Bug Hill Farm Sweet Recipes 

Black Currant Icing

Makes enough to generously frost a 9-inch round layer cake or two dozen cupcakes.

  • 4 sticks Unsalted Butter, room temperature

  • 6 cups sifted Confectioners' Sugar

  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

  • 1/4 cup Kiss of Cassis - Black Currant Cordial, add up to 4 more teaspoons of Black Currant Cordial for stronger black currant flavor

Blend butter in a mixer on medium-high until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla and Kiss of Cassis™ and blend until well-incorporated. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Raise speed to high and beat until well-combined, 10 to 20 seconds more. Transfer to a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap until ready to use. After icing your cake, refrigerate until the frosting is set, a couple of hours or overnight.

Thirst quenching Black Currant Cordial popsicles

  • Mix 2 parts cordial with one part water.

  • Combine black currant cordial ‘juice’ with fruit chunks of your choice - 1:1. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze for at least three hours. The best part is that these pops contain no sugar! Just black currants, honey and fruit. (Fruit chunks are optional. These are just as tasty with just the juice)

Black currant milk shake

  • Combine 3 scoops of vanilla ice-cream with 1/4 cup whole milk and 1/4 cup BCC in a blender.

  • Blend until smooth. Enjoy as is or add a touch of chocolate sauce to make a berry scrumptious chocolate milk shake!

Chocolate black currant cordial cake

                                                               For the cake batter

  • 7.5 oz unsweetened dark chocolate

  • 1 cup butter

  • 1 tbsp flour

  • 1 tsp baking powder

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

  • 1/4 C light brown sugar

  • 3/4 C dark brown sugar

  • 3 eggs

  • 1 1/4 C ground almonds

  • 3/4 - 1 C chopped walnuts

  • 1 oz blackcurrant cordial

      For the frosting

  • 2 oz unsweetened dark chocolate

  • 1/2 C soft butter

  • 1 C confectioners sugar

  • 2-3 tbsp blackcurrant cordial


Preheat your oven to 350 F  

Batter: Butter a 9inch cake tin.  Break the chocolate into small pieces and along with the butter, put it into a pan & melt over a low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract & sugar.  Let it cool.  Beat the eggs  in a small bowl. Blend chopped walnuts in a food processor until it is half flour/half larger bits. Pour the eggs into the cooled chocolate mixture & stir in until fully combined. Add in the ground almonds & chopped walnuts about a third at a time & fold in using a spatula. Fold in sifted flour & baking soda, using a spatula. Pour into your cake tin & bake for 30 minutes until set. Just before you take the cake out of the oven, heat the cordial in a small saucepan. When cake is out of the oven, with a fork, pierce holes all over the cake and brush the cordial over the cake letting it soak in. Leave to cool a little before removing from the cake tin & leave to cool fully on a wire wrack. Wrap in parchment paper & leave to set & infuse for at least a few hours & preferably overnight.

Icing:  Break up chocolate into small pieces and melt in a double boiler. Stir gently with a wooden spoon. Using an electric mixer, beat butter until soft.  Add the sugar a couple of tablespoons at a time until fully combined. Using a spatula, stir in the melted chocolate mixture.  Mix in the cordial to taste.  Spoon onto top of the cake & smooth out with a spatula knife. 

Finally, add fruit of your choice to the iced cake. 

Brownies swirled with BHF Raspberry Conserve ~ makes 16 brownies

Ingredients:

  • 2 large eggs lightly beaten

  • 3/4 cup sugar

  • 8 TBSP butter, melted and slightly cooled

  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

  • 2 TBSP strongly brewed coffee or espresso at room temperature

  • 1/2 tsp salt

  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

  • 1/2 cup of flour

  • 1/4 cup BHF Raspberry Conserve

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square pan with butter, ghee or oil.

Combine the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk for about 2 minutes, until thick and pale yellow. Whisk in the melted butter, vanilla extract, coffee or espresso and salt. Add the cocoa powder and flour, stirring until just incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly. Dollop the jam evenly over the batter. Use a skewer or the tip of a paring knife to swirl the jam into the batter a little bit. The goal is for the brownies to have bites of jam, not to have raspberry jam-flavored brownies (meaning don't stir it in completely, just swirl it).

Bake for about 30 minutes or until set throughout (test by jiggling the pan) and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a few wet crumbs and not raw batter (try to avoid inserting the tester into a raspberry swirl). Let the brownies cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes; then lift the brownies out of the pan and let them cool completely, if you can bear it, and cut into 16 even squares.

Serve at room temperature. Get decadent snd add whipped cream of vanilla ice cream, topped with raspberry shrub!

Kissed poached pears with vanilla ice-cream  or whipped cream

  • Peel pears and cut bottom off so they will stand upright.

  • Pour cordial into saucepan and bring to a boil

  • Add pears, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes

Serve pears with any extra cordial that was not soaked up during simmer and add a dollop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream

Drizzles

Drizzle our shrubs or cordials over ice cream, yogurt, or fresh fruit!

Cobblers

Pour a little shrub or cordial over fruit cobblers before baking.