White chocolate-coconut cream filled "red" velvet cake

This cake is one of my favourite. I love strawberries... you may noticed that already:), it is easy to make and if you keep it in the fridge it will be delicious for days. This is the cake than I mentioned before, when I realised the supermarket food colourings not good enough. You can see the results yourself, it is rather brown than red, but since then I recreated the sponge with my new colouring and it is really red.

White chocolate-coconut cream filled "red" velvet cake

For the sponge
23cm cake tin 
350g softened butter
350g caster sugar
6 eggs
1 vanilla
330g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
15g baking powder
red food colouring * more on this topic in the Tricks and Recommendations 

For the cream
200ml double cream
1dream topping
150g white chocolate
100g dessicated coconut
200g cream cheese

For the filling 
600g strawberries

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the butter and the sugar into a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually  beat in the eggs, vanilla and half of the flour to prevent the mixture from curdling. Add the remaining flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and give it a final beat to mix together. Add the food colouring and mix well.  Put the mixture in a prepared tin and bake it for 1 hr 15minutes, but check after 1hour. If the skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean, than it is ready. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes than put it onto a cooling rack. Leave to cool completely.

Whip the double cream  with the dream topping to stiff peaks then add the melted white chocolate, dessicated coconut and the cram cheese. Mix it again.

Divide the sponge to 3 equal part with a cake leveller and spread the bottom layer with the white chocolate cream. Arrange 1/3 of the strawberries on it and put some cream on top so the next sponge layer will stuck to it . Carry on until you have cream and sponge layer left. Keep it in the fridge, after a day or so the sponge will soften a bit and will be even more delicious than before.

Last week I baked the same cake for my birthday to take it to the office. I "think" they liked it and due to the rectangle shape it was easier to cut and divide to equal parts.

Jubilee Cake

So it is jubilee week and in the office we have the chance to decorate our department. So we planned an office jubilee street party, and I supplied the cake and some cupcakes. So here is my

Jubilee Cake

For the sponge
175g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 vanilla pod
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
75ml buttermilk
75ml boiling water

For the cream
200ml double cream
1dream topping
120g white chocolate
80g dessicated coconut
200g cream cheese

Decoration
200g raspberries
200g blueberries

Preheat your oven to 180°C.
Cream the butter with the sugar until pale and light. Gradually add the beaten eggs, mixing well between each addition. Add the vanilla seeds.
Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into the mixture and mix until almost combined. Add the buttermilk and boiling water and continue to mix until smooth.
Divide the mixture between 2X19cm Sandwich tin. Bake on the middle shelf of your preheated oven for about 20 minutes until well risen and a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of one of the cakes comes out clean. Leave the cakes to rest in the tin for 2 minutes and then leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Whip the double cream  with the dream topping to stiff peaks then add the melted white chocolate, dessicated coconut and the cram cheese.

Level each cake and spread the bottom layer with the white chocolate cream. Arrange half of the raspberries and blueberries on the cream and add some more on top of the fruits so the top sponge will stuck to it . Sandwich the top layer on top then add the rest of the cream and the fruits to create an union jack effect. 



Ok little bit of update...we came second at the office competition..This was the end result: well part of it

Nikon D90 Camera Cake (White chocolate cream filled red velvet cake)

I made this cake for my friend's 30th birthday. I was really nervous as this is my first novelty cake and we had to transfer the cake to Belgium where we celebrated this occasion. Sadly I haven't made any pictures during the  process, but I do my best to explain how I achieved this look.

Nikon D90 Camera Cake

I made the sponge from red velvet cake as I have a day job and I couldn't afford to have a day off just to create this, but I know that my version of red velvet cake just gets better 2 days after baking. So the plan was to bake it on Monday evening, shape it and cover it with cream on Tuesday evening and put on the royal icing on Wednesday(as we set off 3am on Thursday). 

For the sponge
175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
pinch of salt
1 vanilla
165g plain flour
10g cocoa powder
8g baking powder
red food colouring * more on this topic in the Tricks and Recommendations 
1 cake board

For the buttercream
80g butter softened
200g icing sugar
20g cream cheese

For the filling
150g soft cheese
100g white chocolate
150g double cream
1 dream topping
50g dessicated coconut

To cover:
A photograph on edible rice paper-optional
500g black Regal Ice(black sugar paste)-I used an already coloured one, as I read in other blogs that if you try to add food colouring to the white icing you should work on it for quite a while to achieve a nice even black colour.....and I didn't had the time for that
250g red Regal Ice (red sugar paste)
White edible paint
Edible glue
Ruler

Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the butter and the sugar into a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs,vanilla, salt and half of the flour to prevent the mixture from curdling. Add the remaining flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and give it a final mix.

Add the food colouring and mix well. 

Put the mixture in a 20X25cm prepared tin and bake it for 1hr and 15minutes, but check the sponge after an hour. If the skewer inserted into the center comes out clean then it is ready. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes than put it onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

My aim was to achieve a real 1to 1 live size model and it is quite handy if you have the real stuff in front of you. I had my husband's D80 as a model which is quite similar to the D90. Actually the cake came out just the right height (approx 8.5cm). I measured the camera then draw the shape on a piece of paper.

I used a food ring for the lens ( my husband sometimes use this to shape rice or veggies like people in the "Master Chef"). The second sponge you need is almost rectangle except on one hand where you need to create a "handle". To visualize this I created a draft below.It may seem that the cake is small, but i wanted a real camera on the plate. The finished cake was anyway bigger as i haven't calculated with the cream and icing layers on the surface.

So my cake only consisted of two main parts limiting the damage during the journey.

I cut the body and the lens sponge to three parts horizontally and filled with the white chocolate cream. I also cut a small additional piece of sponge on top of the body for the flash holder. I mounded with some cream onto the center. 

For the cream

Whip the double cream to stiff peaks, then add the cream cheese, melted white chocolate dessicated coconut and the dream topping and mix again. 

Sandwich together the layers with the cream and put the cake into the fridge for at least 2 hours for the filling to be harden so you can apply the buttercream more easily.

For the buttercream

Cream together the softened butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the cream cheese and mix again.

Spread the buttercream thinly on the surface of the sponges,try to smooth the cream with an offset spatula knife for a nice finish. 

Refrigerate until  set to the touch and then spread the remaining buttercream over the cakes to give a perfect finish.

To cover

Be careful with the sugar paste as it drys out quickly so if you don't use it wrap it in cling film.Make sure your work surface is clean and dry before you kneed the black sugar paste until warm and pliable. Use some icing sugar to dust your work surface and roll out approx. 250g black icing to 3-4mm thickness to cover the camera body. Carefully lift over the centre of the cake and lay onto the butter cream layer. Dust your icing smoother with some icing sugar and rub the icing gently over the cake using your fingers if needed and an icing smoother.Use a sharp knife to trim the edges, cutting always downwards. Save the trimming for other decorations. 

Do the same for the lens with appr 150g black icing.

As we only need a tiny amount of red sugarpaste you can cover the cake board with it and then place the cake body and the lens(laid on its side) on it.

Now.......... you can breathe:) Most of the hard work is done...

Using the rest of your sugarpaste only few buttons and some detailing is left. For the lens roll out some black sugarpaste and cut it to appr.1.5cmX12-15cm(depending on the diameter of your lens). Put the ruler next to it and every half cm press the back of your knife on it, carefully not to cut it through. When you finish place the ruler lengthwise and make 2 "dent" on the sugarpaste...creating the "lens effect". Cut it to the right length and fix it onto the lens with some edible glue. Repeat the process with a slightly smaller sugarpaste piece 1cmX12-15cm, and this time only make one lengthwise "dent".

The rest is down to you. To make my job easier I printed one of your photograph on edible paper and secured it with some edible glue on the camera screen on the back. 

Don't forget the red detail on the front and the Nikon and the D90 mark on the front with the white paint. I made a small rectangle sugarpaste piece and painted on that....so I can practice without ruining the cake. Fix all the buttons with the edible glue on it(just to be on the safe side).

It is really important that once you have finished with the cake, leave it out for at least an hour so the icing can harden properly.

Keep it in the fridge as it contains cream cheese. Lay back and enjoy the view...and the taste later on.

Lemon Magic

This is a really quick and refreshing dessert almost allays served at warm summer days when you need something light and not too sweet.

For 6 individual portions:
5dl soured cream 
3 lemons
2 tbs icing sugar
1 vanilla
10-15 pieces of lady fingers
3dl double cream

In one bowl mix the soured cream with the icing sugar and 2.5 lemon zest and its juice.
In the other bowl whip the double cream until stiff peaks then mix the contents of the two bowls.
Layer the cream and the lady fingers and put it into the fridge for at least 24 hours. 
Serve chilled with the sliced, half lemon for decoration.

Hints and tips
-if you don't have time for the 24 hours chilling, dip the lady fingers into some milk just before layering. It really should be a quick dip for 4-5 second to start the softening process. If you leave the lady finger in the milk for too long, it will fell apart and it will release milk later on when your desserts already assembled....and you don't want that.
If you use the "milking" method, 3-4 hours resting in the refrigerator will be sufficient.
-As usual please taste the cream, as somebody like sour desserts more than others, if this is the case add another lemon to the cream...
  

Parmesan tartlets

I had a birthday party to cater for and I always fancied the idea of these little beauties. They easy to make, and really impressing when you have 72 of them together.

Parmesan tartlets

makes 48-72 depending how thick or thin you roll the pastry

for the dough
170g flour
75gr freshly grated Parmesan cheese
5 tbs cold butter, cubed
2 tbs cold water

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Put the flour, grated cheese and butter into a food processor and mix until it forms breadcrumbs. Add the water and mix it again to form a ball. Put the dough ball onto a floured surface and knead it lightly into a nice ball.
Roll out really thinly and cut out the circles to fit into the mini muffin tins.
Bake it for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Turn them out to a cooling rack and leave it to cool.

For the filling
there are endless options what you could use, I share the 3 options I used

Egg Cream
4 eggs
80g butter at room temperature
1 ts mustard
2 tbs soured cream
1 pinch of salt
20 green leaves to decorate(can be watercress, spinach..anything)

Boil the eggs until they are hard(about 10minutes), peel them and cut them into small cubes. When the eggs are slightly cooled mix inh the butter until it is incorporated. Add the mustard, soured cream, and salt and mix it again. If you don't use it all, keep it in the fridge.
Fill 1/3 of the baskets with a teaspoon of egg cream and decorate with green leaves.

Shrimp and mango
200ml cream cheese 
200g peeled red shrimps
1chilli
1/2 mango
salt and pepper to taste

Now I have to say this was the best as the warm cram cheese softened the cases.....yummy.
Cut the mango into small cubes.
Put the cream cheese in a heavy based pan and  bring it to  boil under a medium heat.Reduce the heat and add the chilli, shrimps and a pinch of salt, pepper if needed and cook it for 3-4 minutes. When it is ready leave it to cool slightly, than fill 1/3 of the cases with a teaspoon of shrimp filling and a cube of mango.

Mozzarella,pesto and sun dried tomato
1 mozzarella ball
4 tbs green pesto
5sun dried tomatoes
salt, pepper oregano to taste

Well this is really straight forward. Cut the mozzarella  and the sun dried tomatoes to small cubes. Put 1 tea spoon of pesto, 1mozzarella cube and 1 sun dried tomato cube into the baskets, season with oregano if needed.

White chocolate crème brûlée

So I have an agreement with my husband....I can keep buying baking stuff until I use them. Well, I had my purple blow torch for ages without doing anything with it...and what better thing to use it on than a Creme Brulee.

White chocolate Creme Brulee

for 6 servings:
175g fresh raspberries
100g caster sugar
5 medium egg yolks
600ml double cream
1 vanilla bean
175g white chocolate copped
6 tbsp demerara sugar

Rinse lightly the raspberries, then leave to dry on absorbent kitchen paper. Once dry, divide the raspberries evenly between 6 150ml  ramekins or individual dishes(you can leave some on side for the decoration).

Whisk the caster sugar and egg yolks in a large bowl until very thick. Pour the cream into a heavy-based saucepan, place over a medium-high heat and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk into the egg mixture, then whisk in the vanilla essence.

Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook for about 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently, or until thick and the custard coats the back of a wooden spoon.

Remove the bowl from the heat, add the copped white chocolate and stir until melted and well blended. Pour over the raspberries in the ramekins and leave to cool. Cover with cling film and chill in the refrigerator for 6hours or until firm.

Preheat the grill (or use a blow torch).  Remove the ramekins from the refrigerator and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the demerara sugar over each, ensuring that the custard is completely covered.

Cook under the preheated grill for 5-6 minutes, or until the sugar has melted and began to caramelise.(I prefer the blow torch as you can control the carmallization). Remove from the grill, leave to cool slightly, then chill again in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Serve immediately.

Rhubarb Crumble

I love this recipe as it is always delicious and it is ready in 30 minutes. You can use fresh rhubarb or a tinned one, depending on the season. It is best served when it is still hot with some vanilla ice cream:)

Rhubarb Crumble

makes 1 big oven proof dish or 5-6 ramekins

Filling
600g rhubarb, trimmed and chopped
165g demerara sugar
1 vanilla bean split and seeds scraped

Topping
150g plain flour
75g sugar
100g butter at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 180C. Combine the rhubarb, sugar and vanilla seeds and place them in the oven proof dish. To make the topping, combine flour, sugar and butter with a mixer until they are like small crumbles. Pile the mixture on top of the fruit. Bake for 50 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the rhubarb is soft.

Hints and tips: 
-Don't limit yourself to rhubarb...I had this recipe with all kind of fruits, you should always try to use the one in season. If you use apple for instead, just core them and peal off the skin, sprinkle with some sugar and cinnamon.....and the end result is: Apple Crumble:)

Chicken liver and peas lattice pastry

Now...you have two options: buy the puff pastry ready in the shop or you can make your own. And I will be honest here, I bought the pastry in the shop. I never intended to make this creation, but my husband and his friend were occupied with a boring film...and I was in the kitchen anyway. They told me that they are hungry..and I happened to have chicken liver and some puff pastry in the fridge. So I used what I had, as usual.

Chicken liver and peas lattice pastry

As I had two men in the house I mad 4 massive rectangle one,but you can crate small squares or rectangles as well.

For the pastry
1 shop bought puff pastry 
or
you can make a rough puff pastry, for that you need:
500g plain flour
500g very cold butter, cut into small cubes
1 tbs salt
250 ml ice-cold water

For the filling
1 onion
400g chicken liver
200g peas
salt, black pepper
3 tbs olive oil
2-3 tbs paprika

1egg

If you make your own pastry: from Michel Roux
Heap the flour in a mound on the work surface and make a well. Put the butter and salt and work them together with the fingertips of one hand, gradually drawing the flour into the centre with the other hand.

When the cubes of butter have become small pieces and the dough is grainy, gradually add the iced water and mix until it is all incorporated, but don't overwork the dough. Roll it into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Flour the work surface and roll out the pastry to a 40X20cm rectangle. Fold it into three and give it a quarter-turn. Roll the block of pastry into a 40X20cm rectangle as before, and fold it into tree again. 
These are the first 2 turns. Wrap the block in cling film and refrigerate it for 30minutes.

Give the chilled pastry another 2 turns, rolling and folding as before. This makes a total of 4 turns, and the pastry is now ready. Wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before using.

Tightly wrapped in cling film, this quick puff  pastry will keep for 3 days in the fridge, and for at least 4 weeks in the freezer.

OR
Just unwrap the ready pastry from the shop and roll out.

Preheat the oven for 180 °C

For the filling
Using a sharp knife cut the liver into small pieces and chop the onion to small cubes. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a high heat with the oil, then add the onions and fry it until it is golden in colour. Add the liver and fry them together for 3-5 minutes. Add in the frozen or canned peas then season with salt, pepper and paprika and fry for another 2 minutes.
When it is all ready put 3-4 tbs filling into the half of a dough piece. Roll a lattice cutter through the other half of the pastry(or use a knife to crate a lattice like holes) and fold it on top of the filling.
Brush the pastry with the beaten egg and put into the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until it is golden brown. 
When the top is nice brown check the bottom of the pastry as sometimes because of the amount of filling it can be uncooked. If this is the case, just turn up side down and bake it for another 10minutes.

Mango shots

While experimenting with more exotic fruits and tastes, I created these little beauties. I bought 6 1dl glasses for £2.99 in TK Max and tested them straight after arriving home.

Mango shots

Ingredients for 6 1ld glasses:

1 Mango
0.5-1dl Passoá (passion fruit liqueur)
250 ml double cream
4 tbs icing sugar 
1 tbs Amaretto (Almond liqueur)
1 dl coconut milk
1 tbs dream topping


Quite easy to prepare,  will take about 20 minutes with cleaning:)
Peel the mango. 3/4 of the mango needs to be puréed(use food processor or hand blender), the other 1/4 will be the decoration on the top. For the decoration cut the mango into little squares.

Add the Passoá liqueur to the purée, depending on your taste adjust the amount. When the dessert will be cold you won't feel that much the alcohol so set it as just over the kick when it is room temperature. 

Whip the double cream until stiff peaks with the dream topping, then add the coconut milk, Amaretto liqueur and the icing sugar and mix it again. As usual, I would suggest to taste it. Somebody likes it really sweet, somebody likes it not so sweet so adjust the sugar if you need to.

Put the cream into a piping bag (avoid to make mess with the spoon on the side of the glasses when you try to fill it, believe me, I tried it and it didn't work.....use a piping bag)
Start layering the cream and mango purée. Start and finish with a cream layer. Put the chopped mango squares on top and chill  for at least 30minutes or more.

Coconut and passion fruit slice

The motive for this recipe?......well I just wanted to try my new passion fruit liqueur, so I married up the idea with a coconut milk "jelly" and a biscuit base. And now I have my very own recipe. I used dessert rings, triangles, squares(on the picture is a half square with my new spoon-I fell in love with this spoon in Brugge). Why I used so many forms...well I only have one of each form but it made the display of cakes more appealing.

Coconut and passion fruit slice

For the base

5-6 digestive biscuits

2 tbs unsalted butter

For the coconut jelly

250ml coconut milk

10g gelatine

80gr desiccated coconut

30-40gr white chocolate

For the passion fruit top

3 passion fruit

150ml  Passoá (passion fruit liqeur)

50ml water

5g gelatine

In order to create your biscuit base crush your biscuits (I promptly using the end of my rolling pin for this) to crumbles and mix it with the melted butter.When it is fully incorporated (if not all the biscuits crumbs "wet" from the butter, and some little more), press tightly it into a dessert ring. It is advisable to use a completely flat tray or sheet to put the rings on, as if the sheet dented the coconut milk maybe later on leek out.

Put it into the fridge to harden for at least 30 minutes.

In the meantime put the coconut milk into a heavy based pan and sprinkle over the gelatine. Leave it to absorb for ten minutes, then under a medium heat, heat it up until it is thoroughly mixed while stirring. Take off from the heat, add the dessicated coconut and the white chocolate. Depending on how sweet you like your dessert, you can put in more white chocolate but for me 30g was enough. When the liquid cooled down to room temperature pour it on top of the biscuit base and put it back to the fridge to harden.

When the coconut jelly is solid,  divide the passion fruit seeds evenly on top of them. 

Pour the liqueur and the water into a pan and dissolve the gelatine in similar way as above. When the passion fruit jelly is room temperature pour on top of the seeds, then put the desserts back into the fridge.

After 30 minutes it is ready to serve.

Mini Lemon Curd Sponge Cake

Again a recipe with a twist: cake with real vanilla and a cream which is not butter cream.

Not that the butter cream isn’t nice..but all that butter and sugar....now you have a healthier option!

Mini Lemon Curd Sponge Cake

for the Sponge
175 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature
175 gr caster sugar
175 gr eggs (roughly 3 large eggs), beaten
1 vanilla pod*more on this topic in the Tricks and Recommendations
175 gr self-raising flour

For the cream
 200 ml double cream
 300 gr quark or “curd cheese” (I buy them in polish shops, write it down and ask  for: Twarog Tlusty)*more on this topic in the Tricks and Recommendations 
    1 vanilla pod

  For the filling
  12 tsp lemon curd (recipe from www.kabiskitchen.com)
4 eggs
4 egg yolk
160gr caster sugar
5 big lemons
140gr unsalted butter
2tsp honey

 optional
 some icing sugar for dusting


Cakes


1.    Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4
2.    Cream the butter and caster sugar together until the mixture is pale and light. 
3.    Gradually add the beaten eggs, mixing well between each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl from time to time. Add the vanilla and mix again.
4.    Sift the flour into the bowl and fold in using a rubber spatula until the mixture is glossy and smooth
5.    Divide the mixture between the 12 holes of the Lakeland Mini Sandwich Pan and level with a teaspoon.
6.    Bake on the middle shelf of your preheated oven for about 15 minutes until golden, well risen and a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean.
7.    Leave the cakes to rest in the tin for 2 minutes and then carefully ease out onto a wire cooling rack until cold.


Cream


Whip the double cream to stiff peaks, then add the vanilla and the quark and mix it together until it is well incorporated


Lemon Curd


“Whisk the eggs and yolks in a heatproof bowl with sugar, lemon zest and juice. Set the bowl over simmering water, and add the butter and honey. Stir it continuously. It takes roughly 12-15 minute to thicken. It should reach the consistency of custard. Turn off the heat, and pour the custard into sterilised jars. It will thicken further in the jar. Do not close it until it’s cooled down.
Keep it in the fridge. It will last for weeks.”
This amount will make 2-3 jars, but believe me the excess won’t last long.
Assemble


Cut each of the cakes in half and spread the bottom layer with the cream. Top with a teaspoon of lemon curd and sandwich with the top cake layer. Lightly dust with icing sugar to serve.


Hints and Tips
-I don't add any sugar to the cream as the cake itself quite sweet and the lemon curd as well. I would suggest to try half spoon of cream and half spoon of lemon curd together and if it is sweet enough, than no need to sweeten it. If you still need a little bit of sweetness, add some icing sugar.
-Although I used the Lakeland's tin to make mini individual cakes(which has straight sides, unlike muffin tins), you can use two separate sandwich tin to make one big cake. I would suggest to bake it in two separate tin, as baking as one big one tend to be a problem with this batter mix

Coffee and Orange Granitas in Chocolate Teardrops

Coffee and Orange Granitas in Chocolate Teardrops

adapted from Michel Roux

200 g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
200 ml freshly made coffee filter
15-25 gr caster sugar
 4 oranges, washed
60 gr caster sugar
acetate strip/ chocolate transfer sheet

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water than remove from the pan.

To make the teardrops, cut 8 acetate strips, 20cm long and 4.5cm wide. Place the acetate strips on a chopping board or greaseproof paper and cover the whole surface with melted chocolate (if you are using chocolate transfer sheet, place it on the workstation with the textured side face up and the shiny side face down on the counter) and leave until beginning to set.

As the chocolate begin to set, take one strip and bend it, with the chocolate on the inside, to form a tear drop shape and set it on the sides(like the picture above). If it is necessary (depends on the acetate sheets you use) secure the ends together with a small paper clip(but be careful, if the paper clip is still new it can squeeze out the chocolate-therefore it is recommended to loosen it a bit). Repeat with the remaining chocolate-coated strips of acetate than refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to set or until ready to serve.

For the coffee granita, pour the filter coffee into a shallow freezer proof container dissolve the sugar(depending on your taste you should adjust the sugar- Michel Roux  used unsweetened coffee...but for me it was really bitter, I prefer my coffee with sugar and cream, therefore I put some sugar in it).Freeze it stirring  with a fork every 30 minutes, until little flakes begin to form.
This will take 2-3 hours.

For the orange granita, finely grate the zest from 2 oranges and squeeze the juice form all 4 oranges. Tip the orange juice into a bowl, add the sugar and leave to dissolve(without heating) for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stain throught a fine sieve and add the grated zest. Pour into a shallow container and freeze, as for the coffee granite(above).

When ready to serve, one by one, remove the paper clip and carefully peel off the acetate strip from each chocolate teardrop, placing it straight onto a chilled serving plate and allowing two teardrops per serving. Using a strong fork scrape shavings from the frozen granitas to fill the chocolate drops.
Serve immediately.

Hints and tips: 
- Ideally you shouldn't use your oven before serving (don't do the same mistake as me) as the teardops will  melt quickly
-Also for the reasons above I did one serving at the time avoiding the melting caused by the delay of acetate strips removals
-Even if you haven't used your oven, but you happen to be one of the lucky people who has proper warm weather and summer (not like me currently) than it is also a good tip to put your serving plates into the freezer for 5-10minutes before the plating so again helps you avoid the melting teardops effect
-Although the recipe recommended coffee and orange, but it is also the same principle with all the fruids and liquids, so if you fancy something else just be creative and let me know how you get on