Honey Chocolate Cake

I needed to bake a birthday cake and in my revision madness, had seen the Honey Chocolate Cake in Nigella's Feast and had my heart set on it. Those who got to taste my cake commented on the honey flavour as this rarely comes out when heated, as I typed the recipe I wondered if perhaps the muscovado sugar helped bring out more sweetness. The recipe states light muscovado but I had dark so this would have produced a sweeter cake. One friend was reminded of golden syrup so this would certainly be the molasses taste of muscovado.

When the cake came out of the oven, the smell reminded me of the Magic Faraway Tree at the Land of Treats when there are toffee pops and all things nice. It was so welcoming and sweet, and being quite delicate (hence the instructions to cool completey) if you find a small piece that flakes off, eating it will only tempt you to take a big bite out of the delicious, warm cake. You must then steady yourself and remind yourself that you are baking this for someone special and you must not destroy it!

The whole cake takes time and although the glaze is beautifully glossy, I think it's also superb on its own so would quite happily just have a plain honey chocolate cake the next time.

Nigella's Honey Chocolate Cake
Cake
100g Dark chocolate, broken into pieces
275g Light muscovado sugar
225g Soft butter
125ml Runny honey
2 Eggs
200g Plain flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1 Tbl Cocoa
250ml Boiling Water

Glaze
60ml Water
125ml Runny honey
175g Dark chocolate (finely chopped)
75g Icing sugar

Bees
25g Marzipan - yellow if found and desired
Flaked almonds

1) Whilst melting the cake chocolate, have all ingredients out so that everything is at room temperature. Set aside the chocolate to cool slightly.
2) Preheat the oven to 180C and butter and line a 23cm springform cake tin.

Fast method:
3a) Put everything for the cake but the boiling water in a food processor, mix and scrape the batter down. Then slowly add the water down the funnel with the motor running. Go to step 7 below.

Take your time:
3b) Beat together the sugar and butter until airy and creamy, then add the honey.
4) Add 1 egg, beating it with a tablespoon of flour, then the other egg with another tablespoon of flour.
5) Fold in the melted chocolate, the rest of the flour and the bicarbonate of soda.
6) Add in the cocoa (pushed through a sift so there are no lumps) and finally, beat in the boiling water.
7) Mix everything well and pour the smooth batter into prepared tin.
8) Bake for an hour - after 45 mins, check and if the cake is "catching", cover the top lightly with foil.
9) Let the cake cool completely in the tin, on a rack.
10) For the glaze, bring the water and honey to boil in a saucepan and take off the heat.
11) Add the finely chopped chocolate and swirl it around to melt in the hot liquid.
12) Sieve in the icing sugar and whisk until smooth.
13) Cut four strips of baking paper to form a square outline for your cake to sit on. Place this on your plate or stand, this will prevent the glaze from running off your cake onto your plate.
14) Unclip the cake tin and sit the (cooled) cake on the plate, on the paper.
15) Pour the glaze over the cake and smooth it over the sides.*See note 1
16) Allow the glaze to harden - it can take an hour. Don't wash up, you want the leftover glaze.
17) Slide out the baking paper and you have a clean plate.
18) For the bees, divide the marzipan into 6 pieces and roll into fat bee bodies with a taper.
19) Push the flaked almonds into the marzipan bodies to form wings and dipping a skewer into the leftover glaze, decorate the bees.
20) Decorate your cake with the bees!

Notes:
1) Making the cake isn't hard, the glaze is the tricky part. Although I've given measures according to the recipe, *I found that I had too much glaze so don't be tempted to pour a whole lot over the cake. It is deceptively liquid and before you know it, the baking paper will have gathered a lovely pool of glaze. The glaze is also very tacky until it hardens so handle with care.
2) The marzipan quantity gives 6 bees... I wanted many more. Nigella references that smiley bees are Disney and loveable whereas just having 2 dots as the eyes is rather Napoleanic - I went Disney!
3) I haven't given an exact quantity for the flaked almonds. You know each bee has 2 wings but the almond flakes are delicate and some will inevitably break as you lovingly give your creatures wings.

Tagged with Honey Chocolate Cake Bees Honey

Random thoughts

Well I've done a bit of baking and cooking and will get around to blogging results. Today is just a collection of things on a food theme.

I got a really nice surprise when I opened my carton of eggs the other day... they had happy faces on them! I am one of those people who check that every egg is intact before purchase and as the faces all happened to be hidden, I didn't discover them until I got home. Probably a good thing as I let out a little squeak of shock when I picked up an egg and it smiled at me, and then squealed with delight when I realised that Sunny Queen Farms had stamped faces on all the eggs - better to do that in the privacy of your own home!

The M&M's publicists have obviously got their green marketing right as I've seen ads everywhere and I thought it was simply the addition of green coloured M&M's to the packs. But I was buying a packet of fundraising chocolates when I saw these mint M&M's! I also then saw big packets of these new green goodies at the shops. I don't know if they're some temporary novelty thing but they're good... a bit like having a mint Aero bar in M&M form?! I just can't have too many at the one time as it's a really sweet hit!


I felt the need to eat something healty and found Sumo Salad. This is the Smoked Salmon & Goat's Cheese salad - "Fillets of glorious Tasmanian salmon, double-smoked, tossed with fresh mixed leaves, and weaved through with the flavours of BBQ potatoes, fresh cucumber, red onion and goat’s cheese. Dressed in an inspired combination of lemon and dill mayonnaise... " Very fancy for a food court salad!

The goat's cheese was really fresh and tasty, the potato slices were unnecessary (undercooked, a bit like cardboard) but the question dear readers is, is it polite to request that your salad maker doesn't mush up your salmon (and everything else in the bowl) whilst breaking it into pieces? I held back so stood there watching him pummel my salmon with a pair of closed tongs, with an expression that could only suggest that he was wondering why a piece of fish was so hard to tear apart. Or maybe the action was in the set of instructions he was following on how to put together a salad.

Comedy

Sorry, no blogging for a while as I have an exam this week. Just one to keep up a professional qualification but on top of full time work and everything else, I'm plain tired!

If you're in Melbourne, get along to the Comedy Festival. I thoroughly recommend Daniel Kitson - and if you're not in Melbourne, maybe he will perform near you soon.

My friend likes Danny Bhoy because he's good looking... he's also very funny.