Let them eat cake, chocolate cake ...
October 23, 2006 at 11:02 AM
by Ashleigh
The Man returned today from his business trip to the USA, so, in addition to 'Welcome Home' signs and general tidying up after my almost 2 weeks of laziness, I baked a cake.
I intended to make the chocolate cake from the Food Processor Bible but I didn't have enough canola oil so I turned to Rainbow Cuisine instead. I bought this book a few months ago at the Boekenfestijn in Utrecht where it was marked down to an incredibly low price. Now I wish I had bought more for friends. There is another Boekenfestijn in December, maybe there will still be some copies there.
When I was growing up there was always a certain kind of chocolate cake that was sold at cake sales and church fetes. It was never squishy, was always coated with a lovely thick chocolate cream iciing and always made one wonder what went into it. The Afrikaans mommies always seemed to be the ones who made this one, together with their koeksusters and buttermilk rusks so the Dutch Reformed Church bazaar was a magnet for those who liked chocolate cake.
The best news of the day - I think I found the recipe! My only criticism is that perhaps it isn't as moist as some of the ones I remember.
Instead of the butter cream, which, rather sadly, I now find too cloying, I made a chocolate ganache and decorated the cake with white chocolate shavings, made rather inexpertly from a bar of Callebaut with my vegetable peeler.
Next time I'll know to refrigerate the white chocolate first. For the ganache I used Green and Black's Maya Gold and some leftover Belgian chocolate truffles in cinnamon orange flavour. You could use any good quality chocolate I suppose. I just used up what was in my cupboard.
Chocolate Cake Recipe
500 ml self-raising flour (or 500 ml flour and 10 ml baking powder)
375 ml castor sugar
2 ml salt
5 ml bicarbonate of soda
60 ml cocoa powder
125g butter or margarine
300 ml milk
5 ml vanilla essence
2 eggs
- Preheat the oven to 170C.
- Grease and flour a 23 cm fluted cake tin.
- Sift together the flour, castor sugar, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder.
- Whisk the eggs, vanilla and milk together in a jug.
- Melt the butter over a low heat and when it is melted add it to the jug of milk whisking all the time.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with an electric mixer until well blended. The mixture will be quite fluid.
- Pour into the cake tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin and turn out after about 15 minutes.
Refer to this recipe for a whole story about ganache. I used a similar recipe, but I omitted the butter and the flavourings as my chocolate was already flavoured.
I used standard whipping cream with 35% fat.
I also used my food processor and chopped the chocolate very finely in the processor, before adding the hot cream in a thin stream with the machine on. I allowed the machine to run until the chocolate was all melted.
I had gone through the whole process when I realised that the mixture was too thin and my ratio of chocolate to cream was wrong, so I heated the chocolate mixture and added it to more chocolate in the processor. I think one would just have to be careful of overheating the chocolate mixture. After that I allowed the mixture to cool in the fridge until it was thickened and more workable.
Yesterday was a busy day in the kitchen. In addition to the cake I made a beef casserole, butternut soup, steamed some chicken breasts, and broccoli chicken pasta bake for dinner. Phew. No cooking for at least two days for me!
Comments
Ash,
That picture belongs on the cover of a gourmet magazine! It looks delicious. Was your husband touched that you made it for him? Do your boys show any interest in cooking? You earned your days off!
Wow, I agree that this is a picture worthy of Epicurean or any other gourmet food magazine. YUM!
Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!! :)
Oooh, how I wish I was there to sit down with a cup of tea and enjoy this yummy treat! Let them eat cake indeed.
Okay, my hands on the keyboard are now coverd in drool. YUM. There's a Boekenfestijn in Maastricht in March. I'll certainly be on the lookout for this cookbook!
Hi Ash,
I've been a regular visitor to your blog... and i've been on the lookout for a good chocolate cake recipe. looking at yr pix of the cake, i beleive i'll really be trying out yr recipe!
but i can't help but feel puzzled... when u list out the ingredients, do u mean "grams" for the flour, salt. etc instead of "ml" in the recipe? i've never tried measuring the ingredients using "ml" except for liquids.
Thanks and keep up the good work for the lovely entries!
Ida
Hi Ida,
Strangely it really is in ml! You just use a measuring jug like you would for liquids and go from there. I think it's because in South Africa measuring cups are marked with ml too, so for eg a full cup holds 240 ml. I quite liked it being in ml, because the only thing I had to get the kitchen scale out for was the butter.
This is the same reason I like American recipes with the cup measures - no fiddly weighing.
Another nice method of weighing though (completely opposite) is to measure everything, including the liquids in grams. Then you use a digital scale and keep pressing the tare as you add each new item to the mixing bowl. That's also pretty good and timesaving too :)
It's funny how some of these things work, isn't it? good luck with the cake!
Ash
Thanks Ash!
Ashleigh, what an unbelievable cake! My husband just had a look at your blog, and said "why dont you make me something like that?!" Im sneaking your recipe and going to give it a try!
Your husband is one lucky guy to get a welcome homes sign that is edible.
YUM! I'm drooling over that picture.
please could i use this picture for my i.t project
“Hey.
I’m doing some coarse work in ict about healthy eating (5 a day) and i was wondering could I use your picture of the the chocolate cake with chocolate ganache
Please tell me if I’m allowed as soon as possible please as it for my coarse work
thank you
Fiona Myers
The Wordsley School
OMG, I think I gained 25 lbs just looking at that cake. It looks amazing!
October 23, 2006 7:16 PM