Catching up...

The problem is not that I had nothing to write, but that I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Now, I have so much catching up to do, it'll be a Readers Digest version of Christmas in the kitchen!

We did a lot of cooking this Christmas, some successful, others, not so much!

Daniel made the most delicious Italian Chocolate Spiced Cake. VERY rich, and therefore ideal as a pudding for a large group of guests. There was not enough of us to finish it, and so a lot of it went to waste.

When baking with the kids, especially a cake like this one, they get as much fun out of laying out the ingredients as they do from making it. It is advisable to lay them out, weigh everything and put it all in little plastic bowls. We line them up in the order in which Daniel needs them. Sounds a little.......Monica......... but it makes life very easy. 

Also, a freestanding mixer is very handy here. It is not essential, a hand mixer is fine, but I don't let the kids use the hand mixer, due to a paralysing fear that they will catch their fingers in the beaters!

This is an opportunity to teach the kids how to fold in ingredients. Use as big a metal spoon as you have. I bought a huge one recently and I don't know how I have managed without it!

Italian Chocolate Spiced Cake

The eggs and butter need to be room temperature for this recipe.

Ingredients are highlighted in green.

Preheat the oven to 180 c 

Butter the sides and line the base of a 23cm springform tin. I usually do this although Daniel can actually do it. 

Melt 150g dark chocolate (broken in pieces) and 150g soft butter in a heatproof bowl over barely simmering water or in a microwave. (Not being a fan of microwaves I usually use the old fashioned way, but Daniel knows how to use the microwave, so he did it this way. I think it took about 2 mins. He did it in 30 sec blasts to make sure he didn't burn it.

Leave aside to cool a little.

Beat 6 eggs, 250g Caster sugar, 1 tsp vanilla essence together until thick, pale and fluffy.  They should have more than doubled in size.

Fold in 100g ground almonds, 1 tsp cinnamon, zest of one orange, 1 tsp IREL (a coffee and chicory essence) you could use a tablespoon of fresh coffee instead or 1 tsp of espresso powder. You could adjust the flavouring here to your taste. Maybe almond essence instead or leave out the orange. Mixed spice is also nice, I would not be inclined to replace the orange with lemon however!

Fold very carefully with a large metal spoon taking care not to lose the volume.

Add the chocolate mixture, scrape every bit out of the bowl with a spatula (much to the horror of the kids, there should be nothing left to lick!) Fold in, again taking care to maintain volume. 

Pour into the tin, and bake for 35 mins. The cake should be firm, but the underneath will still be gooey.

This cake will collapse. That's ok, it's supposed to. It makes a very dense rich creamy cake. Serve with whipped cream (you can do an adult batch laced with Baileys or Cointreau or whatever your liquor of choice is! )

Then book yourself in to Weight Watchers!