Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Cake

It was The Daddy's birthday on Saturday.  My father babysat Tabitha, while we went out to dinner at Koots.  We had made a booking at Attica, and were really looking forward to it, however Tabitha will no longer take a bottle of expressed milk!  We tried for two weeks - she will drink water out of a bottle, but as soon as there is milk in there, she screams and pushes it away.  So we chose to go somewhere closer to home, so that we would be home in time for her next breastfeed - normally around 10pm.

Koots was lovely, I had St Helens oysters, rare steak frites, creme brulee, and some gorgeous 2001 Bordeaux.  The Daddy had some charcuterie, confit rabbit and something involving coffee crumbles and chocolate semifredo for dessert - along with a couple of different dessert wines!

For his birthday, I had knitted a very long, thick scarf.  5 balls of Zara Chine Italian merino, a nice grey-black blend.  Moss stitch - cast on 39 stitches, onto 4.5mm needles.  1st row, *K1, P1, repeat from * to end of row, finishing with a K1.  Repeat first row until length desired (I used four and a half balls).  Cast off.

I can't take a photo of it, because he has worn it to work!  I will post a photo tomorrow.  I was quite thrilled when he opened it - he said, "oh this is really nice!  But you didn't knit it, did you?"  He thought it looked too polished to be a hand knit!

Along with the scarf, Tabby and I gave him a big box of Koko Black chocolates (ALL flavours he likes, and I do not, so he can enjoy them all without feeling obliged to offer me any!), as well as two wine appreciation classes - one on aging wines, and one on French wines.

The following day, we went to his aunt's house for brunch with his family.  Tabitha thoroughly enjoyed having so many people to play with and cuddle, and happily crawled around under the table eating an English muffin while we all enjoyed brunch.

I made a large, two-layer chocolate birthday cake to take with us:

For the birthday cake, I wanted a classic, rich, light-yet-fudgy, double-layered chocolate cake, covered in frosting.  I turned to Nigella Lawson’s ‘Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake’ from the ‘chocolate cake hall of fame’ chapter in her book Feast.  She describes it as ‘a sort of idealized chocolate cake from a packet’, which I agree with.  It has that fluffy moistness of a packet cake, but with a far better flavour.

In fact, it is really no more difficult to make than a packet cake, since everything is just dumped together in the food processor and blitzed until it’s a smooth (yet incredibly thick) batter.  The frosting is sort of a melt-and-mix affair, also very simple.

Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Birthday Cake

To make the cake, combine in a food processor:  200g plain flour, 200g caster sugar (as usual, I used vanilla caster sugar), 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, 40g best-quality cocoa (I used Valhrona), 175g very soft unsalted butter, 2 large eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 150ml sour cream (I also added a generous pinch of salt).  Blitz until completely smooth (it will still be very thick).

Prepare two round 20cm sandwich tins – grease and flour them, and line the bottoms with baking paper.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Divide the batter, spreading with a spatula to flatten, between the two tins – I make sure they are evenly divided by weighing them.

Bake for 25 – 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool in their tins for ten minutes on the bench, then turn out onto a wire cooling rack.  Remove the paper from their bottoms, and sit, top side up, until they are completely cool.

To make the icing, melt together 75g unsalted butter, 175g top quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces.  Set aside to cool a little.

Sift 300g icing sugar into a bowl.

Once the chocolate has cooled a little, add a tablespoon of golden syrup, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and 125ml sour cream.  Stir to combine, then beat in, very thoroughly, the icing sugar.  Beat until smooth.

Frost the cakes – fill the two layers, then coat the whole lot with a generous amount of frosting.  I added some purple flowers, just like in the book, since I keep icing flowers in the drawer.  I think it would look lovely with some golden balls as well.

It was also The Daddy's younger brother's birthday.  Here is Uncle Paul having a cuddle with Tabby:

I was pleased with the cake.  I would like to try making it as a three-layer cake next time, just for fun!

The Daddy gave Tabby a little taste of cake - she was very excited!  Here she is grinning with cake on her face:

After brunch, we went to my parents' house to have an early dinner with my family, and my godfather and godson.  Steak with mushroom sauce, frites, and lots of little delicious pastries from Laurent.

Ordinarily, my mother would have baked a birthday cake - she is a keen cake baker, like myself - however she has broken her hand!  She fell on Friday evening, breaking two bones.  It is just dreadful, and she will need surgery this week.  She will be okay, and is coping like a trooper.  But her cake-baking days are over for a couple of months, I'd say.

Because One Chocolate Cake is Never Enough (I think I should get a bumper sticker made!), I also baked a large flourless chocolate cake, to keep in a tin for the week, for snacks and after dinner.  Flourless chocolate cake keeps beautifully, and is gorgeous with creme fraiche or cream, and some berries.

The recipe I use is very simple, and I call it 'Dr Jackson's Heart Health Cake', jokingly, since it is incredibly fattening, yet the recipe was given to me by a family friend of ours who is a cardiologist!  I think he is trying to drum up business.

Dr Jackson's Heart Health Cake

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Grease a 20 - 22cm springform tin, and line base with baking paper.  

Melt together 250g good quality dark chocolate, with 250g unsalted butter. Stir well.

Meanwhile, whip 6 eggwhites until stiff peaks form.

Add 2/3 cup of caster sugar (I used vanilla caster sugar) and 1/3 cup of firmly packed brown sugar, along with 100g almond meal, to the melted chocolate.  Stir well.  Add 6 egg yolks, stir well.

Fold in the beaten egg whites carefully but thoroughly.  Pour into the prepared pan, bake for 50 minutes - one hour, or until cooked (it will still be very thick, moist and damp in the middle).

I baked this in the wrong sized tin (long story), so it's a little misshapen and sunken, but it still tastes brilliant.

So, Daylight Savings is over.  It has not been too brutal here, since Tabby normally wakes around 8am, lately, which means 7am in 'new time', which is pretty reasonable.  I am more concerned about the onset of wet winter - I am not a fan of 'exercise' in the organised sense.  I just walk.  With Tabitha's 8.5kg strapped to me in the Ergo or Vatanai, a one hour walk each day is great exercise.  However if it rains, we are stuck inside.  Or we get caught in the rain, like this morning!  Perhaps I will try walking with an umbrella - a large one should cover us both.