Devils Food Cake

This cake is the cake, my ultimate chocolate cake. I love all sorts of chocolate cakes, from the immensely sugary, to a bitter chocolate and almond cake, but this is my go-to cake, everyone seems to love it. Although its made with dark chocolate, its not bitter and manages to still be really fudgey and sweet, and the muscavado sugar gives it a real depth of flavour. The frosting never actually sets, its stays sticky and squidgy for as long as the cake lasts (which is not long as its yummy). The sponge itself if a great combination of light and fluffy and somehow moist and dense. Really, this recipe is worth a go!

I like to make the frosting first, you melt 175gs of butter, and then add 300gs of dark chocolate, about 30 grams of muscavado sugar and around 120mls of water. This makes it a really really liquidy mixture, to the point that you won't think it will ever be icing consistency, but what you need to do is whisk it every so often as it cools, this will gradually make it really glossy and thick, and then all of a sudden it will change into the perfect consistency to frost a cake with!

It is obviously quite a rich cake, so I decided to pair it with some redcurrants, I absolutely love them, they are so tart so add a bit of sharpness, and look like little jewels, perfect for this cake!

For the cake:

50g best-quality cocoa powder, sifted

100g dark muscovado sugar

250ml boiling water

125g soft unsalted butter, plus some for greasing

150g caster sugar

225g plain flour

1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder

1⁄2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

Combine the cocoa, muscavado sugar and boiling water in a bowl, mix well and leave to the side. Cream the butter and sugar (quelle suprise), add in the vanilla then alternate mixing in the dry ingredients and the two eggs (I sometimes use 3 eggs if they are a bit small, who ever said you have to be mega strict about measures when baking exaggerated, its more important that your technique and judgement are right). Then simply fold in the cocoa mixture and pour into two tins and bake for around 30mins at 180 degrees/gas 4.

 Soph x

Home grown blackberry vodka

Last year we had a whole load of blackberries growing in our garden and I didn't know what to do with them, so the birds got them. This year I decided I needed to make a plan for them! My parents used to make sloe gin every year when we were little and I never got to sample it (I didn't start that early...) so I decided to make my own version...blackberry vodka.

Note the size difference of home grown vs supermarket...GM at work?



Its really simple, I used a pretty cheap vodka, not value but not fancy and had to buy another punnet of blackberries as you need 500 grams which is quite a lot!

It was really really simple to do, you need to sterilise your jar first, to do this I just washed mine really thoroughly with soapy water and then poured in just boiled water and let it sit for a bit, then dry naturally. You could also put it in a low oven for 10mins, but I was too scared that it would shatter!
Once sterilised you simply pour in the vodka, 200 grams of sugar and the blackberries.

And its done! Well not quite. You need to rather patiently tip the jar from side to side until all the sugar has dissolved. And then do this again every day for 2-3 weeks, and then once a week after that, for about 6-8 weeks. Then strain the fruit out and it will keep for about a year (not that it would ever last that long in our house)

I'm very excited to try it! I was also thinking it would make a nice little christmas gift, maybe bottled into minitures and tied up with a bow? Thrifty.

Jaffa cakes

Jaffa cakes are a classic, and a favourite of mine. I fancied making something easy but a bit fun, and so decided on these. Cake or biscuit? Ask the tax man and its cake, ask me and its a biscuit, but now that I have made them...i'm leaning towards cake.

I love using this little whisky man, he doesn't shape up compared to my normal mixer, but for a quick whisk he gets the job done!

A "tray of horrible eggs" according to my sister....

Add a little chocolate blanket and they are done!

The finished product...