Low carb love torte

If you love him (or her), feed them low carb! At least, that will be my motto this Valentine’s Day. It might have something to do with the fact that my current eating regime is geared towards lower carb eating. Selfish? Moi? Just concerned about my other half’s health!

But seriously, whether you are into low carb eating or not, this is a delicious chocolate concoction that derives its richness from 90 per cent dark chocolate.

I picked up a pretty heart-shaped mould from the internet to turn it into an extra-special ‘love torte’ as a Valentine’s treat.

This chocolate torte is really a base recipe, that you can add to and experiment with. Why not add some orange extract and orange zest to the mix for an intense choc-orange hit? Or freeze dried raspberries, which are a match made in heaven with dark chocolate. Add a few tablespoons of double cream to the pre-cooked mixture if you want a milkier, less intense torte.

Mocha black bean brownies

I love chocolate, and I love brownies, so I was so relieved when I started out on my New Year’s healthy eating regime – the Trim Healthy Mama way – to find out that I wouldn’t have to give up either.

This recipe is my own variation of the Special Agent Brownie Cake recipe from the Trim Healthy Mama book. It’s a great (and easy recipe) as it stands, but me being me, I couldn’t help but tinker with it a bit to suit my own tastes.

The secret ingredient for this recipe is black beans, which add an interesting texture to the mix, instead of using rich melted chocolate. It makes the brownies moist, yet light at the same time.

Spiced orange cake with chocolate ganache (plus my new diet)

Happy 2014 to you all! It’s a brand new year – a fresh page (actually 365 fresh new pages!). What great projects do you have planned for this year?

While you think about that, maybe I can tempt you with some cake? Some lusciously moist, intensely-orangey and chocolatey, beautiful-tasting cake. Now, if you’re on a New Year’s diet, it may seem a bit mean of me to be tempting you with such indulgences just after the excesses of Christmas.

But actually, this cake is low carb, gluten-free, sugar-free and low-fat – and it’s on my new diet plan (yes, it’s January, of course I’m on a diet too).

Rhubarb and cardamom whip (with Pimm’s)

A light, fruity dessert with Pimm’s. It must be Pimm’s o’ clock!

This dessert needs to be filed under D for Divine. You can make it as healthy or as rich as you like – depending upon your ratio of yoghurt to cream – and it works best with a sharp fruit like rhubarb, gooseberries or raspberries. It’s a bit of a cross between a traditional fruit fool and a trifle (I guess that would make it a trool or a frifle? Now I’m just being silly…).

The addition of Pimm’s No 1 really works, and it’s a surprising complement to the flavour of cardamom. It’s probably because the cardamom has a slightly lemony flavour and we all know how well this particular drink goes with a slice of lemon and other fruit.