Chocolate Fruit Truffles
Preparation 10 Minutes
Cook Chill: 3h Minutes
Serves 23
Method
- Add chocolate to a food processor and blitz until very finely chopped.
- Transfer chocolate to a bowl, pour over the hot thickened cream, add butter, currants and salt and stir to combine. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours until firm but still able to be scooped with a spoon.
- To make truffles, scoop 1 heaped tbsp of the mixture and use clean hands to roll into a rough ball. Repeat with remaining mixture (you should make about 24)
- Arrange crushed nuts, desiccated coconut and cacao powder in separate bowls. Roll each of the truffles into different coatings to decorate.*to make coloured coconut we combined desiccated coconut with a few drops of food colouring
Ingredients
200g Sunbeam Currants
400g dark chocolate
120mL thickened cream
70g butter, softened
pinch of sea salt
crushed nuts (to decorate)
desiccated coconut* (to decorate)
cacao powder (to decorate)
Recipe Collection
Pumpkin Fruit Cake
Preheat oven to 160โฐC. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.
- Bring to the boil mixed fruit, sugar, syrup, butter and apricot nectar, stirring all the time and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add bicarbonate of soda. Allow mixture to cool.
- Add eggs and pumpkin. Beat till smooth. Then add flours and mix well to combine.
- Place in tin and bake for 90 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into theย cake comes out clean.
Chutney for Glazed Ham
Put the vinegar and sugar in a large pan and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
Put the remaining ingredients in the pan and bubble on high for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
The chutney is ready when the mixture looks sticky and thick, and a wooden spoon leaves a brief trail on the bottom of the pan.
Leave to cool, then pour into sterilised jars

Simnel Cake
Preheat the oven to 180degress.
Butter the walls of your Bundt tin well.
Chop your glace cherries into quarters and mix into your mixed fruit.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and add the lemon zest.
Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and ground almonds into a bowl and stir to combine.
Into the whipped butter and sugar mix, add 1 of the eggs with a quarter of the dry ingredients.
Add in the other 2 eggs in the same way, followed by the rest of the dry mix remaining.
Mix in the mix, then the fold in the fruit.
Spoon the mixture evenly around the Bundt tin and smooth out the mix.
Bake on 180degrees for 30 minutes and then turn down the oven to 150 degrees for 1.5 hours or until the cake has risen and a skewer comes out clean.
Let the cake rest for 15 minutes before turning it out to cool further.
For the icing, mix the icing sugar, milk and orange juice together and pour over and enjoy!
Sticky Date Christmas Pudding with Salted Caramel Sauce
TO MAKE THE PUDDING
1.ย Combine dates, mixed fruit, 280ml water, sugars, salt and butter in large saucepan.ย Bring to the boil then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 8 mins.
2.ย Add bicarbonate of soda, stir well and allow to cool completely (preferably overnight).
3.ย Once completely cool, add eggs, flours, spices and rum.ย Mix well.
4.ย Generously grease inside the pudding bowl.ย Pour the mixture into tin then cover with a layer of baking paper and a layer of foil and secure tightly with kitchen string.
5.ย Place a small cooling rack or an upturned oven-safe dish into the base of a large saucepan.ย Place pudding bowl on top so that it is not directly touching the bottom of the pan.ย Fill saucepan with boiling water to come half way up the sides of the pudding bowl. Bring water to the boil then reduce heat to low, cover and allow to simmer for 3 hours.ย Remove pudding from water, allow to cool completely before removing pudding from tin.
TO MAKE SAUCE
1.ย Combine cream, butter and sugar in a saucepan. Stir over a low heat until all ingredients combined.
2.ย Stir in salt.
Mini Indulgent Puddings
Preheat oven to 150ยฐC
- Combine fruit, jellied cranberry sauce, brandy and spices in a large bowl, cover and leave to stand overnight.
- Brush ten 1-cup pudding basins (ramekins) with melted butter and line base with baking paper.
- Mix eggs, butter, brown sugar and flours until well combined, then stir through fruit mixture. Spoon mixture into prepared basins.
- Cut a large circle of foil and baking paper and place over each pudding, foil side up. Secure tightly with kitchen string.
- Place pudding in a large saucepan and add enough boiling water to fill halfway up the sides. Cover and bring to the boil, reduce heat and cook for 11โ4 hours, replenishing water when needed.
- Remove from water and store well wrapped until Christmas.
Aussie Ice-cream Pudding
Preheat oven to 180ยบC.
- Brush a 2 litre pudding basin with vegetable oil, then line with plastic wrap, trying to keep wrap smooth without wrinkles. Place in the freezer to chill.
- In a bowl combine sultanas, raisins, cranberries, apricots, macadamias and orange liqueur. Leave to soak for 30 minutes.
- Place softened ice cream in a large bowl stir in soaked fruit. Fold in whipped cream and pour mixture into prepared pudding basin. Place in the freezer and freeze for 4 hours or overnight.
- To prepare orange cake, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in almond meal, orange juice and rind. Pour into a greased and paper lined 20cm cake tin and bake for 1 hour. Allow too cool in the tin, before turning out onto a board.
- To finish pudding, ease ice-cream pudding from basin and place on top of cake. Trim the cake edges if required and serve cut into thick slices.