Wednesday 28 August 2013

A Big Fat Chocolate Celebration Cake - Eid Mubarak!

One of my colleagues at work observed Ramadan last month, which is no mean feat given how greedy and opulent our company is when it comes to lunchtimes. Our office is based in the heart of Mayfair in London, so you can imagine the meals that get come into our kitchen daily - everything from Oysters to Sushi, Burgers to Chinese. Decadence, gluttony and not a packed lunch in sight.

I knew for somebody fasting that this would be a tough environment to be in, not to mention fasting during the hottest summer that we've had in London for 6 years. So, at the start of Ramadan, I asked my colleague what I could make him to help celebrate when Eid came around - this could be anything that he wanted - and his response was: Chocolate, Chocolate and more Chocolate! I like to keep my promises, so I set about making the most chocolatey cake that I could find, this Chocolate Fudge Cake by Nigella Lawson.





As my Mum always says, 'It's the thought that counts' and the cake decoration is a good example of this! I admit that it does leave a little to be desired, but I was going for 'Festive' in a hurry and I think the overall sentiment was achieved - I personally love my crazy cake!

So talking of the cake...It is fantastically easy to make, you pretty much chuck everything into a bowl, mix it up and bake it. It is HUGE with two tiers, fudgy and rich - a bit like an old school chocolate fudge cake, but not too sickly. 

If I were to make it again, I would do two things: 1 -Bake it for approximately ten minutes longer than the fifty minutes that Nigella suggests - it was delicious but just a little on the squidgy side, the recipe contains so much liquid that baking it for a few minutes longer shouldn't dry the cake out. Mine looked a tad underdone but this didn't affect the taste whatsoever; and 2: Slice each of the two sponges into half so you end up with four thinner sponges, and add some whipped cream or butter cream on two of the layers to break the chocolate-fest up a little bit! Alternatively, go really old school, pub grub style and serve with custard and/or a big dollop of vanilla ice cream.


Photobucket


I'm linking this post up to the fab baking event 'Cook Like A Star' which is hosted by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce of Kitchen Flavours and Anuja of Simple Baking. During each event they select a different chef - this month it's Nigella Lawson - and the idea is that we all link up together - via their blogs - with different recipes that we've made. For more info on the event, see here!


10 comments:

Zoe said...

Hi Louise,

You think your cake look crazy? Nah! What I can see is a happy delicious celebration cake exploring with colours!

Zoe

kitchen flavours said...

Hi Louise,
Your cake looks very pretty to me, perfect for any celebration! It looks very chocolaty and delicious, lucky friend!
Thank you for linking to CLAS!
Have a great week!

Em said...

Oh god , i dont know how id be able to cope working in mayfair...
i love how youve decorated the cake!
Well done on your friend for making it through ramadan!!
em x

Louise Loves Cake said...

Aw thanks Zoe! I love colour and sparkles - I'm not very good at minimalism :-)!

Louise Loves Cake said...

Thanks for hosting CLAS! You too have a fab week X

Louise Loves Cake said...

Hi Em! It's actually not too bad being in Mayfair as nearly everything is too expensive! I do have a Fortnum and Mason addiction though, its my favourite store ever! Loving your blog right now, the pictures and design are really stylish! Must give mine an overhaul, though I have no idea how xx

Unknown said...

Beautiful cake and i'm sure your colleague enjoyed every bite after his month of fasting.
Asmaa

Louise Loves Cake said...

Hey Asmaaa! How are you?
Thanks so much, you're so kind, he did really like it :-)X

Unknown said...

I'm well thank you for asking, my latest addition to the family is nearly 3months already can you believe?!
Slowly preparing myself to make the angel food cake recipe featured last week on great british bake off, as I type the cake tin is on its way to me by post yippeee I hope the cake will be worth the wait and £ spent....

Anonymous said...

Hello there,
We would like to add your blog to the Top Food Blog list in http://www.mytaste.com/ . Your blog is impressively BEAUTIFUL and it deserves to be included on the Top list!! Great recipes!! We will feature your blog and we will make a lot of shout out about your recipes on our fan pages so that people and our 3million users worldwide will be able to check it on our site.
Mytaste is a dual-function site, a recipe search engine and an online social networking service providing thousands of recipes collected and shared by people around the globe from different blogs and website. Some of the top food blogs receive at least 30,000 visits from us on a weekly basis.
Here’s the link where you can add your blog’s url and email http://www.mytaste.com/add-your-food-blog
This is something you can do to make your blog more visible and be exposed to a lot of foodies in United States and Canada and around the globe, this can help your blog page to get more visits/increase traffic.
EXPOSE YOUR BLOG!!!The World deserves to know how great a cook you are.
info@mytaste.com
Please be kind enough to reply to this message so we should know you have received it.

Post a Comment

 
Blog Templates by Delicious Design Studio