Day Three - First Guest

Well, there was I wracking my brains to try and decide what to tempt you with tonight and there was a knock on the door ... I do love a man bearing gifts!

To my delight I discovered that LeeAnne (http://www.blipfoto.com/LeeAnne) had taken me up quite literally on my offer to host 'Guest' blippers at the supper club ...

So, today's culinary feast is courtesy of that lovely Strumpet LeeAnne ... Made my day! x

Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake

This is the best chocolate cake I've ever tasted. I know you're not supposed to say that when you made it yourself but all credit to Nigella... it's sooper scrummy! You don't want to know the calorie content but if you open the window while you're eating it they will all disappear! Honest!!

So... for the cake you will need:

200g plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
50g cocoa powder
275g caster sugar
175g unsalted butter (although I used slightly salted)
2 medium eggs (I used large)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
80ml sour cream
125ml water (boiling) - (one recipe says water, another says tonic water - not sure of the difference as yet cause I've done one of each but I didn't taste the second one!)
175g dark chocolate chips (or milk if you prefer)

For the syrup:

1 teaspoon cocoa powder
125ml water (again tonic water or water)
100g caster sugar
25g dark chocolate (I used Green & Blacks - I don't like cooking chocolate, it tastes shit)

Method:

1. Make sure everything is at room temp.

2. Preheat oven to 170°C and use a 900g loaf tin... no idea of the measurements but its slightly bigger than a normal loaf tin. Line the loaf tin, I grease it first to save me fannying around trying to get it out. I don't like silicon but that's a personal choice.

3. Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla extract and sour cream into a bowl. The recipe says to use a food processor but I don't have one so I used my little kenwood beaters, worked just as well. Beat it all until you get a smooth brown batter. When it's blitzed, pour in the boiling watter and mix it in... it turns to a beautiful liquid like chocolate. Then add the chocolate chips.

4. Scrape it all into the loaf tin and cook for an hour. When it's ready, the loaf will have risen and be almost split down the middle. I stick a skewer in to make sure it's done, mostly it comes out clean but apparently you shouldn't worry if it's a bit sticky... this is a 'damp' cake!!

5. When it's had about 45 minutes I made the syrup. Again you can use water or tonic water... her recipe didn't say what you were meant to do with the chocolate (I think it was for sprinkling over the top but I put the 25g into the sauce then used more for the top!) *pats tummy* Worth it I thought!

6. Stick a skewer in randomly as if you would a lemon drizzle cake so there's space for the syrup to seep in. The first one I think I did too long cause it was more of a chocolate sauce that went over the top but the cake was certainly moist enough without it seeping in. The second one I did for less time and dribbled it in with my brand new turkey baster... I never thought I'd be excited to own a turkey baster but I am... it's ace!! However, I saved some of the syrup to boil it for a little longer so I had enough to pour over the top of the cake. It goes hard when it's thicker and adds a bit of a crunchy layer to the cake.

7. Let it cool before you put the grated chocolate over it. I mixed dark and milk to do this and just chopped it roughly.

8. Eat it, share it with friends or wrap it up and send it through the post to a friend... it travels well apparently... although I'm not sure how long it will last at its destination!!

Enjoy!


and

Bon Apetite