Serves: ~12
Approx cost: €9
Approx calories (per serving, if divided into 12): ~500
Approx preparation and cooking time: 2 hours
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #0B0B61;”]Greetings everyone – I hope this day sees you well. It was four days since my last post and I did say that I’d be posting something special on Saturday. Well, saturday has arrived and I’m pleased to let you join in my celebrations. No – this time it’s nothing blog-related. This time it’s all “in real life”, for today I am indeed a year older! You might not be able to have a slice of my cake unless you live really close but I hope you can look at the pictures and imagine the awesome flavours! At the time of publishing, this post won’t have all the photos in it – I’m going to update it later with pictures of cutting the cake… much more nom nom! Photos have been uploaded now… enjoy 🙂
The cake itself? Many years ago, like many children my age, I was a huge fan of Roald Dahl books – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, Matilda and so forth. There used to be a whole load of delicious foods mentioned in these books (and sometimes not so delicious but interesting-sounding nevertheless) which really piqued my imagination. Imagine my glee when a recipe book was published featuring some of the recipes from my favourite books? This particular cake is from Matilda and is called Bruce Bogtrotter’s Chocolate Cake. The story goes that Bruce Bogtrotter (a bad seed, you can tell by the name!) steals something from a wicked teacher (also a bad seed I’m sure! :D) and his punishment is to eat an entire chocolate cake by himself. The cake in its non-fictional form is very rich so I can imagine that being forced to eat a whole cake would probably be quite an unpleasant experience, although a slice or two is definitely a pleasure!
I’m going to get back to enjoying “my” day, but I should mention that normally my wife makes me my birthday cake. Before anyone thinks she has not done her wifey-duty this year I must point out I forbade her from making this cake with the words “no, I want to blog about it”, so there you go 😉 If anyone is interested, you can buy the book “Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes” on Amazon. It’s not very much and it’s full of some cracking recipes to inspire (and disgust) kids and adults alike. If you happen to know an kids who are starting to get old enough to become active in the kitchen I think personally this would be a wonderful book to get them – even more so if they’re familiar with the stories behind them!
Have a great day everyone 🙂
Ingredients
For the cake
- 225g Plain Chocolate
- 175g Butter
- 175g Self-Raising Flour
- 125g Caster Sugar
- 6 eggs
For the ganache
- 225g Plain Chocolate
- 225g Double / Heavy Cream
Instructions
- Start by pre-heating your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and then we’ll start making the cake. Crack open the eggs, separating the yolks into a small bowl and the whites into a large bowl. Ensure you get no bits of yolk in the white otherwise you will not be able to whisk them.
- Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a large pan over a gentle heat, stirring regularly. When it is completely molten add in the butter and continue to stir until the butter has completed melted and mixed with the chocolate.
- Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Pour the yolks into the mixture and mix well, ensuring the yolks are well blended with the chocolate/butter mixture. After this, whisk the egg whites until you can form stiff peaks with them. You’ll find it easiest to do this using an electric whisk, though if you don’t have one a balloon whisk will work just as well.
- Set the whites aside for a moment and then sift the Self-Raising flour into the chocolate/butter mixture. Mix well before adding in the sugar. You’ll need to ensure you beat the mixture as much as possible to ensure you get not clumps of flour inside, though don’t worry if it looks a little like this.
- Transfer the chocolate mixture to the bowl with the whites and fold into the whisked egg whites. This will take a minute or two, but it’s worth it to take your time to properly combine everything, without beating out too much air from the whites. When you have done this, grease and flour a baking tin. I used a baking tin with a 20cm diameter, 4cm deep. You could equally go a bit bigger, though do ensure that it has sufficient depth. 4cm was really cutting it fine on my tin – luckily it didn’t rise too much. Pour the mixture into the tin and then place into your pre-heated oven. Cook for about 40 minutes. Choose a time between about 35-45, depending on how wide your cake ends up being (and thus thinner). It should still be slightly gooey in the centre when cooked (it will firm up more when cool) so err on the shorter.
- Allow to cool in the tin when done until it is cool enough to handle. Then remove from the tin and trim the top and edges using a knife to ensure it it sufficiently smooth and flat all over. Once you’ve cut a layer from the top you may find turning the cake over and laying on a plate is very helpful.
- Once the cake is cool we’ll make the ganache. Start by heating the cream in a pan and once hot, add in the chocolate, broken into pieces.
- Stir the mixture until completely molten and blended. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 30 minutes or so.
- Pour some of the ganache onto the cake and spread around to cover the top and the sides. Allow to set slightly before repeating the process. Continue like this until all the ganache has been spread on and around the cake and then enjoy! 🙂
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