Verdict revisited: Cheer up chocolate cake

Okay, it's slightly odd I know, but I think that this cake needs a second verdict. I had a really awful cold when I baked the cake and tried it the first time around - two days on now, my cold is a bit better, which means I can taste the cake a bit more and actually, it's a heck of a lot better than I had thought! The cake is, I think, one of the best cakes I've ever made - it's nicely balanced and doesn't really need any more sweetness as I had previously thought (though equally, it probably wouldn't hurt it). When eaten cold, the chocolate chips in the cake are much more noticeable and give some lovely texture, and the cake is still wonderfully rich but not sickly. The treacle is marvellous - not immediately noticeable, but it definitely gives the flavour a depth that it wouldn't otherwise have had. The two days of sitting there haven't hurt it much either - it's slightly drier, but not horrendously so. I'm really, really pleased with this one!

Verdict: Cheer up chocolate cake

I had originally intended to serve the cake with a ganache, but I was overruled on the basis that that would have meant we would have had to wait longer to eat the cake. So we had it with cream instead. It would have been better with custard, but then I think pretty much all cakes are better with custard. But the cake itself was pretty darned good actually. It wasn't very sweet; in fact, it was slightly bitter, but not unpleasantly so. But I still stuck a drizzle of golden syrup on the top, which I think improved it significantly. The texture of the cake on the other hand was gorgeous - that perfect and oh-so-difficult balance of fudginess, moistness and crunch. The crust was just right and the inside was absolutely wonderful. A huge success I'd say, and it also won the biggest compliment - Kenny asked if he could have the recipe. A really good cake!

Cheer up chocolate cake

My friend Helen was feeling a bit down, so I promised her a chocolate cake. Completely lacking inspiration, I had a look in the cake ingredients aisle of M&S while I was shopping, and decided to make it a treacle-based chocolate cake. It's pretty straightforward, but I think this might be a winner!

Cheer Up Chocolate Cake
Ingredients

• 270g Black treacle
• 150g Butter
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
  
• 3 Eggs
• 150g Self-raising flour
• 80g Cocoa powder
• 2tsp Bicarbonate of soda
• 100g Dark chocolate chips
  

Method

1. Melt the treacle, butter and vanilla extract over a double boiler and whisk together.
2. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time.
3. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda and fold in gently.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Pour into a lined cake tin and bake at ~170C for ~40 minutes.

Practice makes perfect

I'm seeing Alan again on Friday, so it's time for the spiced honey cake take two. Slight tweaks to it this time around, so hopefully it'll be a bit lighter and a bit nicer! The major differences are: I've used self-raising flour on top of the baking powder, there's 40g more flour and I melted the butter so that it could be whisked with the honey and eggs in an effort to incorporate a bit more air into it. The mascarpone is also split between the topping and a sandwich layer now as well.

Spiced Honey Cake Revisited
Ingredients
For the cake

• 220g Butter
• 350g Honey
• 4 Eggs
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
• Zest of one lemon
  
• 290g Self-raising flour
• 2tsp Baking powder
• 1 1/2tsp Cinnamon
• 1 1/2tsp Nutmeg
• 4tsp Ginger

For the sandwich layer and topping

• 250g Mascarpone
• 3tbsp Honey
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
  
• 55g Crystallised ginger
  

Method

1. Melt the butter and honey for the cake together over a double boiler and whisk with a balloon whisk.
2. Whisk in the eggs, vanilla extract and lemon zest.
3. Sift in the dry ingredients and fold in gently.
4. Pour into a lined cake tin and bake at ~160C for 45 minutes.
5. Remove from tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack
6. Cream the mascarpone, honey for the topping and vanilla extract together.
7. Cut the cake in half horizontally.
8. Spread half of the mascarpone over the base, add the upper half of the cake and spread the remaining mascarpone over the top.
9. Chop the crystallised ginger and sprinkle over the cake.

Here's the cake straight from the oven (step 5). It's a bit dark around the edge - I'll trim off the burnt rim with a sharp knife before finishing it off.Here's the finished cake.