My eldest son had his third 21st birthday party - but he didn't want another birthday cake...so I just made him what is basically our fall back birthday cake. It is called "moist chocolate cake" and it is usually filled with jam and whipped cream, sic.
Once again, this is not my picture, but one I filched off the internet, but it's similar to the domestic version. I also made a larger quantity of it last week, and iced it with white chocolate ganache and filled it with raspberry jam. This was for my father's birthday - and it went down well on the whole. It works well as a larger size, but this recipe is good for the regular 7 or 8 inch cake pans.
Mix 200g plain flour, 2 tbsp cocoa, 1 tsp bicarb, 1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt. Add 2 beaten eggs, 2 tbsp golden syrup then 150ml milk and 150 ml veg oil. Mix this to a nice smooth batter, then share between 2 lined tins. Bake in the oven at Gas4/180 degrees for about 35 mins.
These cakes do tend to rise excessively in the middle, so try and squash them down a bit when you take them out to cool - put them upside down on the cooling rack, it helps. If you are too much of a perfectionist you may not enjoy it. When cool fill with anything you like - you can sprinkle orange juice, liqueur or anything nice over the cakes, jams are good inside, I like apricot, any icing you like, ganache, fudge icing, whipped cream, and decorate with toasted almond flakes, or toasted coconut flakes or hazel nuts - whatever you fancy. The cake stays moist for days, but it's never lasted that long with us.
What I ate
After the afternoon cooking marathon (stew, tomato sauce, stock and cake) I didn't feel like eating much, so I had the leftover cheese mousse and its sauce, plus a dollop of rather watery ratatouille. I think the tomatoes I used were too watery; they come from a local hothouse business called Thanet Earth and are grown hydroponically - which is I suspect something to do with it. The men ate stuffed pasta with the roast tomato sauce - which was a success. I'm trying to eat less (not none, but less) carbohydrates just now, so I didn't.
Once again, this is not my picture, but one I filched off the internet, but it's similar to the domestic version. I also made a larger quantity of it last week, and iced it with white chocolate ganache and filled it with raspberry jam. This was for my father's birthday - and it went down well on the whole. It works well as a larger size, but this recipe is good for the regular 7 or 8 inch cake pans.Mix 200g plain flour, 2 tbsp cocoa, 1 tsp bicarb, 1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt. Add 2 beaten eggs, 2 tbsp golden syrup then 150ml milk and 150 ml veg oil. Mix this to a nice smooth batter, then share between 2 lined tins. Bake in the oven at Gas4/180 degrees for about 35 mins.
These cakes do tend to rise excessively in the middle, so try and squash them down a bit when you take them out to cool - put them upside down on the cooling rack, it helps. If you are too much of a perfectionist you may not enjoy it. When cool fill with anything you like - you can sprinkle orange juice, liqueur or anything nice over the cakes, jams are good inside, I like apricot, any icing you like, ganache, fudge icing, whipped cream, and decorate with toasted almond flakes, or toasted coconut flakes or hazel nuts - whatever you fancy. The cake stays moist for days, but it's never lasted that long with us.
What I ate
After the afternoon cooking marathon (stew, tomato sauce, stock and cake) I didn't feel like eating much, so I had the leftover cheese mousse and its sauce, plus a dollop of rather watery ratatouille. I think the tomatoes I used were too watery; they come from a local hothouse business called Thanet Earth and are grown hydroponically - which is I suspect something to do with it. The men ate stuffed pasta with the roast tomato sauce - which was a success. I'm trying to eat less (not none, but less) carbohydrates just now, so I didn't.
