Chocolate cake, flourless

Dear Viewer,
                    Due to unforeseen chocolate related reasons the author has died...Not really.
However this cake is so chocolately and glourious that I am pretty sure a truck could have run me over and I would have died happy. I say this knowing it could never happen such is the brilliance of living on the second floor. Onto cake!

This recipe took me by total surprise, 5 EGGS! Five. 5 EGGS, Goodness gracious I even had to exclaim it to the resident cake mix taste and now blogger extraordinaire (Link at the bottom, Go on get your peepers around that bad boy!) So for a wee while I was just walking around going 5 eggs, eventually sat down got bored and thought sack that lets get a baking.
        So, the recipe is a breeze. My only problem is the amount of ingredients but with great cake comes great responcibilty. But it is a good cake for people who cant eat gluten due to its flourless nature . It is also a good cake for those who would like to practise a wide variety of skills. I mean this cake needs a bit of nearly every basic baking technique, from melting chocolate with butter to seperating eggs and whisking the white. My fave was the melting always been a big thing in my baking life melting chocolate. And with a bowl and a spoon up for grabs this makes the baker of the house instantly the favourite.
      I think the trick with this cake is to keep as much air in as possible and fold the mix together with a gentle hand.  A big tip would be to line your tin as I hand trouble get it off the bottom, or invest in a spring-form cake tin. As a head up I used a 24 cm tin, just thought I should let that one out as the recipe doesnt specify.

ps. That is a spoon shaped as a shovel.
Also the way I failed, Couldnt get cake out properly. The only reason the photo looks ok is because I already ate the broken bit...which was lovely! I also burned it a teeny wee bit.

The Recipe!
http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chocolatealmond-cake-4217

A lovely blog
http://365objects.blogspot.co.uk/

Plum and Almond Cake

As I have mentioned I don't like to waste. I don't like to throw things out but I'm really bad at remembering that I have them. So to the baking! I had some plums, and nothing to do with them. They were approaching the point of no return and had to be used. After searching all my books and nothing tickling my fancy, I had to go back to my old standby of google. It wasnt actually that helpful. I was close to giving up and just making something up but finally the internet prevailed! It produced a Plum and Almond cake. Thinking it would be simple I just got on with it. First simple enough, second still fine, third was spot on. However the fourth was to be a slight hiccup. Not reading this step meant that I placed all my plums and then put the almonds on top instead of doing it the other way around! Woops! Luckly this wasn't deprimental to the cake. I was quite interested to see the results of the glaze being baked into the cake, It wasn't something I had ever done before and worked well.

As you can see I still had plums left, I didn't consider the size of the plums in comparison to cake tin.

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/511830

A chocolate cake!

One of my favourite things is chocolate. I love it so much that as a child I could smell it out (like a bloodhound) and corner my chocoaholic mother into admitting that she had hidden it. However, Chocolate cake has always blighted my baking. It's either too dry, too gritty or just a plain fail.
       Tonight, I have prevailed in my struggle! It all started with a good old fashioned spring-clean. I cleaned out the fridge and low and behold there sat a tub of sour cream. With a best before date of tomorrow. For a moment I flapped not sure what to do, throw it away? Wasteful. Try and find a recipe? Perfect. In these situations I tend to google. I think it has become a comfort thing. So Good ol' Google threw some rubbish at me as it always does and then suddenly it was sitting there in my bookmarks! Nigella Lawsons Good Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake. I had obviously been drooling over it previously and forgotton about it.
        A little bit of kitchen (messy) action, mixed in with some classic rock and I had a flat filled with all the right smells. The offical cake mix tester had declared cake mix success, The cake was in the oven and I was winging it with the icing. All was going brilliantly until I accidently booty shaked my way into the heat knob on the stove!
         I have to tell you that could have been it, Had I not done exactly then same thing with my baked sweet potatoes I would have just left the kitchen. But recently my memory has served me well. A swift temp change and some frantic door opening (to cool oven).
        The cake turned out beautifully I would fully endorse this recipe. The end product is like having a chocolate cloud on your toungue. The recipe is so wonderfully concise and simple that even a kitchen imbicile like me can do it, and do it well. http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/old-fashioned-chocolate-cake-119

 Sweet Dreams!
     

Ok, So I have NEVER blogged before. I have never even written a diary...Well I tried but I lost the tiny little key and after that it all seemed so pointless. Anyway to the point, after years of reading all these fantastic food blogs I decided I would write my own 'rustic' food blog. Of course in order to write a food blog, there must be some inspiration.
        Today at work I decided to bake like a trooper tonight and set about asking all the people at work what they wanted. The requests were varied and as indivdual as the specimens asking. One of my more erstwhile collegues replied that they would like a brownie as big as their hand. I gathered that his sisters wedding had been a success due to the hangover he was describing. The lovely lass I work with requested cupcakes. I am not good at cupcakes.
      Finally Big Bad Boss asked for a tea loaf.
This is where the title of my blog comes in handy. I can't bake. Yup. Bugger.
       So I got home (after a cheeky wee burger king) and set about baking. The brownies I am proud of, I have never made brownies before. It was pretty fantastic, the mix was all glossy, and when baked the smell was fantastic.

The cupcakes worked very well, all fluffy and light.

       But the bloody tea loaf. If I could bring myself to throw away cake I would throw away this loaf. It stuck to the bottom. The taste wasn't nice and for some reason it burnt! So what I have are several cupcakes, some lovely brownie ( as big as his hand) and a whole load of burnt, bitter and overall unappealing tea loaf. Damn.