White Chocolate Ganache made with Greek Yoghurt

White chocolate ganache made with Greek yoghurt may be nicer than if made with cream.

They don’t call me the “Queen of Make-Do” for nothing (or do they?) Or maybe it’s because I’m just too lazy to jump in the car and head to the shops for a carton of cream (which could lead to unnecessary spending). Whichever way, I’ll try anything once and if it works, it’ll go in the vault (or here on the blog so I can remember it again).

Everything is strawberry mad here in Australia at the moment and we can’t eat them quick enough. I made these Strawberry Swirl Bars (recipe to come) and they just needed something a little more indulgent than cream or icing so I checked the pantry and I had a little bit of white chocolate left (not sure where the rest of it went *cough cough*) and only had Greek yoghurt in the fridge.

It was just a matter of popping them both in a heatproof jug and cooking in the microwave for 30 second bursts. It was a little runny so a little less yoghurt to chocolate ratio next time. I’d say two thirds chocolate to one third yoghurt. It was delicious. The tartness of the yoghurt cut the sweetness from the chocolate and the extra sweetness from the strawberries. 

I’m going to try it with dark chocolate next time, in fact, I don’t think I’ll use cream again when making ganache. Hope you give it a try and let me know what you think.

Caramel Mudcake with Caramel Ganache

Every year, for the last 10 years at least, I make my ’40 something’ sister a birthday cake. It’s only been since my kids were born that I’ve done it and it’s usually been a quick, throw together cake with a bit of plain icing, just for the sake of putting a candle in to blow for the amusement of the kids. This year I thought I’d do something a little more and opted for this Caramel Mudcake.

It’s based on this really easy recipe by Weekend Mummy and it was just what I needed to get in the oven before I picked the kids up from school. Trouble was, I didn’t read the whole recipe and it required over 2 hours cooking in a slow oven. Normally, I wouldn’t have minded but I had a million things on this particular day. Crisis averted. It eventually got baked but it was a little overcooked on the ends but still nice and moist inside like a mudcake should be. Its such an easy cake to mix together and very delicious.

I wasn’t sure what to top it with but I thought a caramel ganache would suit it best so found the best recipe here which consisted of white chocolate, cream and half a tin of caramel Top’N’Fill. It was easy to make and absolutely delicious and could be used for a million other uses. (Stay tuned for what I did with the other half of the tin of caramel and no, I didn’t eat it from the can although I was tempted!) I drizzled the top with a ‘little’ melted dark chocolate to finish.

The cake was received well, the kids got to blow out the birthday candle and my sister turned another year older with a few extra calories added on for good measure.