Chocolate Cake

The Best Chocolate Cake Ever

I have tried so many chocolate cake

recipes over the years.

All have been eaten and thoroughly enjoyed

but I never felt as if anyone of them

quite 'hit the spot'.

I think I may have finally

happened across the best one yet,

but I don't honestly think my quest for the

ultimate chocolate cake will ever stop.

It's too much fun tasting the results.

This recipe is pretty much perfect

but do give it a go and tell me what you  think.

I discovered it in a Mary Berry recipe book.

I found it very simple to make and the

kids enjoyed cleaning the

bowl and spoon afterwards.

Win-win I guess.

You will need :

for the cake -

125g butter

200g plain dark chocolate, broken into pieces

2tbsp water

3 eggs separated

126g caster sugar

90g self raising flour

60g ground almonds

for the fudge icing -

60g butter

30g cocoa powder

3tbsp milk

250g icing sugar, sifted

1. Lightly butter and line 2 x 20cm

sandwich cake tins with baking parchment.

Pre heat the oven to 180c

160c fan

Gas mark 4

2. Put the broken pieces of chocolate

( minus the piece you have to

taste test of course )

into a heatproof bowl

along with the butter and water.

Put the bowl over a pan of water

and heat gently until the contents of the

bowl have melted.

Stir to mix well and set aside to cool.

3.  Combine the egg yolks with the sugar

into a mixer and blend until fluffy and pale.

You can use  an electric whisk for this

too.

4. Stir in the now cooled chocolate mixture

and then gently fold in the flour

and ground almonds

until all combined thoroughly.

5. In a separate bowl,

whisk the egg whites until they

are firm but not very stiff.

They will feel firm enough to hold the

bowl above your head,

if you are brave enough to try it.

Fold the whisked whites into the

cake mixture until fully combined.

6. Pour the mixture into the lined

cake tins and bake in the oven

for 25 minutes,

or until a skewer comes out clean

from the cake.

7. Leave on a cooling rack for about

10 minutes to cool in the tin.

Then turn the cakes out onto the rack and

leave to cool completely.

8. Whilst the cakes are cooling you can

crack on with the fudge icing.

Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat.

Stir in the cocoa powder and stir for

approximately 1 minute.

Remove from the heat and slowly

add the milk until combined.

The mixture will thicken with the milk

so be careful it does not become too thick.

If this should happen add a little more

milk until you have a thick cream consistency.

9. Now gradually add the sifted icing sugar

to the ganache mixture.

There is a chance that the mix becomes

a big lump of dry ingredients here.

Should the worst happen don't panic.

Just put everything into your mixer

and starting on a slow speed

allow the mixer to blend

 it all together for you.

I added a wee bit more milk here until

it resembled a smooth whipped cream

consistency.

Set aside to cool and firm up

or you could leave it in the fridge

for a short time which speeds up the

process.

As you've probably guessed,

I had this experience myself when I first

made this recipe.

10. Once firm enough,

assemble the cake by putting a

dollop of fudge icing onto the

cake plate to hold the bottom sponge

in place.

I used two generous table spoons

of the fudge icing into sandwich

the cakes together but you could

more or less.

Just remember the more filling you

put in the middle could mean

you don't have sufficient to cover the cake.

Cover the cake with the remaining

fudge icing and decorate.

I hope you enjoy this delicious recipe.

It will definitely be a firm favourite in

the Busy Bee house

from now on.

On a slightly different note,

BAKE OFF IS BACK.

I am a very happy
Busy Bee.

The anticipation of getting to see
all the new contestants
this year and watch
their journey through the baking
challenges from Mary and Paul
is such a rush.
We are all such huge fans here
at home.

I hope you all enjoy the series too.

Until next time,

enjoy your day.

Bernice

x

Summertime Shawl

Summertime Shawl

We finally finished our garden renovations

earlier in the Summer and have
managed to enjoy

a few pleasant evenings
sitting in the warmth
of the evening sunshine.

Watching the flowers and plants start to settle

into their new home,

and the bees and butterflies

popping in for a visit has been
quite heart warming.

The children have loved having a new

space to play in as well.

The garden has become quite
a sanctuary for us all
over the Summer holidays.

We bought a garden table and chairs

and it has been so nice to sit out there

with a cuppa

and enjoy being out in the fresh air.

There have been one or two nights

where I wasn't cold

but felt as though I wanted

something over my shoulders,

and so I thought it was the perfect

opportunity to try out 

the shawl pattern I recently spotted

over on

Cherry Heart's blog.

It's a lovely pattern and very clearly written.

Sandra has included some

helpful links on the pattern for any

unusual stitches and You Tube

is always an excellent point of reference

too.

I did worry that I was being a little

over ambitious

with my choice of pattern,

as I still consider myself a beginner

with my crochet.

I have to say it was not too tricky at all

and I was quite chuffed with the finished result.

I used a slightly different yarn to the one

suggested in the pattern.

I chose Heritage Silk by Cascade Yarns.
It's a 4 ply yarn, 85% Merino and 15% silk blend

which gave a lovely weight to the finished piece

and the stitches have a clear definition.

I love the colour too.
It's Storm Blue shade 5675.

As you can see,

I have had a certain little chap help model

it for me.

He likes to wrap up in it too.

Until next time,

enjoy your day.

Bernice

x