Ultimate Chocolate Cake

Birthday cakes - where to start. Eveybody has a different favourite and to be honest, this would NOT be mine. Whilst I am a massive chocolate fan I like mine in bars. And I like sponge cake with creamy fillings. Even if there is chocolate frosting I would always plump for a vanilla sponge - maybe boring but it's my kind of boring.

Not so others - and as this cake was not for me I went scrumbling around for a chocolate cake that I could perhaps combine with raspberries to cut through some of the sweetness.

I used to have a recipe for a chocolate fudge cake which I could not lay hand on, and one of the favourite all time cakes of the birthday boy is a chocolate/almond/sugar confection normally referred to within the family as a tarantula. Not it's real name and when I lay hands on that recipe I shall post that too.

Anyway, back to todays project: I found a recipe on the BBC Good Food website by Angela Nilsen and decided to give it a go. It had great reviews and it lived up to every one.

For the chocolate I used Willies Supreme Cacao with forest fruits. 100% cacao and 100% delicious. You can get it in Waitrose.

The original recipe calls for a ganache icing but I substituted Betty Crocker's Chocolate Fudge icing - a massive fave of the recipient. I also used whole milk rather than buttermilk as I had forgotten to aquire any - it was of no obvious detriment to the finished product.

The only problem, is that the cake is waaay too big to get into any of my cake boxes but as it's size is diminishing fast I doubt that will be a problem for long

Ultimate Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS

200g good quality dark chocolate, about 60% cocoa solids (I used 100% for extra chocolately goodness)

200g butter, cut in pieces

1 tbsp instant coffee granules

85g self-raising flour

85g plain flour

1⁄4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

200g light muscovado sugar

200g golden caster sugar

25g cocoa powder

3 medium eggs

75ml buttermilk (5 tbsp) (I used whole milk)

I tub of Betty Cocker Chocolate Fudge icing

METHOD

1. Butter a 20cm round cake tin (7.5cm deep) and line the base. Preheat the oven to fan 140C/conventional 160C/ gas 3


2. Break the chocolate in pieces into a medium, heavy-based pan. Tip in the butter, then mix the coffee granules into 125ml/4fl oz cold water and pour into the pan. Warm through over a low heat just until everything is melted - don't overheat. Or melt in the microwave on Medium for about 5 minutes, stirring half way through.


3. While the chocolate is melting, mix the two flours, bicarbonate of soda, sugars and cocoa in a big bowl, mixing with your hands to get rid of any lumps.


4. Beat the eggs in a bowl and stir in the milk.


5. Now pour the melted chocolate mixture and the egg mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just until everything is well blended and you have a smooth, quite runny consistency.


6. Pour this into the tin and bake for 1 hour 25- 1 hour 30 minutes - if you push a skewer in the centre it should come out clean and the top should feel firm (don't worry if it cracks a bit). Leave to cool in the tin (don't worry if it dips slightly), then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.


7. When the cake is cold, cut it horizontally and liberally apply raspberry jam - preferably not too sweet.


8. Spread Betty Crocker icing all over top and down the sides


9. Decorate with grated chocolate and fresh raspberries.


10. The cake keeps moist and gooey for 3-4 days.

Birthday candles were also freely applied - couldn't use the right number or I could have burned the hosue to the ground sp they were more symbolic than literal.

This was a very easy recipe to follow and the cake is everything you could ask for in a a gooey chocolate birthday cake. For those who walk on the chocolate side, cross the road to this recipe now. You'll be glad you did. Even I liked it.

Baked Fresh Pineapple

Fresh pineapple- what's not to love?

As a child of the 60's it was exotic and whispered of far away lands where life was certainly more romantic (and sunnier) than suburban West London.

Pineapple normally entered into my life in tins. Chunks and slices, occasionally crushed. Served with Carnation or as part of an upside down pudding, dotted with cherries and served with custard. My mother was fond of dressing up a gammon steak with pineapple but as I didn't care for gammon in the first place this was a mystifying ritual to me. And party hedgehogs - bliss. A poor grapefruit stuck all over with toothpicks either bearing a small chunk of cheddar cheese or a pineapple chunk - fun for the kids to make and even more fun to ravage! But fresh pineapple remained remote and aloof.

Once I was mistress of my own food destiny, fresh pineapple strode into my recipes like a long awaited knight on a white steed. (OK, I may be overdoing that just a tad). Fruit salads became zestier (and not from a tin), chocolate fondues (previously limited to strawberries, bananas, apples and peaches) became more cosmopolitan - well, you get the picture.

And somewhere along the line (I believe it was during a trip to Spain) I had a baked pineapple. I immediately set about trying to refine this and here is the result.

Baked Fresh Pineapple

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 fresh pineapple

2oz butter

1 cup soft brown sugar

Toasted flaked coconut

Brandy or Malibu (optional - cannot stand drinking it, but for some reason there is always a bottle left over after any party- this is the only use I make of it.)

Method

1. Remove 'crown' from pineapple and save (wear kitchen gloves or wrap with a teatowel as it's a spikey little bugger)


2. Cut pinapple into four segments vertically (hint: use the biggest, sharpest knife in your arsenal. I personally lay the pineapple flat, stab in the middle and lever down through the flesh then repeat in the other direction)


3. Remove central core


4. Run knife between flesh and skin, the slice down into triangular segments - whilst keeping within skin.


5. Cut butter into slices small enough to force between pineapple segments


6. Place into overproof dish


7. Pour booze of choice over the top


8. Cover with sugar


9. Bake for 30 mins, gas mark 6


10. 10 mins before end sprinkle coconut flakes over pineapple


11. Serve in individual bowls with cream.