENTS

• ²⁄³ cup (220g) bottled fruit mince
• 2 tablespoons brandy
• 180g ( 5½ ounces) butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup (220g) firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (150g) plain (all-purpose) flour
• ½ cup (75g) self-raising flour
• ½ cup (60g) ground almonds
• ½ cup (95g) white Choc Bits
• 1¼ cups (100g) flaked almonds, lightly toasted

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease a deep 20cm (8-inch) square cake pan; line base and sides with baking paper.
2. Combine fruit mince and brandy in a small bowl.
3. Beat butter, vanilla and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until pale. Add eggs; beat until combined, then add sifted flours and almonds; beat on low speed until combined.
4. Stir in fruit mince mixture, chocolate and half the nuts. Spread mixture into pan; sprinkle with remaining nuts.
5. Bake 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with a few crumbs attached (but not wet batter). Cool in pan. Turn out, then cut into squares.
6. Dust with sifted icing sugar, if desired. Place in a container for transporting.

Tip:  Loosely cover the blondies with foil if the almonds are browning too quickly.

NOW FOR THE WINNING PART 

** This Competition has now finished, thank you to all who participated! **

The two lucky winners for this competition are: Narelle and Natasha

The lovely people at The Australian Women’s Weekly are giving two (2) lucky readers the chance to win one of their Chirstmas Cooking With The Weekly cookbooks. All you have to do is answer this simple question in the comments section of this blog post in 25 words or less: What meal do you make every Christmas?

Two (2) lucky winners will be selected and each will win their very own copy of The Australian Women’s Weekly, Christmas Cooking With The Weekly, RRP $39.95, available where all good books are sold and online at www.awwcookbooks.com.au

Please note:

• Only one entry per person
• Open to Australian residents only
• Two (2)winners will be selected by Kambrook
• The winners will be contacted by email and Kambrook reserves the right to announce the winners on our online site https://aperfectpantry.com.au
• This competition will run from 9am 5th December 2013 to 12pm 8th December 2013

Click here for full Terms & Conditions.

IF YOUR ENTRY EXCEEDS 25 WORDS YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED FROM WINNING!