High percentage chocolate seems to tickle the fancy of many when it comes to dessert. You must think me a fussy eater, but having spent so many years just eating certain brands of milk chocolate, I am still adjusting to yet another flavour. This was something that I had been chatting to a teacher about, who then sent me a recipe for a cake which she thought night help to build the bridge and make the leap to the higher tolerance of better quality chocolate. This was my agenda this Tuesday morning, and as it wasn’t on my assigned to do list, I would have to try and fit it in. My actual to do list was not so long anyway so there was no reason for much panic.
As it happened, today there was a birthday in the school and so my experimental chocolate cake was to become the birthday cake: dangerous! So the difference for the cake was a high volume of liquid used: milk and sunflower oil were two predominant ingredients. Also the use of cocoa powder instead of the melted Valrona chocolate chip. It was made like a sponge insofar as it was two cakes sandwiched atop one another. Then of course there was chocolate smothered in between the two sponges and then even more coated around the cake. Interestingly though when it got to covering the cake with icing it became apparent that there would not be enough to go around. What to do?! Then I was told to add just a little stock syrup to the icing and not only would it spread better and increase the quantity, it would also give the icing a glossier finish. This it did, and I now think that from now on I might intentionally add the syrup at the beginning in order to achieve this effect. Otherwise the only complication was the fact that I couldn’t taste it as it was to be presented as a birthday cake. On the plus side however it did allow me the opportunity to get a little bit creative and add some decoration. I was at a disadvantage as I hadn’t prepared an array of possibilities, the only tricks I had up my sleeve involved a paper piping bag and an ability to make chocolate curls. This by the way is so simple, melt your chocolate onto an upturned baking tray, allow it to dry, grab your cheese pairer and drag it across your chocolate (which is now also known as caraque). Anyway, ye cake came together quite nicely, and it was all worth it for the birthday girls smile. Aww!
Of course I was most interested in the taste test, having never made a chocolate cake before and so as the birthday party kicked into gear and happy birthday was sang, my heart pounded. In went the knife, hand went to mouth, and chew chew chew. Well not quite ‘chew’, as it wasn’t a chewy cake, but you get what I mean. As much as I secretly like applause, I hate the attention, but I suddenly became everyone’s best friend or so it seemed. ‘Johns recipe’ was hot topic! I’ll indulge online soon…
Funnily I was also on bread duty today and so it was compulsory that I made some. Oh darn! Well actually I had spent the night prior having tea and cake with a friend and discussing motivation and so on in the kitchen. The outcome of our conversation was that she would take on an extra task each day and so I made sure that she did a new one today which for her was the white yeast bread. Having never made it before, I was happy to act as a guide, and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed passing on the few little tricks and tips which I had either discovered or been told. So together we made white yeast bread, from which we could have fed the 5,000. In this instance I kept it simple insofar as there was no added extras, just a plait and some buns. When all of the bread turned out really well, there was a great feeling in having helped someone in achieving this. For which she was extremely grateful as she now had the confidence to tackle another technique.
Finally I quite simply had to make a grape raite. What on earth? Yoghurt, grapes, mint and honey and there you have it, a delicious accompaniment. That I truly what it was as well. It was delicious and I could happily have eaten a bowl of it. Natural yoghurt is something which I really love, but still by adding one or two more things, you can completely transform it to something else. As always, start with your basics and take it from there…
Dirty Whites 