Chocolate Prune Cake

A warm Ramadhan greetings from me to all my MUSLIMS FRIENDS
"Selamat Berpuasa"
A time of reflection,
A time of prayer,
A time of devotion,
A time of remembrance,
Wishing all of you a Blessed Ramadhan.

Gardening is how I relax. It's another form of creating and playing with colors.

Let me share with all of you the wonderful gifts I received last week.

Received my goodies box from  Love2cook  last week. I'm one of the selected winner in her 3rd Blogoversary giveaway. Love is a very talented cook/baker, her blog is excellent with beautiful pictures. She is a very cheerful, friendly lady. 
  

A beautiful gift box.

Whole lots of excellent goodies. Love2cook, I really love all the goodies and non of the items are  in my collection.

A Big Bear Hugs from Love2cook. Thank you sooo.. much my dear friend. I sure love it.

A bouquet of chocolate candy specially for Love2cook

Sunflower chocolate prune cake

Love2cook, the above 3 items chocolate candy bouquet, sunflower cupcakes and garden cupcake specially for you. When I meet up with you, I'll give you the real chocolate candy and cupcakes. :)

Received my April Fool Challenge prize from Mr Stephane Gigandet of Very Good Recipes. Thank you very much Mr. Stephane. Your kind thoughts is much appreciated.

 Two books consist of 650 recipes... I wander when can I finish trying out all the recipes......

Belated  birthday gift from my dear friend J.D Santos. Thank you my dear friend, so thoughtful of you to remember. I'm definitely a chocolate lover. Anyway dark chocolate can protect our body from aging and balance certain hormones in the body.

Prune or Prune Juice Benefits

Prunes or plum are considered one of the healthiest foods. Prunes had more than twice the antioxidant capacity of other high ranking foods such as blueberries and raisins.
Prunes are rich in fiber, iron, potassium and important vitamins and minerals.
What are the medical benefits of prunes?

1/  Provide antioxidant protection
2/  Prevent premature aging / high in beta-catotene
3/  Promote cardiovascular health
4/  Reduce the risk of cancer and osteoporosis
5/  Good source of bone building and vitamin K
6/  Normalizing blood sugar levels
7/  Reduce in cholesterol & intestinal protection
8/  Post menopause breast cancer & iron absorption
9/  Helping in weight loss
10/ Beneficial of brain cell and skin cell membranes

Simple tip to stay healthy

1/  Half  glass of prune juice, follow by 1 glass of warm water.
2/  Drink in the morning half and hour before breakfast.
3/  Drink on alternate day.

Note:
1/  Drink prune juice cleans your colon and helps maintain regularity.
2/  It help to take bile from the liver, which forces it to produce more and therefore uses the cholesterol that our body may store.
3/  This can lower your overall cholesterol levels, which is especially beneficial to you if you suffer from high cholesterol.
4/  But don't go overboard with pitted prunes or prune juice.

Disclaimer

This information on this site is not intended or implies to be a substitute for professional medical advise, diagnosis or treatment. All content, text, graphics and information are for general purpose only.

If you are not crazy about eating prunes, try prune bits in your baking. They'll add sweetness and flavor to quick bread, snack bars, cakes & pancakes.

Chocolate Prune Cake

250 gm butter
200 gm sugar
200gm plain flour
30gm cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
5 eggs
100 mls prune juice

Mr & Mrs Bear look a little dirty cos they are busy with their gardening. They do look cool in their sunglasses. What you think? LOL

All decoration are made out of sugar paste. Flower stem made out of toothpick wrap in green adhesive tape.

It's getting a little too hot, Mr & Mrs Bear taking  a rest hiding in between the flower pots.

1/  Pre heat oven at 180 deg c
2/  Line an 8 in cake pan or use any silicon cake pan/ cupcake liners.
3/  Sieve flour, cocoa powder and baking powder, bicarbonate of soda together.
4/  Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
5/  Add egg one at a time and beat till well blended, do not over beat.
6/  Add flour alternate with prune juice and mix well
7/  Bake at 180deg c for 50 mins or until cook if you're using 8" cake pan.
8/  For cupcake bake at 180 deg c for 20 min or until cook.
9/  Cool on a wire rack completely and decorate as desire.

To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat.

Flowers are those little colorful beacons of the sun from which we get sunshine when dark, somber skies blanket our thoughts.

OMG...crocodile escape from the zoo!!

Guess crocodile love cupcakes too......

This the punch tools I use for making sugar paste flowers and teddy bears.

Let's make chocolate candy flowers

Make sure hubby don't disturb, it's a little time consuming, pain the neck wrapping this little candy.
 
Melt the strawberry chocolate in double boiler and let it set in silicon chocolate mold. When set wrap the chocolate with cling wrap.
You'll need gift wrapper, netting, self adhesive paper tape, cellophane tape.

Make a small slit in the middle of the wrapper, pierce the chocolate candy thru the wrapper.

Fold the right corner of the wrapper towards the middle and fold the left one to the right. Secure with cellophane tape.

Next wrap the netting using the same method as the red wrapper.

Wrap the candy stick with green adhesive tape.

Chocolate candy flowers completed.

And you can bundle it up to make into a bouquet, excellent gift for birthday and valentine day.

Have a nice week ahead, Cheer!