Chocolate treats

For a birthday treat last month, I baked a yummy chocolate cake.  It is my usual go to chocolate cake recipe which always makes a moist cake that keeps well (not that it has much chance to!).  I decided to break with tradition and have a Cadbury's Flake on the top, rather than Chocolate Buttons.  It was delicious and didn't last long!

I follow Rebecca at Railway Cottage on Youtube and she has been trying a WWII diet.  She provided a recipe for Crumb Fudge which uses dry breadcrumbs mixed with margarine, cocoa powder, sugar and golden syrup.  This mix was one Mum always used with Cornflakes to make us Cornflake cakes for parties.  I think I may have had too many breadcrumbs as the base is a bit dry, not soft and squidgy as it should be.  I had some left over chocolate so topped the 'fudge' with it.  It is a recipe I will try again (great use for left over bread) but with fewer breadcrumbs this time!

It does taste good, but best eaten accompanied by a cup of tea!

Baking

 I enjoy baking - especially biscuits and cakes.  Above is a chocolate cake which I made for my sister in law's birthday last month. It is my much used go-to recipe as the cake lasts well (if you can manage not to eat it) and it stays nice and moist.  I topped it with chocolate buttercream icing and some large chocolate buttons.

We had some lemons hanging about in the kitchen so I decided to make some lemon curd.  I have said this before, but it is a very 'Spring-y' thing to make. 

 I used Delia Smith's ingredients but Nigel Slater's method and it came out beautifully - lovely and tangy. The ingredients gave me one small jar (1 lemon, 2 eggs, 3 oz sugar, 2 oz butter.)  I added some to the butter icing in these butterfly cakes and an extra splodge (technical term!) on top.  They are yummy!  

Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe

I was asked to post the vegan chocolate cake recipe, so here it is:

220g/7oz plain flour
200g/7oz caster sugar (I use granulated and it works fine)
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
half a teaspoon of salt

5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
250ml/8 fl oz water

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees Centigrade/Gas 4.
2.  Lightly grease a 13 x 23 cm loaf tin or 20 cm round tin (I line my tin with baking parchment).
3.  Sieve together the flour, sugar, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
4.  Add the oil, vanilla, vinegar and water.
5.  Mix together until smooth.
6.  Pour into cake tin and bake for 45 minutes (until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean). (I usually have to leave my cake in, covered in foil to prevent burning, for an extra few minutes).
7.  Remove from oven and leave to cool.

Icing:
100g/4 oz icing sugar (You can make more, depending how much icing you would like in the middle of the cake - the proportion is half spread to icing sugar)
50g/ 2oz vegan spread
2 - 3 teaspoons cocoa powder (depending how chocolatey you would like the icing)
a tiny drop of vanilla extract

Method:
1.  Mix the spread in a bowl to soften it.
2.  Sieve the icing sugar and cocoa powder into the bowl.
3.  Mix together until smooth. 
4.  Add the vanilla extract to taste.

Split the cake if you are having icing in the middle and spread half of the icing.  Place the top half of the cake onto the base and spread the remaining icing on the top.  Slice and enjoy! 

Cakes, biscuits and cards

 I recently had a birthday (they do creep up rather quickly, I'm finding) and to celebrate, I did some baking to take to work.  One colleague is vegan and one is gluten free, so I had to make sure they were catered for. 

I made gooey, squidgy (extremely unhealthy, but delicious) gluten free chocolate brownies, with ground almonds instead of flour.

 Ginger biscuits with a swirl of icing are my go-to biscuits for my vegan friends. 

There was, of course, a chocolate cake (another go-to recipe) with chocolate buttercream icing and chopped up Twirls on the top.  This got lots of compliments, with one colleague saying it was the best chocolate cake they had ever tasted.  Praise indeed!

Of course, after receiving presents, there are the thank you cards to write.  I have just got a few more to do, but I decided to make them myself this year, so here are the first set.  Simple designs with die cuts and stamped sentiments.  I think the clean and simple (CAS) look suits my cards.

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Here, as promised, is the chocolate cake recipe.
Ingredients:
5oz (150g) self raising flour
3oz (75g) drinking chocolate
6oz (175g) caster sugar (I used granulated and it worked fine)
6oz (175g) margarine at room temperature
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons boiling water

Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to Gas 4/180 degrees C/350 degrees F.  Line a 20cm/8 ins round deep cake tin with baking parchment (I added that in!).
2.  Sift flour and drinking chocolate into a large mixing bowl. 
3. Add all other ingredients and blend together.  Beat for a couple of minutes until smooth.
4. Turn into tin and bake for about 45-60 minutes until a fine skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
5. Leave in tin for a few minutes then cool on a cooling rack.
6. Ice with your favourite icing or melted chocolate.
This quick and easy cake keeps well in a tin.

For the chocolate fudge icing:
1. Put 4oz (110g) granulated sugar and 4fl oz (115ml) milk into a pan.  Simmer for 9 minutes.
2. Add 5oz (150g) plain chocolate, 2oz (50g) butter and 2 tablespoons double cream.
3. Leave to cool and spread over the cake.
(This makes a generous amount of fudge icing)

To make the Russian Roulette Revels cake, place the contents of two large bags of Revels in a pattern on top of the cake.  Try to avoid eating the coffee ones!

300th Blog Post - 'Russian Roulette' Revels Cake

This is my 300th blog post (hooray!) so thank you very much to my loyal blog readers who help to keep me going.

To celebrate, this blog is all about cake.
 It was Chris' birthday last Sunday and it is an unspoken rule amongst his colleagues that the birthday person has to take a cake or cakes for them all to share and celebrate.  Some colleagues were away yesterday and today, so he has a cake to take in tomorrow.  It is a 'Russian Roulette' Revels cake.  I would just like to point out that eating it is not really dicing with death and there are no guns involved.  However, there are Revels all over the top as you can see.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this confectionery, let me explain.  Inside a layer of chocolate, there are hidden different fillings; orange, coconut, toffee, malteser, raisin, peanut, chocolate and worst of all, by far (in my opinion), coffee.  I would not want to have to eat a coffee one!  (In fact, there has recently been an advert for Revels which featured this very conundrum in an 'eat-off' competition and the loser was the one who got the coffee!)  So, all Chris' colleagues are going to have to face this problem, which should make it quite entertaining.

The cake is a really simple chocolate one, which stays really moist and is delicious.  I have made a squidgy chocolate fudge icing for the topping and then added the dreaded Revels.
So, would you take on the challenge of the 'Russian Roulette' Revels Cake?