Toby’s Party Recipes

Hey! I’ve had a couple people ask for recipes from Toby’s party, so here are some of the ones I have…

Capresse Skewers

place the following on a toothpick…

• Piece of Mozzarella
• Piece of fresh basil leaf
• half (or whole) cherry tomato

then top with cracked pepper

Slovakian Sausage Crostinis

(Note, the sausage on these appetizers was brought over from Slovakia from one of my friends. The sausage is part pork, and part venison).

Place the following on top of sliced baguette bread

• Sausage of choice (see note above for sausage we used)
• Slice of sweet pickle
• Slice of red bell pepper

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites

Originally from Skinny Taste

You will need about 3 chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces, and 10 slices of bacon cut into 3rds for 10 servings (1 serving is 3 bites). Preheat oven to 375°F.

Wrap each cut piece of bacon around each cut of chicken. Hold in place with a toothpick.

Bake on the lowest rack of your oven for about 25 minutes. Best served with chili sauce or BBQ sauce.

Spongecake with Raspberry Marscapone Cream filling

note: this is not the exact same recipe, but the photo in the recipe looked exactly like the one we ate.

Ingredients

For the “sponge”

• 6oz of self-raising flour
• 1 rounded teaspoon of baking powder
• 3 large eggs
• 6 oz of baker’s sugar
• 6 oz of butter (soft at room temperature)
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

For the filling

• 8oz of raspberries
• 3-4 tablespoons of soft set raspberry jam
• 1 250g tub of marscapone
• 1 200ml tub of fromage frais (see alternative here)
• 1 level tablespoon of baker’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions:

• Using a large mixing bowl, measure the flour and baking powder into a sieve and sift into the bowl, holding the sieve quite high to give the flour a good airing as it goes down.
• Add all the other sponge ingredients to the bowl and, provided the butter is really soft, you just go in with an electric hand whisk and whisk everything together until you have a smooth, well-combined mixture. The mixture should drop easily off a spoon when you give it a tap on the side of the bowl. If it does seem a little too stiff, add 1-2 tablespoons of tap water and mix again.
• Divide the mixture between two round cake tins, level it out and place on the centre shelf of the oven, and bake for 30-35 minutes. To test if they are cooked or not, touch the centre lightly with your little finger; if it leaves no impression and springs back, the sponge is cooked. When done, remove them from the oven then wait for about 5 minutes before turning them out on to a wire cooling rack.
• Carefully peel off the base papers, leave the sponges to get completely cold, then add the filling.
• For the filling, combine the mascarpone and fromage frais in a bowl; a balloon whisk will amalgamate them quicker. Add the level tablespoon of sugar and one teaspoon of vanilla extract. 
• Spread one tablespoon of jam over one of the sponge cakes, follow this with half the cream mixture then scatter the raspberries all over that. Now add the remaining cream mixture and drizzle it with the rest of the jam.
• Place the second sponge cake on top. Press very lightly to sandwich everything together, then lightly dust the cake with powdered sugar before serving.

Chocolate Cake a la Varennes

• 1 deciliter of espresso type coffee (100 ml)
• 250g of Dark Chocolate (about 70%)
• 250g of butter
• 200 ml of sugar
• 4 eggs

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). 
• line a cake tin with a false bottom that is about 10″ in diameter with aluminum foil. Butter the surface of the foil and cover with breadcrumbs
• Heat the coffee in a water bath, and crumble the chocolate into it. Mix until all of the chocolate has melted. Ensure the coffee does not boil as the chocolate melts, and that no hot water gets into the mixture.
• Mix the sugar and the butter a little at a time into the chocolate mixture. Mix well, and allow it to melt before adding the next amount. Once melted, lift the dish out of the water bath.
• Beat the eggs into the mixture one at a time.
• Pour the mixture into the cake tin, and bake the cake for an hour in the middle of the oven. The will rise considerably, and then flatten. This will leave hairline like patterns on top of the cake.
• Allow the cake to cool before removing it from the tin.
• Transfer to serving tray and sprinkle with powdered sugar