Chocolate cake

Latest Articles

Chocolate cake
Page 1, 2 Next

Downsizer Forum Index -> Recipes, Preserving, Homebrewing

Author

Message

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Sat Aug 25, 07 11:51 am Post subject: Chocolate cake

I have a desire to make some (and, of course, to eat it!) as it's a holiday weekend, and we're not doing anything more excting than paint the utility room!

Trouble is, I looked in my books, and am now spoilt for choice. I don't fancy my usual extra sticky chocolate brownies, and would like to broaden my horizons. I'm toying with either Nigella's Guiness or malteser chocolate cakes.

Any suggestions? I'm not massively keen on iced cake (but may an exception as it's a holiday) or cream, and I prefer squidge to sponge.

bernie-woman

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7824
Location: shropshire

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 07 6:40 pm Post subject:
My brother does a spectacularly squidgy chocolate cake from one of the Nigel Slater books it is gorgeous but faced with your choices I am intrigued as to these Malteser chocolate cakes what are they then?

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 07 7:36 pm Post subject:

Dry and sweet - shame, the idea was good! It's basically chocolate cake with butter icing, and both the cake and the icing have horlicks in them to give malted taste. It's OK, but the icing is muc too sweet, and I over did the cake a bit. I shall refine it (and make the guiness one next time! And maybe the Nigel Slater one - which book is it in?)

I think with cakes, I should stick to what I am good at. When doing savoury experimentals, my scucces rate is pretty good - almost always edible, and although I may tweak a little, I'll generally cook them again. With cake, I reckon I like new recipes enough to do them again 1/10 times. I'll stick to brownies, lemon drizzle and christmas in future!

bagpuss

Joined: 09 Dec 2004
Posts: 10507
Location: cambridge

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 07 9:31 pm Post subject:
The guiness one is great, definitely better than the malteser one which I didn't like My favourite nigella chocolate cake is probably her dense chocolate loaf from how to be a domestic goddess, lovely and damp and not too sweet as it uses dark muscarvdo sugar it is another of nigellas house building cakes though, a little on the dense side which of course isn't necessarily a bad thing

bernie-woman

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7824
Location: shropshire

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 07 9:41 am Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

And maybe the Nigel Slater one - which book is it in?)

Can't remember which book it is in - I will ask my brother when I next see him but this is the recipe which I found on the interweb here

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 07 9:43 am Post subject:

I like them dense, but I think that's the one that didn't cook and I couldn't eat it because it was so sweet. I always meant to make it again with a quarter of the sugar. Then again, I might be thinking of the wrong one - is that the one where it has two kinds of sugar in and you pour boiling water over it? or was that the chilli one? same result in any case - sounded great, but waaaaay to sweet for me.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 07 9:45 am Post subject:

bernie-woman wrote:

wellington womble wrote:

And maybe the Nigel Slater one - which book is it in?)

Can't remember which book it is in - I will ask my brother when I next see him but this is the recipe which I found on the interweb here

Oooh - coffee as well. I wonder why on earth he measured butter in tablespoons? I wonder how you do that!?

Strange man!

bernie-woman

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7824
Location: shropshire

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 07 9:46 am Post subject:
Just found out it is from Real Food and no it hasn't got chilli in just chocolate, eggs, espresso coffee, butter, cocoa powder and flour. I have never made it myself so not sure if my brother tweaked it at all but it was very rich and dense and crispy on top but squidgy (almost obscenely) in the middle. Very intense chocolatey taste

bernie-woman

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7824
Location: shropshire

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 07 9:47 am Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

Strange man!

He is certainly that - I can hardly bear reading hos food writng he is sooo over the top

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 07 10:01 am Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

I wonder why on earth he measured butter in tablespoons? I wonder how you do that!?

Strange man!

Is the person measuring an American? I quizzed a US cookery writer about this and she was told to convert cups to tablespoons for a UK audience, hence the butter measurement. She had found it odd with butter and queried her publisher, but had been convinced we do measure butter that way. I explained about knowing the weight of the pack of butter and then dividing it without using scales and she found that funny - that's exactly what they tend to do in practice in the States. The fact that Europeans weigh stuff out and Americans do it by volume means they imagine we do some very odd things

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 07 12:35 pm Post subject:

bernie-woman wrote:

wellington womble wrote:

{Nigel Slater} Strange man!

He is certainly that - I can hardly bear reading hos food writng he is sooo over the top

Oh come off it! Even though "Real Food" is about the only one of his books I haven't got, I'd say that if there is one thing Nigel Slater cannot justly be accused of, then it is "over the top" food writing.

As evidence I offer this chocolate cake recipe (which surely has to be for the same cake) scanned from "Appetite" an inspirational cookbook of taste and simplicity.
BTW, the photos indicate a distinctly gooey, chocolatey sticky result (I might have a go later... )

Over the top writing ????

bernie-woman

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7824
Location: shropshire

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 07 2:26 pm Post subject:

dougal wrote:

Over the top writing ????

Ummm I said food writing not recipes there is a big difference - have you read his kitchen diaries

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 07 2:29 pm Post subject:
I rather like Nigel Slater's writing - I'm a bit obsessive about food myself! I just though it was a bit impractical to measure diced butter in tablespoons!

bernie-woman

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7824
Location: shropshire

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 07 4:09 pm Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

I rather like Nigel Slater's writing - I'm a bit obsessive about food myself! I just though it was a bit impractical to measure diced butter in tablespoons!

I quite like it in the form of his articles in The Observer but a bookful of his enthusings just grates after a while

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 07 4:15 pm Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

... I just though it was a bit impractical to measure diced butter in tablespoons!

As per the excerpt cited above, I had always regarded him as an early convert to metrication.
I wonder if the 'butter in tablespoons' had been some idiot editor's attempt to 'translate' for an american edition... certainly doesn't sound like Slater himself.
His writing in the Observer Food Monthly ain't over the top.
I didn't think the 'diary' really worked, but the majority of diaries are only ever read by their authors. And I'm afraid I haven't bothered with his autobiography, either.
His writing about food is much more interesting than his explanations of why food is important to him.

I was sure there were some hazlenuts somewhere....

	Downsizer Forum Index -> Recipes, Preserving, Homebrewing	All times are GMT Page 1, 2 Next
Page 1 of 2

View Latest Posts