Hungry Heart // Bruce Springsteen

The Dessert Bar has opened at William Curley!! Well, it opened a little while back but monetary constraints meant we were forced to wait.
Then it was my birthday and it was the only thing I could think of that I actually wanted was a trip for some pudding action.
Turns out it was a complete treat day for me - we started off at the London Transport Museum! They have busses and tube trains and so much information about the transport! Serious swoon.

Libby loved driving the bus.

We arrived at William Curley to a lovely welcome after a little trip on a routemaster! Yay!! It was busy so we went and chilled out in the pretty square over the road. Then when it was time we headed in.


So when you go for the a la carte menu you get three courses of dessert! And it all gets made by a chef right in front of you, so you can see exactly what you're getting, and the work and skill that goes into it.
The first course is pre-dessert. The first was a moelleux-au-chocolat, with chocolate sauce, kinako bean ice cream and crystalised pistachios.
The ice cream is never something I would have picked out for myself, but it was lush. I loved it. I'll definately have it next time I go. The moelleux was beautiful - warm and gooey. It definately whet my appetite.


The next pre-dessert was the Pomme Granita. It consisted of a jelly made with agar agar. The texture was completely different to a gelatine jelly. It was melt-in-the-mouth and moreish. The next layer up was creme fraiche, followed by apple spaghetti and topped with the granita part.
It was so fresh and tangy. Jonny and I loved it and I could have eaten two. Or three.


Then the main part. There is a small back story behind my choice. When I worked in the Richmond store I was confronted every day by a picture in the shop of the Mille-Feuille. It wasn't being sold while I worked there, but a tiny version was included on the petit-four. Which I loved. And it was never enough. I have been longing for a full-sized one for almost two years. When we were asked what we'd like for the main there was no hesitation. I didn't even look at the other choices.
The mille feuille consists of layers of hazelnut and chocolate sponges, chocolate mousse, and a layer of praline biscuit and it came with muscavado ice cream and orange segments and orange sauce. Jonny had a bit more of a puzzle but opted for the Foret Noire.


There are no words for how happy I was with my mille feuille. The Foret Noir had white chocolate mousse, dark chocolate mousse, sponge and a kirsch syrup. It came with griottine cherries in a sauce and crystalised pistachios. He obviously has an unmanly and weak stomach and filled up and started finding his a bit rich. Wimp. His was boozy and incredible looking. It came in a cylinder of chocolate. I can't even fathom how it's made.


Then we had the petit fours. These were adorable mini pistachio macarons sandwiched together with a very dark chocolate ganache, and another adorable mini chocolate and yuzu financier, which is my favourite William Curley cake.


All this was washed down with hot chocolate and then home-made lemonade, which was just what you needed to balance out the sweetness.


I can't wait to go back. I suggested to Jonny that we should make it a weekly habit, but he wasn't so keen. Maybe once a month would be reasonable. It costs £15.00 per person. Which also leaves me a bit lost for words as the amount you get and the quality of the experience is just incredible.

Billy Brown // Mika

Yesterday was the birthday party of one of our best friends, Will.
We managed to keep it a complete surprise from him, and I think it was a total success in the end, well he seemed happy enough.


When I make cakes for people I like to put some thought into them, make them a bit more personal. I had two ideas for Will.. wine and guitars.
We decided against making a replica of his beloved bass, as it's beautiful and a cake would just be a charicature of it, and its imperfections would have probably annoyed him.
The other idea, wine, needed practice and I ran out of time and didn't fancy taking the risk of errecting a cake held up with wine bottles without knowing if it would work or not.
So I had to re-think. Will is one of my only friends who has an interest in proper chocolate, he thinks the darker better.
So I gave myself the challenge of making the chocolatiest cake in the world.

I made the actual cake on Thursday evening, using James Martin's cola cake recipe, the only chocolate cake recipe I trust to work now.
I planned to fill it with a dark ganache and top it with Helm Magical Icing and then put as many chocolates as possible on top, all bought from William Curley.

I'd asked my dad to buy some 70% chocolate for the ganache, as Will would approve but it wouldn't be so dark everyone else would hate it.
So I happily made the ganache but when I tried it.. bleurgh.. it was bitter and unpalatable. We checked the packet and it had been 85% chocolate. It could not have gone in the middle of the cake, and I had to get back to the office.
It was decided we'd take the risk of adding sweetened cream cheese, in an attempt to keep the perfect consistency but make it a bit more edible.
It worked, sort of. It solidified in the cake, so wasn't the gooey filling it should have been, but it was still tasty.

Helm Magical Icing is a mixture of butter, cocoa powder, icing sugar and evaporated milk. It makes a silky smooth covering that you can just pour over the cake, and it gives it a lovely shiny coating.


Then the fun bit of covering the cake in chocolates, cinder toffee and nuts. We were quite pleased with how it looked in the end, and I think everyone at the party liked it, even if they didn't manage to finish the Libby-sized portions I dished out.

Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S I Love You) // Chef

I've just been for a brief trip (again) to William Curley, and I was stupid enough to go without having a firm plan of what I wanted.
This meant I ended up having a hot chocolate, a bakewell tart and a milk chocolate rocher. Only so I could have time to ponder what I actually needed, of course.

Anyway, the one thing I can never resist, and christ knows how anyone else manages to resist it, is the sea salted caramel.
I can reel off a list of sea salty products;
A couture chocolate
Sea Salt Caramel Bar
Sea Salt Caramel Tart
Sea Salt Caramel Spread
Sea Salt Caramel Mou (coated in a thick, dark chocolate)
Sea Salt Caramel Mou (Just in a wrapper, so indulgently sticky and fun)
I even got to try a sea salt caramel eclair while working there... divine.

I heard that people put the spread on toast, in cakes, on brioche, in porridge, while I shamefully enjoy sneaky spoonfuls from the jar.

While it originally sounds like an odd and wrong thing, salt in something sweet, it's not. It's a match made in heaven. I have no idea whoever thought of it, but they are a genius. The salt brings out the flavour of the caramel, and cuts through the sweetness of the sugar.
And it's addictive. Don't say I didn't warn you.


Pictured is the sea salt caramel bar, an easy grab and go fix, for when picking out individual chocolates sometimes brings on feelings of guilt about how much money you could be spending, this bar gives you the option of not thinking.
A thick layer of beautifully dark Amedei chocolate to crunch through, and then you're at the liquid centre.

Go on, it's really not something to be missed.

Cherry, Cherry // Neil Diamond

Today was a trip to Kooks in Richmond for some necessary cupcake supplies. I have a large batch to make for the end of February, and as I have never made cupcakes before some practice runs would be wise.

Any trip to Richmond isn't complete without a trip to William Curley (I take no responsibility in the case of you looking at the online Boutique and spending a lot of money).
This shop is my heaven. I think that while I worked there I sampled everything that they made, and loved everything.
When I left I knew that I'd make an honest attempt at being their best customer. I've let myself down a little, as I have reverted back to my old ways of eating cheap chocolate, but if I had the money I'd know that William Curley chocolate would be all I ate.

I was pleased to see the one of the lovely chefs I had the pleasure of working with, and perhaps a little bit more pleased to see a new item of patisserie in the cabinet.
I was told that it was a cherry and praline entremet, and had been designed especially for an upcoming competition. Handily there were five, and we were en route to a lunch where there would be five of us.
So I excitedly snapped them up, along with a sea salted caramel bar and a white chocolate and raspberry bar, my Mum's favourite.

The entremets were dark chocolate mousse, cherry compote with a feuillatine and praline biscuit and a chocolate sponge, all finished with a perfect dark chocolate glaze,dark chocolate discs and a boozy griottine cherry, with a flake of real gold, just to remind you how decadent what you're about to eat is.


The balance of mousse and compote was perfect, though I wouldn't expect anything less really.. the praline biscuit was a perfect crisp contrast to the soft mousse and ugh it was just heaven.
Everyone agreed, and there were squabbles as we tried to steal each others.
OK, I admit that it was only me trying to steal Jonny's.

My only complaint about these divine desserts is that they were too small. They are slightly smaller than the normal portion size, but the price reflects that.
All the entremets are fantastically good value for money in fact, the amount of layers that each one has, and the time put into them to make them just right, the quality of the ingredients used.. you see I'm swooning just thinking about them.

I think these cherry ones are a guaranteed competition winner, and I hope that they make regular appearances in the patisserie cabinet. Though even if you can't get your hands on one of these all of the others are equally as delicious.

I think there are going to be a lot more posts on the shop that houses Britain's best chocolates...