It probably hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that baking is one of my hobbies and one of the only upsides of having been off of work for so long now is that I’ve been able to indulge my love of whipping up cakes and cookies for my friends and family. Over the last few months I’ve tried many a new recipe or ingredient and when Macabella got in touch asking if I’d like to try out their amazing sounding chocolate and macadamia spread and come up with some recipes using it I was ready for the challenge. I’ve actually been itching to try this spread since seeing my good friend Amy’s review of the crunchy variety so there was definitely excitement in the air when my goodies arrived.

Nestled in a swanky gold box were four jars of Macabella spread- two velvet ones and two of the crunch variety. After having a good old think about things I decided on baking two recipes using the products- one cookie and one cake.

For the cookies I used my tried and tested Rolo cookie cup recipe and followed the instructions up until the point where the biscuits came out of the oven. At that point instead of pressing rolos in to the still hot cookies I poked holes (using the end of a clean makeup brush for want of a better tool) and allowed the biscuits to cool slightly. I briefly considered using my thumb to make the indents but quickly dismissed that idea once I realised how stupid it would be to poke my own skin in to a red hot cookie! Whilst still warm I took teaspoons full of Macabella crunch and placed it inside the holes I had created…I found softening the spread for 15 seconds in the microwave made it easier to work with. As you can see, the end result is a lovely soft baked cookie that oozes chocolate-y macadamia goodness when you bite or cut in to it. These proved a massive hit with my Dad and his colleagues and took under an hour from start to finish to make.

For the cake I tried a new to me recipe that I modified by swapping the 100g of nutella for 100g of velvety smooth Macabella. This cake uses the all in one method so is really quick and simple to do and results in a wonderfully light but decadent sponge.

I filled the cake using the rest of a jar of Macabella crunch (make sure you do it whilst the cake is still warm) then topped it with Macabella velvet and a pot of chocolate curls. So simple and yet so effective and the true testament to what a wonderful cake you get when you use Macabella is how fast it disappeared when I dropped it in to work!

Neither of these recipes are complicated, nor do they take a long time to whip up and both were ultimately enhanced by the use of Macabella spreads and there is already demand for more!

Have you tried Macabella spread before? Either as a spread or in baking? What baked goods would you use it for? I strongly suggest you hot foot it to your nearest Sainsburys (the only UK stockist) and get some of this goodness for yourselves and get experimenting. Visit the Macabella website for more about the spread and for more recipe ideas.