Not completely lost...

I just had to take a small break to set up another blog, build a website for a friend and the thousand and one other things that had backed up. In good news there is going to be more to explore now with the addition of the second blog: fumblingfrenchchef.blogspot.com If you pop over there you can see lots of lovely French food and learn how to choose your kitchen knives. Over time it will help you understand the equipment you use, what it does, why we use the ingredients we do, How to choose the best ingredients and to show you the techniques that you will need to cook anything you want to.

When you add the liquid to this mix, at the end, it's worth taking off the splash guard and replacing it with a cloth.  You need to keep the cloth loose and high so it doesn't get eaten by the whisk as it turns.  It will, however, stop your entire kitchen being washed in a thing coating of coffee and cake mix.  

Meanwhile, and getting back to this blog, a friend of mine, the lovely Andi, has started a website to raise money for charity selling the beautiful jewellery and charms that she makes and donating the profits to a different charity each month.  I know how beautiful they are, and how well made, because I bought some recently.  An amazing pendant and some charms for myself and a pendant and some earrings for a friends birthday.

Grease or spread with release up the sides as well as on the base so your parchment sticks all over and doesn't end up in the cake batter where you will struggle to get it all out.  

If you'd like to buy something or just want to donate to the charity of the month you can find her at JazzAndiGems.com  It was for Andi that I built the website, with the help of CoffeeCup software and hosting  Not only do they offer free hosting and templates that you can adjust to suit your own needs, but they also offer free editing software and if you're getting into it all a bit deeper they have an amazing amount of CSS, HTML and other website building software.  Their editors for Windows and OSX are worth their weight in gold!

Make sure you pour roughly even amounts into the two baking tins, if one or other is much larger it will be harder to put the whole thing together as a layer cake, and they will take very different cooking times, too.

Food! That's why you're really here, isn't it? That's also why I got a phone call from a dear friend asking if I could "just do a little sponge cake for her mother in law's birthday. She wasn't sure what sort and hubby was shouting behind her so I got her to hand him the phone. What we settled on was a rich, moist Devil's food cake with peanut butter frosting.

Even when covered with a cloth and the splash guard icing sugar + anything = MESS! 

And if you're already dribbling into your keyboard, you're going to love this recipe!

Frosting time!

This cake is pure Americana at its very best. It's a recipe from the lovely Holly's blog, Phemomenon, where she broke it down into cup cakes - equally amazing! The very original can be found in the Sweet Melissa Baking Book.  

One the frosting is pale and smooth it's time to add the peanut butter.  Don't get smart at this point - you really *don't* want to use crunchy.  I know it's tempting.  It's tempting right up until the moment you go "I'll just pipe a border round the bottom to make it look nice".  Don't do it.  I've don't it, you don't have it.  

Using sour cream and bicarbonate of soda to raise the cake results in something incredible - a cake batter that shoots up in the tin then gradually collapses back into the tin under its own weight. This means it's almost impossible to get that toothpick to come out clean, and in fact you don't even want to try that. My rule is to have no more than 1cm of stickiness on there and no liquid. 

Make sure you beat that frosting as fast as you can - you need to get lots of air in there to make it light and fluffy.

It also gets a crusty top layer, so it's not going to bounce back for you, either. This cake is one of experience, trial and error. Once you've made it right you'll know what to look for next time. You'll also never buy another packet mix again.

This is not a dark frosting, it's pale and smooth and fluffy to go with the heaviness of the sponge.

Two lots of dark chocolate, one of them Belgian, ensure that this is not sweet or sickly. It has an intense flavour, from the sticky fudge bottom through the sponge middle of each layer and into the crispy crust.  

There's a good reason why Mr AB calls it the Messy Bakery!

The frosting is light, fluffy, smooth and buttery with a gentle taste of peanut butter that compliments rather than smothers the cake. With only a pound of icing sugar to the pound and a half of butter and a cup and a half of PB this is not sugary or cloying, either.

The crust has suck down, the gooey bottom is clinging to the paper, and the thin layer of sponge in between is still rich and beautiful  Not the pretties of cakes at this point, but just about the tastiest I've ever made!

All in all it is a very grown up cake that children will also adore. I have made this cake very successfully as cup cakes and topped them with my own Fluff based frosting, which went down very well with grown ups as much as the pink obsessed little girl they were made for! A few pearls on the strawberry pink frosting and some sparkly flowers and princess bits from my Cricut gave her a lovely treat for her birthday. Not to mention earning me a lot of asks for the recipes!

If you get your top well covered and levelled first it gives you a rough height guide before you start slapping the frosting on the sides.  Take the frosting down, not up.  You want to smooth it down and round and then sweep off the excess.  It's much easier than the alternative!

One tip with this - whether cupcakes or tins - Do not fill more than one third. Because it rises so dramatically it can easily overflow and leave you with a cake crusted oven and empty cake cases. Trust me on this - I was the one steam cleaning my oven at one in the morning, fuming as I did so.

Don't skimp on the frosting, not between the cakes and not over the cakes.  Make it good and thick, so if you are brave enough to use your fingers they sent into oodles of gooey stickiness at the same time as you bite into the moist sponge

Oh, and as you can see, I wrap the bowl of the mixer when I add certain ingredients, the photos kind of say it all on that point!  

Smooth the cake over as best you can - depending on how hot your kitchen is you might be able to do a thin crumb coat to smooth and then put your cake in the fridge for a few hours to set it so you can achieve a perfect finish.  But if you're short of time, the kitchen is hot, the day is sweltering, etc. then quite honestly you're better of saving your energy and just aiming for achievable rather than perfect.  

I don't use canola/rape or vegetable oil, I stick to sunflower as being lighter than olive oil and a better oil than the alternatives suggested.  

Sprayed gold and ready for chocolate rolls and gold balls to be applied.
Don't worry about the finish, you never will get this one perfect.  

It's worth getting really good chocolate for this one, 70% or more solids.  It does make a difference.

Time to transfer the cake using my heavyweight Nordic cake lifter.
Do not underestimate the weight or stickiness of this cake!

The cocoa I use for this is Bourneville, by Cadburys, as it is also a dark chocolate.  Some cocoas add sugar to the mix or milk powders and such.  This is just powdered chocolate.  

Candles on and ready to go!

Having a bean to cup machine I use an Americano - 2 shots of espresso made up to a long coffee with water.  I got a bit fed up with measuring it out in cups, so I calculated the amount by emptying the cups into my jug.  It works out at about 333.33 ml, so that's what I use.  

Golden buttercream from doing a quick retouch

For the English, confectioners sugar is icing sugar, and all-purpose flour is just plain flour.   

And not just the cake was sprayed!  Thank goodness this washes off of marble.

I didn't use the milk - which made the cats happy - mostly because the mix was already soft and sloppy.  It didn't need the extra!  Perhaps in Winter I'd use it, but right now the kitchen is warm enough to melt this frosting, so I skipped it.  

My reward to myself when all was finished!

Devil’s Food Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting  (Printable Version)

For the Cake:
6 oz best-quality unsweetened chocolate, coarsely shopped
2/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 2/3 cup sugar
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup best-quality unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp kosher salt
2/3 cup sour cream
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cups hot strong brewed coffee (I just used hot water) 

For the Peanut Butter Frosting:

1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 ½ pounds unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 Tbsp whole milk
1-1½ cup smooth peanut butter, at room temperature

Position a rack in the center of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour two 9×2-inch round cake pans, Line each pan with a 9-inch round of parchment paper.

To Make the Cake

2. In the bowl, of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix well.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream and eggs until smooth.

4. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, and mix until combined. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the melted chocolate mixture and mix until combined. add the hot coffee (or water) in a stream, and mix until combined. (Again, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.) The batter will be loose.

5. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool in the pans for 25 minutes before turning out the layers onto the rack. Cool completely before finishing.

The baked layers may be stored tightly wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature for 2 days. For longer storage, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze wrapped in plastic wrap and them aluminum foil for up to 2 weeks. Do not unwrap before thawing.

To Make the Frosting

2. Add the peanut butter and mix until combined. Use the frosting immediately, if possible. It may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature overnight, or in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Let the frosting come to room temperature and briefly rebeat it in the mixer before using.

A Parcel From Japan!

If you're one of those readers who's put off by lots of exclamation marks I apologise, the following blog is crammed full of them.  Had you been in the room when the following occurred you would have seen them pouring off me as I exclaimed and squealed and squeaked my way through the events with unalloyed delight.  I can only suggest that you try not to take too much offence at my excessive punctuation and try to join me in my enthusiasm.

One of the best feelings in the world is getting a gift in the post!  Even better when you've ordered something special from a friend who has gone to all the trouble of wrapping it beautifully, putting it inside useful boxes and bags, tucking in little treats and special gifts for you, too!

My wonderful friend, Noriko, has an eBay shop that she uses to offer the delights of Japanese cuisine to those of us in the UK, and in America, too.  I promise I'll put her details at the bottom of the blog, so you can order from her as well.

I had seen her advertising Sakura essence on eBay and was cheeky enough to ask if she would mind getting a few other bits for me.  Being the lovely lady that she is, of course she immediately offered me both her list of Sakura products and an invitation to see her list of Yuzu products, too!  (Yes, I have already sent her another order for her lovely Yuzu juices and peels.)

I had been hunting for Sakura essence after reading blogs by Chika at She Who Eats and Heather Baird's lovely Sprinkle Bakes blog and realising for the first time that I had a Japan shaped hole in my repertoire!




Noriko's lovely package was whisked up to me while I was napping after a few very fraught days full of stress and sleeplessness.  I couldn't help but think the package simply seemed to behave like a bag.  There was no other way of putting it.  There was a flat bottom, smooth sides, and it just seemed to say "stand me up, please!  So I did.

Biscuit, my baby British Blue, decided that of course I was going to need help with opening the packaging and doing the photographing, so before I could do anything much at all she came along to help me...

It really did take all my self control to stop from opening the package up there and then!  

The first thing I found inside the package was a lovely Cherry Blossom pink and coffee coloured cool bag, just the right size for a lunch or a couple of tiny purchases when I'm out shopping and buy something that needs to be kept cold.  What a delightful extra that I hadn't expected!  So very thoughtful of Noriko.  Then I opened the bag.

  

Oh wow!  What an amazing and useful little box!  Perfect for some of my baking bits, re-usable and wonderfully thoughtful.  Again!  I couldn't believe just how sweet Noriko was to do all this for me.  She had already given me wonderful prices on the delights that I had ordered from her, and now all this generosity with the wrappings as well.  I was speechless.  But there was more...

Inside the lovely little box was a note, thanking me for my order and wrapping a gift in a pretty pink and purple bag for me!  A gift on top of all this.  I cannot ever get over how amazingly generous and wonderful Japanese people are when you place an order with them; but Noriko had gone above and beyond, she really had.  This was like Christmas and birthdays all rolled into one.  Everything in the box had been wrapped carefully in bubble wrap and high impact polystyrene sheet to protect it, and there were little Milky sweets popped into the tiny gaps, too.  I felt incredibly spoiled.

My order had, of course, survived immaculately and I eagerly unwrapped each piece.  Noriko had sent me a pack of pickled Sakura leaves, a block of sweet beans and jelly with Sakura flowers and leaves mixed into it, a precious bottle of Sakura essence, a jar of pickled Sakura blossoms, a sachet of powdered Sakura leaf and the Sakura flavour granules that you mix with rice to make Sakura Mochi.  I was in Wagashi heaven!

This, for me, was the highlight of the package.  A tiny bottle of pure essence of cherry blossom.  

I quickly tore off the plastic cover and opened the bottle.  Take everything you imagined cherry blossom could taste or smell like, and throw it away, it's wrong.  Although light and floral this smells and tastes nothing like you would expect.  I really cannot describe it as I have no reference in Western cuisine to compare it to, you can only try it for yourself.  I had read the leaves were where most of the taste was to be found, and that the flowers were very light, but this stuff is amazing!

And a gift, too.  Lovely Matcha au laite sticks and four tiny Milky sweets. Yes, I know there's only three there.  I did say I was impatient!  They were also delicious, even if it was my breakfast.


Now there's only one thing left to do - make something with it!  Watch this space for more about my lovely parcels from Japan and the delicious things I'm going to be making with them.

If you'd like to buy from Noriko, you can find her shop on eBay here: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/ednoriko2012/&_trksid=p3984.m1435.l2754

Or you can email her direct at no.edahiro@gmail.com

Feel free to ask about any Japanese product, and she will give you her very best price - but I cannot promise she will be as generous in her packaging to you as she is to me!  She is, after all, a very special friend of mine.

To Noriko - thank you!  Domo arigato!  Your generosity is very much appreciated.