I Heart This

Flourless Chocolate Cake
'If chocolate be the food of love, munch on', wrote William Shakespeare.......never.
Excuse my play on the Bard's opening line from his play, 'Twelfth Night', but as Valentine's Day is here again, I couldn't resist.
I can't say I get terribly excited about this 'Day of Love', but I do like to mark an occasion by mixing up a treat that I can share with my loved ones.
I did want to try and avoid the obvious chocolate recipe to celebrate this occasion, but this (and I admit not very pretty) cake is so delicious and so special that it was my only choice. Plus, I was actually craving it. Therefore, based purely on my greed, I hope you love this cake as much as I do and it becomes a staple in your repertoire for when you need a truly celebratory dessert. This is no delicate, light sponge, but rather a very rich, dense, fudgy pudding, which simply melts in the mouth. Think of the richest, darkest chocolate truffle you have ever eaten, and it is like that. But in cake form.
As in the recipe, you can cover the cake with crème fraiche or cream, before piling the berries on top, but I prefer to serve it separately. A mixture of strawberries, redcurrants and raspberries would be lovely in summer, and in the autumn, blackberries and blueberries. But whatever fruit you choose, the only rule is to not be shy. This is a decadent pudding so be decadent.
When I made this cake I used just raspberries, and replaced the crème fraiche with double cream simply because they are my personal favourite. The sour tang of crème fraiche would of course cut through the richness of all of this cake, but call me old fashioned, I do like a bit of cream with my chocolate. The Cajuns have their 'holy trinity' of bell peppers, onions and celery, and I have my classic 'holy trinity' of chocolate, raspberries and cream.

For the Cake
(adapted from Sophie Dahl's Voluptuous Delights)

300g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, (plus extra to decorate, but this is optional)
225g golden caster sugar
180ml boiling water
225g salted butter, cubed
6 medium eggs, at room temperature and separated
1 tsp instant coffee powder
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

To Decorate
250g of your choice of berries
200ml crème fraiche, or double cream

You will also need an 8in / 20cm square, or a 9in / 23cm round cake tin

1. Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas 4.
2. Grease and line the base and sides of the tin with baking parchment.
3. Break up the chocolate into small pieces and put it in a food processor with the sugar and pulse until fine.
4. Add the boiling water, butter, egg yolks, coffee powder and vanilla extract and give it another mix. The chocolate and butter should melt so that you have a molten chocolate mixture. Transfer into a large bowl.
5. Whisk the eggs whites in a glass bowl until stiff and fold a quarter into the chocolate mixture using a metal spoon, to slacken it. Fold in the remaining egg whites until they are thoroughly mixed in. You will need to do this gently in order not to knock the air out of the egg whites.
6. Pour the mousse like mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45 - 55 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
7. The top of the cake will crack and the centre will collapse. This is entirely normal, so don't worry.
8. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin and place in the fridge for a few hours, or better still, overnight.
9. When you want to serve the cake, remove from the tin and take off the paper. At this stage I would also put the cake on the serving plate before decorating.
10. If you are using the double cream give it a bit of a whisk so that it has thickened up enough to hold its shape, but is not stiff, and dollop on top of the cake. The crème fraiche doesn't need whisking so you can just spoon that on top as is.
11. Put the fruit on top of the cream or crème fraiche, and grate over some extra chocolate if you fancy it.
12. Devour. Greedily.

Baking Notes
For this cake use the best chocolate you can afford, and do make sure it contains 70% cocoa solids. If you don't want to make such a dark, bitter cake and want something is a little sweeter, use a mixture of dark and milk chocolate, but with the dark being the in the greater proportion. 
 

 

Flowers and Bugs

So, this is what I was doing last Saturday afternoon. Making marzipan decorations to sit atop  cupcakes I had made that morning, ready for the family Easter Sunday afternoon tea. 

I can't say that I have often had much call to make decorations, but this time I was inspired by three things:

1. I had met Frances Quinn, the winner of the Great British Bake Off 2013, at an in-store appearance, where she made her signature marzipan bees.

2. I had recently attended a cake show (post to follow) and bought various bits and bobs that I was desperate to use, and,

3. It was Easter, and honestly, anything goes when it comes to baking. The more fun and colourful, the better.

Flowers and bugs. That was the theme. With a cup of tea, and Radio 2 for company I began. Colouring, shaping, rolling, sticking, stamping, painting, that was me for a good few hours. There is something quite therapeutic in repetition, particularly when you can see what that repetition achieves in front of your eyes. And I love to have something that I can completely immerse myself in and shut out the outside world.

If you would like to try something similar, this is what I used: 

• White marzipan (any brand from a good supermarket is perfect)
• Wilton gel colours (I bought mine in store from Lakeland, but they are also available online, here)
• White pearl sugar balls (mine were from Sainsburys, but you should be available to find them in any good supermarket)
• Small flower cutters (buy online, here)
• Edible glue (however, a little bit of icing sugar and water mixed together works just as well)
• Edible glitter (again, available from Lakeland, here)
• Flaked almonds
• Copious quantities of vinyl gloves to prevent your hands from staining when colouring the marzipan. Believe me, you will need them.
• Fine paint brushes, and finally,
• My imagination! 

I have not included any recipes in this post as the search is on for the perfect cupcake recipe that I am happy to share with you all. Nothing fancy, just a good vanilla and chocolate cupcake, along with a good vanilla and chocolate buttercream (plus, cupcakes are a whole other topic!). When that day comes, I will let you know, but in the meantime here are a couple of pictures of the finished result.