The past week my tastebuds have been suffering. I came down with a stonker of a cold which means I can’t taste anything (unless it’s super spicy). On top of that the rubbish ’summer’ weather in Paris and complicated French legal system (which is making my dream of setting up my own cake business almost impossible) has kind of been getting me down.

Things started looking up on Wednesday though when I received an email from Fluokids (très à la mode french clubbing/lifestyle movement) that I’ld won a ticket to Cabaret Sauvage! So Thursday night I donned my corset and red lipstick and trundled off to the Cabaret (heavily medicated and with a nose like Rudolph the rednose reindeer, went well with my lipstick). Spent the night rocking to the likes of The New Pony Club and Simian mobile disco. ‘Super cool’ as the French like to say.

The New Pony Club @ The Cabaret Sauvage

The whole cabaret thing got me thinking about making something decadent this week. I recently ate some Chocolate venus nipples from Rococo (amazing chocolate shop, crops up in ‘The Brodsky Touch’, the book I’m currently reading) when I was back in London. They were super delish but not quite like the ones I remember seeing in the Amadeus movie.

I did a bit of surfing and came across a couple of recipes (Italian one and Amadeus one). I tried both recipes but found the Amadeus one better (the chestnut/chocolate combination is great). I had an absolute disaster tempering the white chocolate (I don’t really like the stuff). It went all gloopy and was no good for dipping. But I think that comes down to the fact the only available white chocolate was the cheap kids stuff (which has a very sickly sweet taste). So I decided to make dark chocolate venus nipples (personally I prefer this version).

Capezzoli Di Venere (transl. Chocolate venus nipples)
adapted from Italian and Amadeus recipe

85g dark chocolate
230g chestnuts (pre cooked)
50g butter
50g caster sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
20g marzipan

For the chocolate coating:
250g dark chocolate

Melt chocolate over a bain-marie and allow to cool. Cream the butter, vanilla extract and sugar together until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Blend chestnuts with butter mixture. Combine chocolate with chestnut mixture. Roll into balls; if mixture becomes too soft to shape, chill for several minutes. Refridgerate chestnut balls for 30mins.
Meanwhile make the marzipan nipples by rolling tiny pieces of marzipan into balls.
To coat, temper chocolate. Dip truffles in chocolate place on a wire wrack. Put a marzipan ‘nipple’ on the top of each truffle and leave to set. Store in an airtight container in fridge (better eaten at room temperature though, like all chocolate).