Earlier this year I made an alphabet fruit tart- which turned out to be very popular, so I decided to make another. This one is chocolate based- the tart base is a cocoa and almond pastry, and the creme filling is salted caramel- topped with loads of treats!! This tart was for my cousins birthday/ engagement so I used roses/ more luxury chocolate treats but you can add whatever you want. I also chose to do the tart as the letter of the girl I was making it for, but you can also do numbers for birthdays etc.

For the pastry:

• 300g plain flour
• 75g ground almonds
• 75g icing sugar
• 200g cold butter, cut into cubes (I left mine out the fridge a few hours before baking, so it is soft to cut but still firm)
• 6 tsp cocoa powder ( I used Bournville cocoa powder)
• Pinch of salt
• 1 egg

For the cream filling:

• 500g mascarpone
• 500ml double cream
• 200g icing sugar
• 4 tsp salted caramel extract (from Morrisons- you could also add in dulce de leche/ carnations caramel tin if you could not find this)
• A few blocks of dark chocolate, melted (for colour-  I just melted it in the microwave)

Decorations:

• Strawberries
• Malteser truffles (Morrisons)
• Chocolate brownie bites (Thorntons are the best)
• Ferrero Rocher chocolates
• Macarons ( I got mine from M&S)
• Toffee popcorn
• Mini fudge pieces (Waitrose)
• Gold/ silver spray
• Roses

1. Use a food processor and put in the plain flour, ground almonds, icing sugar, butter, coca powder and pinch of salt.
2. Blend until crumbs are formed.
3. Whisk an egg in a bowl and add into the mix.
4. Blend until a dough is formed.
5. Put in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour until chilled.
6. Meanwhile cut out the shape/ number you desire- I usually get a template from Microsoft word then trace around it and cut it out.
7. Preheat oven to 180C/375F.
8. Once chilled, split the dough in half and roll out until just bigger than letter/ number.
9. Place this on 2 separate baking trays lined with baking parchment.
10. Put this in the fridge to set for 30 minutes.
11. Cut out the letter/ number around the template using a knife. I had some extra pastry so used it to line some mini tart cases to make a few tarts.
12. Bake in the oven for 10-13 minutes or until golden around the edges. Leave to cool. Important: the pastry is very soft once just out of the oven, so do not attempt to move the letter/ number or it can break. Keep it on the tray until cooled, when it will harden up.
13. To make the cream, beat the mascarpone and icing sugar, until smooth.
14. Add the salted caramel extract, double cream and melted chocolate  and beat until stiff peaks and firm. I put this in the fridge for about 15 minutes to firm up.
15. Transfer this to a piping bag. To do this, I use a ziplock bag. I used a circular piping nozzle and put it into a corner of a ziplock bag, then snipped off the end. If you do not have a piping nozzle, just snip off the end of the ziplock bag. To fill the bag, put it into a tall glass, fold the bag edges around the glass, then fill. Then invert the edges back over.
16. Transfer the letter/ number carefully into the cake box.
17. Pipe on rows of the cream mixture on the base.
18. Carefully transfer the top on the tart.
19. Pipe the mixture again.
20. Top with toppings of your choice. Sprinkle with gold dust (if using).
21. If serving later, keep in the fridge as this contains dairy products.