Oh crumbs, it's been months since my last blog post! When I first started A Cup of Tea Solves Everything, I promised myself that I would do at least one post a month. No doubt you’ve all been crying into your pillows with every passing day, wondering what’s happened. What can I say, I've let us all down; I can only apologise, but for what it's worth, I have genuinely been kind of busy. You see...
I got
married!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's right, I am very happy to report that I am now
officially Mrs Rana Darbyshire, (although I also answer to Lady Darbyshire
should you so prefer). I got engaged shortly after my last post and, as you
might imagine, life since then got somewhat bonkers, especially as we gave
ourselves all of only four months to arrange our wedding.
I realise I’ve been somewhat remiss in not mentioning the
ever so lovely and wonderful Dr D to you before, but whilst I am happy to share
much of my life with you, dear reader, there are some aspects of it that I’ve
always been rather circumspect about. I can only hope that the steady(ish) stream
of cakeage up until now will prove enough for you to forgive me. Now that we’re
married though, I think we can take it as a given that you’ll be hearing more
about the good Doctor (PhD. Physics before anyone decides to start emailing
me their ailments) in due course! For now, suffice to say, he’s everything I’ve
ever hoped for and more.
Moving swiftly on before I make anyone too nauseous, husband
included(!), I can’t say I pushed myself particularly hard in terms of baking
skills for my first post-wedding blog bake, but there is a fitting reason that
I chose to make this particular cake.
You see, our wedding cake was a beautiful rustic
- or ‘naked’ - chocolate orange (what else?) mud cake, filled with ganache and decorated with fresh berries, flowers and a light dusting of
icing sugar. In case you’re wondering, a naked cake is a wedding cake that
isn’t covered with icing, so you get to see the sponge and filling in all its
glory and don’t have to faff around with peeling off sickly-sweet fondant icing
that anyone above the age of about 10 seems to loathe before you get to dig in.
Simple, elegant and yummy in one’s tummy!
So this first post, albeit not a mud cake, is a tribute to
our glorious wedding cake. It’s ridiculously simple to make and seriously
delicious when filled and topped with a ganache and studded with some hidden
nuggets of chocolate in the midst of the loaf. Even yummier in one’s belleh
if the sophistication is taken down a notch and you opt to drown a doorstep-sized
wodge of it in a huge puddle of custard! Mmm, custard…!
Adapted from Jo’s Blue Aga’s Very Squidgy Moist Chocolate Loaf
For the cake:
- 175g softened butter or Stork (I used Stork)
- 175g soft light brown sugar
- 75g cocoa powder
- 150ml just-boiled water
- 200g self-raising flour
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 4 large eggs
- 250g plain chocolate (40-50% cocoa), chopped into chunks
- Zest of an orange
For the ganache:
- 150ml double cream
- 150g plain chocolate (40-50% cocoa)
- 30g unsalted butter, at room temperature and cubed into roughly 2cm blocks
- Zest of an orange
Pre-heat oven to
180C (fan oven) and grease and line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper. I used a
2lb tin (21 x 8cm if you need dimensions), which was just about big enough for
the sponge but the cake did come out somewhat over-sized and lop-sided as a result
of me overfilling the tin, so I would recommend lining a muffin tray with a few
cases in addition to preparing your loaf tin. That way, rather than pouring all
the batter into the tin, you can save about a quarter of it and bake a few
muffins on the side.
Place the
butter or Stork, sugar, cocoa and water into a large saucepan. Heat gently
until the butter has melted, the sugar has all dissolved and your ingredients
have combined, stirring as you go. Once everything is a glossy liquid, take it
off the heat, stir in 100g of the chocolate chunks (which will melt in the heat
of the molten gloop) and allow to cool, for at least 10 minutes.
Sift the flour
and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the
eggs lightly, then pour the chocolate liquid from your saucepan and the eggs into the flour all in
one go. Beat together with a wooden spoon or a spatula until smooth. Now add in
the remaining 150g of chocolate chunks and the orange zest and mix through the
batter.
Pour about three
quarters of the cake mix into the prepared tin, using the rest in your
muffin cases. Bake the loaf for 10 minutes at 180C, then reduce the temperature
to 140C and bake for another hour or until a knife inserted into the cake comes
out clean. As the baking time for the muffins will be very different, I would
bake these separate to the loaf cake (about 25 minutes on 160C fan should be
enough, or again, until a skewer or knife comes away clean when inserted into
the centre of the muffins).
Leave the cake
to cool completely.
For the ganache,
break the chocolate into small pieces into a bowl and add the cubes of butter. Heat the
cream in a small saucepan on a gentle heat until it starts to bubble around the
edges. At this point, take it off the heat and pour it straight over the broken
chocolate. Leave to stand for 30 seconds, then beat with a spatula or wooden
spoon until the chocolate has all melted and you have a shiny liquid ganache.
Add the orange zest and stir through, then leave to cool and thicken slightly.
Once the cake
has cooled, slice it in half and spread half the ganache over the top of the base layer.
Sandwich by placing the top layer back on top, then spread the remaining
ganache over the top of the cake.
