CHOCOLATE CAKE

any fan of chocolate wants to know how to make a marvellous chocolate cake...

I'm not that big on chocolate, however, since I feel I need some treats cake looms large on my cookery horizon. Wheat free flour is expensive and you run out all the time, it's also mostly rice flour as far as I can make out, so I keep rice flour around and mix it with other ingredients, making my own flour combinations. 

Gluten has some magic property that means it holds sugar and fat very well. It's a winning combination that most of us like the feel of, in the mouth. So, when you're making food without gluten you need to load up with something moisturising in another way - with cake that means icing, or syrups, or in this case a glorious ganache.

That's ganache that rhymes with panache - please don't start throwing in an accent at the end. Not that I'm pernickety.

That is ganache, not Ganesh. Ganache is a chocolate cream filling, Ganesh is an elephant faced Hindu god, not suitable as a cake filling, although I think he looks like he's enjoyed a few cakes.

RECIPE

chocolate cake

50g cornmeal

50g rice flour

100g ground almonds

heaped teaspoon baking powder

5 eggs

150g castor sugar

150g margarine or butter

50g dark chocolate (best use a chocolate with over 50% cocoa solids)

line cake tin - this is enough to make a sponge type sandwich cake using two 9" tins, or two 8" tins, if you want it to come out fatter

weigh out dry ingredients (cornmeal/flour/almonds) and set aside, stirring in the baking powder

melt marg (or butter) over low heat, adding chocolate broken into pieces into it, stir until chocolate and fat are mixed together and set aside to cool

whisk eggs using an electric whisk for one minute, slowly add sugar, making a thick frothy cream, which usually takes another minute

stir in the chocolate/marg mixture - use a spatula or metal spoon, and don't stir so much that you reduce the volume of the eggy froth

follow the chocolate mixture witht ej dry ingredeients, stirring in in the smae way, keeping the volume as high as possible

pour into the cake tins and cook at gas mark 6 for 20 minutes

the cake is cooked whe you stick a skewer in in, and it comes out clean

cool slowly on a rack in the tin - the cake is slightly delicate, so don't hurry to take it out of the tin

take one cake out of it's tin and put on a serving plate

spread the chocolate ganache liberally over this cake, so that it doesn't quite reach the edges

carefully place the other cake on top, lining the two cakes up, gently setlling it down, until the ganache spreads to the edges of the cake. dust the top of the cake with icing sugar

eat

for the chocolate cream ganache

tips:

make once the cake has cooled

don't be in a hurry

double cream

100g dark chocolate

small cup of milk

vanilla essence (optional)

break the chocolate into pieces and melt over boiling water

heat the milk to just under boiling point

pour the hot milk into the melted chocolate, beating while you poor. the chocolate may get stiff and grainy, keep beating and stirring until you get a glossy mixture. you can add a few drops of vanilla at any point - beating them in too

set to one side to cool - don't let chocolate mixture get cold

whip the cream until it makes soft peaks. I prefer to do this with a mechanised hand whisk. If you use an electric whisk keep checking the consistency, so it doesn't get too dry. Once it's whipped fold in the cooled chocolate mixture. keep folding it in until the cream is all the same chocolate-y colour.

if your ganache seems a little runny, put it in the fridge for a while

when you have a ganache you can spread with a knife you know it's ready to use...

alternatives and subsitutions

for this chocolate cake you could use cocoa powder in place of some of the flour, it'll flavour and colour the cake well too. 

I'll get back to this later

gluten free bread and stuff

Being gluten free can make you miserable. Even after the anger at not having access to the contentment that wheat can give you, walking around you soon realise that bread rules, especially when it comes to convenience food. Pastry, pasticceria, cakes, croissants, goodness croissants, that's what I want, the flaky fat pleasure you get from a mouthful of croissant. If it's not a sandwich it's pastry, reminding you what you're missing. Flaky pastry... filo pastry... all the lightness that can be created with wheat, that's why it rules supreme. And if you're not that into chocolate consolsation is slim. 

So I've been on a quest for gluten free bread that doesn't drive me back into the arms of wheat.

I've tried all sorts. Some I've even taken pictures of. None has given me bready satisfaction. Some have pretended to be bread, but once I'd taken a mouthful I felt like I was chewing through mud in bread's clothing. I'm all for earthy - but not in the form of bread.

My best alternative so far has been assorted pancakes. I'll run up another batch and pop the recipe in later. Some pancakes can be very bread-y. But fried, with loads of fat and eggs. Also I am desperate for toast, and that's not something a pancake can do, really. I think I want the bloated feeling, it is rather comforting. 

  

I'm going to go for rye. Of which, more later,

birthday cake

It's my birthday tomorrow and I'm going to make my own birthday cake. It'll be wheat free and it'll be oranges and lemons. It'll be based on quatre quarts with extra eggs.  No icing per se. It'll be giving a nod to tipsy drizzle cake, with invisible drizzle. If you put it on when the cake is hot, it should pass through, so that when you turn it out you just get a bit of stickiness one side and moisture all the way through. I'm going to add extra baking powder to make it a bit airy, or I may whisk up the egg whites. 

whatever I do with the cake, I expect to raise my cholesterol significantly by eating the foie gras Nigel gave us 1 Jan, and drinking the wine he also gave us. I'll have a lovely green salad in between as a treat for my system.

wheat free apple lemon cake

As part of my new regime I am not eating wheat. It's annoying, but it seems to be helping my breathing, so I am giving it a go.

I've already cooked quite a bit without wheat, for family and friends, so at least it hasn't been a shock to the cooking system. I do buy gluten free flour, for convenience, but it's quite expensive, and I resent the price difference, so I've now bought a large bag of fine cornflour and a matching bag of rice flour. I already had a bag of grits, or polenta flour, not sure why, as I hate polenta. I love lemon cake, so I came up with this recipe.

I'm about to go on about my logic for putting this recipe together. I'm no Heston B and it may be seriously flawed, in scientific terms. You might do me a favour by not reading this bit, in case I expose my ignorance, also you may not find it useful or interesting. You'll make up your own mind, whatever I write. The demerara sugar is intended to open up what's likely to be a close-textured cake. Another way would be to separate the eggs and whip the whites up, this might result in a cake that doesn't keep well at all. The topping/puree is a way of giving moisture to would be a very dry cake otherwise.  

I think I've spent enough time exposing my internal debate. The point of the recipe is to make something tasty to eat. So now I'll just knuckle under.

apple lemon cake

topping:

1 cup/mugful apple puree

3 tbsp dark brown sugar

zest of one lemon

1 cox's apple

handful of coarse cornmeal

cake:

100g rice flour

100g fine cornmeal

200g demerara sugar

200g margarine or butter

juice of one lemon

3 eggs

1tsp baking powder

• line your cake tin with non-stick baking paper
  

• set oven to gas mark 5 /375 F / 190 C moderately hot
  

• 9"/20cm round cake tin or a 10"/23cm long loaf-type cake tin
  

• put the apple puree in a pan over a low heat, stir in three heaped spoonfuls of dark brown sugar, stir until the mixture bubbles, take off the heat and add the zest of one lemon. 
  
• set aside to cool
  

• while apple puree mixture is cooling 
  
• wash one cox's apple, remove core and cut into thin slices
  

• pour apple puree mixture into lined tin, spreading to cover base
  
• sprinkle some coarse polenta evenly
  
• spread sliced apple evenly over the apple puree mixture
  

• beat the fat and sugar together until blended
  
• add the eggs and beat together until blended
  
• add the flours and baking powder and beat until blended
  
• beat in the juice from one lemon
  

• pour the cake mixture into the lined tin
  
• spread mixture out to make it level

• put mixture into preheated oven, cook for 40minutes
  

• insert skewer/sharp knife into cake - if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked
  

• leave to cool on rack for 10 minutes
• turn out the cake onto a plate - for safety, put the plate over the cake and turn it holding the plate and tin in a kind of sandwich
• lift the tin off and gently lift the baking parchment off - have a knife or spatula handy and ease any topping sticking to the paper back onto the cake

• eat hot or cold 

If you cook much you'll do what we all do. You read a recipe and decide to give it a go. You know you haven't got all the ingredients, so you think you'll just substitute a few things. Feel free, not that you need my permission. I'll be doing the same, and it's my recipe! I've already thought of a few changes... ...

use more apple - it'll make it wetter, and slices will fall apart more: live dangerously

forget the apple - you could use jam, thin it a bit with water and still use the coarse cornmeal, I wouldn't forego the lemon zest

use lemon curd - with or without the apple, still use the cornmeal

flapjacks

Flapjacks are full of oats and oats are full of great things. What else are oats good for? Porridge. Konjee. Haggis. All these can provide you with oats and oats are brilliant for keeping you full, and counteracting cholesterol.

Oh, oatcakes, you can make oatcakes. Personally I'd rather eat kitchen towels, a more convenient way to remove moisture from my mouth. I suppose you could use oats to make textured pictures as part of a collage, if you run out of sand and pasta, or indeed together with sand and pasta - although I suspect you would need gallons of glue.

You can use oats as a coating too, instead of breadcrumbs.

Aren't they used as a facial scrub sometimes (with water)?

I've no idea why they get horses/ponies etc frisky, but apparently they do. I've tried it and it didn't work for me. But don't let that stop you.

Anyway, for reasons that would take too long to explain, I've got an awful lot of oats in the cupboard. And it isn't because I've been trying to pep up my love life, or that my pony has died. Now, I hate porridge but my family doesn't, sadly the oats I have in plenty are the jumbo variety, and I'm told they don't make good porridge or rather when used in porridge the slime factor isn't uniform enough or something. I'm not eating it, can't say. So what to do? Flapjacks is the only answer.

I use a roasting tin, lined with baking parchment. It measures 8x12" (20x30cm). So, adjust the quantities according to the size of your tin. Or use a tin the same size as mine.

What is baking parchment? It's greaseproof paper's baby brother, probably the result of space technology, like teflon. It is non-stick. If you haven't got any, grease the tin very well, or use the old stalwart, greaseproof paper, which you should also grease. What's the point of that? It makes the tin easier to clean, and helps you get the flapjacks out of the tin more easily as well.

Flapjack recipe

200g butter or marg
100g soft brown sugar
200g golden syrup
500g jumbo oats

Set your oven to Gas Mark 5

Line your baking tin with baking parchment.

• Gently melt the butter/marg in a saucepan, until it has melted. Add the sugar and golden syrup, keeping the heat low, stirring all the time.
• If you let it bubble it may start to crystallise, which you don't want.
• Once everything in the pan is melted and mixed up nicely stir in the oats, until the liquid coats the oats evenly. Stir the oat mixture up well, so that the oats soak up the liquid.
• put the sticky oat mixture into the tin, spreading it evenly to the edges and tamping it down.
• Cook for 20-30 minutes, until the surface of the mixture is slightly golden.
• Take out of the over and allow to cool.
• When flapjacks are tepid, cut into squares, using a sharp knife. If you cut from the outside edge into the middle, it'll be a cleaner cut.

Don't eat too much at once, becuase you might get tummy ache. Or, live dangerously, and eat it all at once. Or as much as you like. It's your life, your stomach. They're pretty good flapjacks.

If you fancy it you can add nuts and/or dried fruit. Up to 150g in weight should do it.

salad dressing

There is only one salad dressing. Well, there may be other dressings, but this is THE ONE to remember. It's the Long Family salad dressing. It's more than Elizabeth David could manage, to write this down. Her likely source book, by the marvellous Jean-Noel Escudier, doesn't list it.

What's it good for then? Well it's good for everything. It's great with any green salad. Other favourites of mine are sliced tomatoes, any lightly cooked veg, and pain bagnat.

So, everyone should have a pestle and mortar. Wooden. Hardwood is best. However, research tells me that they don't. So I'm giving two methods to make the dressing. Oh, and Jamie Oliver sells a strange thing with a ball in it - you could use that too, just make sure you mix the first batch of the ingredients before adding the olive oil. It does make a difference.

1 clove garlic (peeled)
salt (preferably maldon) hearty pinch
pepper several good grindings
1 tbsp red wine vinegar

3 to 4 tbsp best olive oil

with pestle and mortar
pound the garlic, pepper and salt together to make a fine puree, don't stint, really mash it up
add the vinegar
mix to a uniform paste
add olive oil and mix well

without pestle and mortar

finely chop the garlic (as small as you can, crushing it with the side of a knife first will release the delicious juices,and help get the skin off)


mix chopped garlic, pepper and salt together

add the vinegar
mix well
add olive oil and stir
use to dress your salad, shortly before eating it

If you don't like the smell of garlic on your fingers there are some gizmos to help reduce contact with the garlic, but don't buy ready peeled garlic - the fresher the better. Still garlic is good for you, whether cooked or raw, but in the battle with cholesterol raw is best. 

tips

you can make a larger batch and keep it in the fridge for around a week - remember, the longer it keeps, the stronger the garlic flavour, so you might want to use slightly less garlic

you can use this as a marinade, but then halve the quantity of oil

My friend Alex makes the dressing with balsamic, which is nice but sweeter. Kitty has taken to this, and waits until everyone has eaten their fill, then adds balsamic to my dressing and eats straight from the bowl, which is slightly embarassing.

I like to dress green salad just before serving it. If you put the dressing on and let the leaves sit they don't look the same.

don't
Use dressing as a suntan oil, as an old flatmate used to, well it was lemon and olive oil, she explained that you can't have too many freckles. I have no idea how her skin has fared because we've lost touch.

An easy supper: Cabbage and bacon

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a great meal. In this case that’s as long as you have a good head of cabbage. If you’re veggie, leave out the bacon, add more onion and some red pepper, for colour.

As a kid I was forced to try dishes, including those that I might have rejected in previous samplings. I never came around to tripe or sauerkraut, but hunger, sibling rivalry and the prospect of supper for breakfast meant I managed to choke most things down. This is one I got to love and is so good it also conquered daughter number two without the extreme measures I was subject to. In fact my wasted sensitivity earned me the reproach ‘why didn’t you tell me about this?’

So, let’s debate which type of cabbage to use. This recipe can be made with pretty much any cabbage, but I like Savoy cabbage best. It’s beautiful, with intricate lace-like veining, brain-like bumpiness and it’s leaves range from rich green to sunny yellow at the heart. It tastes great and, by the way it’s also the best cabbage to use if you want to make stuffed cabbage.

So, other than a good head of cabbage, to serve four hungry people you’ll need an onion, a packet of bacon, a knob of butter, a healthy pinch of salt (adjust the pinch if you’re using salted bacon) and some vigorous grindings of black pepper.

Cabbage and bacon Serves 4

What you need

* 1 cabbage
* 1 onion
* 1 packet bacon
* Knob of butter
* Pepper
* Salt

How you do it

1. Remove the core and any damaged outer leaves of the cabbage
2. Slice up the cabbage and leave to rinse in a bowl of cold water
3. Chop up the bacon
4. Put pan onto low heat, add chopped bacon and knob of butter
5. Peel the onion and chop up roughly, then add chopped onion to cook with the bacon, stirring occasionally
6. After about five minutes, or once the onion becomes soft, add the wet cabbage. Don’t shake off the water, that’s all the water needed to cook the cabbage
7. Add pinch of salt and black pepper
8. Cover with pan lid and cook for around 15 minutes, or until the cabbage is soft, and most of the water has cooked off. The cabbage should still be a good colour green.

Eat straight away, on its own, or top it with an egg or some cheese to make a substantial meal

Word of warning: keep the heat low, or you may end up with burnt cabbage

Any leftovers are great mixed with potato and fried up to make bubble and squeak, or as a tasty topping for shepherd’s pie, veggie or meat.