There has been an extreme lack of blogging recently on my part, partly due to a huge lack of time (and a little laziness) but also due to the extreme lack of baking (also due to a huge lack of time and a little laziness). I'm not really sure why, but things have been really busy. I have been doing more sport which I guess has taken up a few extra evenings, so that might explain it. Anyhow, I'm back, and whilst there might not be too much baking going on in the next couple of weeks (for reasons I'll explain later) I have more baking plans now!
So a while back, I made a Devil's food cake. I had found the recipe previously and wanted to give it a go, and at some point I found I had a bit of spare time and felt that a cake would go down quite nicely. The recipe is one of Nigella's and can be found here. It is basically rich, chocolately goodness and is perfect for when chocolate cravings hit.
The cake is lovely and moist, possibly due to the amount of water added to the cake batter. The nice thing is that the ganache is quite bitter, not at all sweet, and so whilst the cake is rich, it is not one of those which leaves you feeling sick at the end (which is what often happens to me if I eat chocolate cake from a coffee shop chain). I only made 2/3 of the quantity of ganache in the recipe, mostly because I only had 200g chocolate, not 300g. However, I found that this was more than enough, and is possibly also another reason that this cake left me feeling satisfied, not ill.
A few weeks later I made another one of these cakes but decorated it more this time. It was a belated birthday celebration cake for my Mum and so I felt that an extra touch was necessary. These stars can be bought in supermarkets or cake supplies shops and against the dark chocolate they look really effective.
I'll definitely be baking another one of these soon, my other half has requested one to take to work!
Due to not having much time this week and to me leaving on Sunday for a course for work, I probably won't get any baking done until the weekend after next. However, after that I have plans!
Interesting post! I've never made a devils food cake, a ganache or even considered doing any of Nigella Lawsons recipes, but yours looks nice. I think it's probably her OTT presenting style on her TV shows that put me off rather then her actual recipes. I much prefer Nigel Slaters more laid back, inclusive presenting style though I do like making complex ambitious recipes (like the profiterole tower thing on The great British bake off this week which I want to make).
ReplyDeleteAnyway I can't wait to see what your plans are in a few weeks...
I actually just found this on the BBC website rather than from watching Nigella. I hardly watch any cooking baking programmes as I'm either out / watching something else / have forgotten they're on. And I then forget about iPlayer as well... oh well!
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