The bit that wasn’t ‘ate’
The cake originally had the word ‘chocolate’ but as you can see, half of it has been eaten! The word was done by putting covered alphabet cutters on the sponge cake and then sprinkling over icing sugar. You need to lift off the cutters very carefully…
More is more, so you need chocolate sauce on top. This is made by simply melting a bar of good dark choc, a little golden syrup and a knob of butter in the microwave.
Chocolate heaven
What is it about this photo that attracted over 6,000 people to pass it on? My suggestion is connected with the two overlapped teaspoons at the bottom.
The picture says: ‘a few small chocolate brownies - one scoop of ice cream and a little pot of chocolate sauce’. And then…… ‘this is for sharing’. It’s not a huge piece of cake to gobble down in secret (because after all everyone associates chocolate with guilt). It’s one portion, in a restaurant, shared between two.
When I look at this I can almost taste the soft, gooey, crunchy top brownie, the intense vanilla in the ice cream and the hot, dark chocolate sauce.
Thinking about Chocolate
Some thoughts are worth repeating. Here’s one I put out a while ago:
“There is nothing better than a good friend, unless it is a good friend with chocolate.”
Who do you think said this? No, it isn’t one of today’s celebrities, it’s Charles Dickens. If you google the words ‘chocolate’ and ‘quotes’ you will find some amusing thoughts. One I liked is this, from the American writer and poet Judith Viorst:
“Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces.”
Comedian Richard Herring is getting married in six weeks’ time. I wonder what his bride thinks of the comment he made to a British free newspaper:
‘Some people say chocolate is a substitute for sex. For me sex is a way to take my mind off chocolate.”
As everyone knows and none of us find it easy to admit, putting on weight comes from eating too much. My mother was big - she told herself she had ‘large bones’. I was fatter when I was young. I ate huge amounts of ..well, almost everything.
Now I cook a lot, never eat while I’m doing it, but I’m tempted to snack when I’m relaxing in the evenings. So here are a few thoughts which might make it easier to stay out of the kitchen:
1. Brush your teeth after dinner - you’ll be less likely to peek in the fridge for something to eat while you’re watching television
2. Bellringing. A friend who has taken up church bellringing says that the arm action and general exercise has helped her lose pounds
3. Be generous - give away cake, muffins or chocolates that you happen to have around
4. Read a book on a Kindle - you’ll be less likely to eat while you’re doing it because you can’t click to turn the pages if your hands are sticky with chocolate or cake crumbs.
Want an instant present?
Quicker then rushing out to the shops for a box of chocs or a bunch of flowers - these are chocolate apricots, made from store cupboard ingredients.
I’ve put this up before but it’s fun to do with children at weekends. (Click on the picture to find more ideas of games and experiments). All you need is chocolate and dried apricots. Melt the chocolate in the microwave for a couple of minutes, snip the fruit in half and dip each piece in. Then leave to cool and harden on a sheet of foil. Find a nice box or plate and give them to someone to enjoy. (Don’t start eating them yourself or there’ll be none left).
Cracked it!
For some while I’ve been experimenting with molten chocolate puddings: the warm round cakes that have a melting chocolate sauce inside. I’ve tried maybe a dozen recipes and even with careful timing it’s almost impossible to get the inside consistently soft, with the outside just cooked.
Now, by accident, I’ve found the answer: surround the cake with the sauce, instead of the other way round. You make a cake with a creamy filling and a jug of rich chocolate sauce. Keep them both in the fridge till an hour before the meal.
Then to transform these into individual puddings, cut the cool cake into squares and just before serving pour over a generous amount of the hot chocolate sauce.
The result is perfect. As well as being easy, there’s absolutely no last minute baking (or worrying).
To find the How-to, click on the picture and go to Today’s Recipe.
Chocolate drizzles
These decorations, made just from melted chocolate, are what you might expect to find in a Michelin-starred restaurant. In fact they’re dead easy to make.
You won’t find detailed recipes here, but if you want to know how to make these, click on the photo and it will take you to Today’s Recipe: want to cook?
Nearly all the dishes featured in this list are simple enough for a child to make. Certainly this one is. To find it, scroll down past about 17 other recipes and you will come to these brilliant chocolate spirals.
Sticking with it
“What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with that incompatibility.” Leo Tolstoy.
Infidelity used to be the main reason for married couples splitting up. Now it seems that the main cause is boredom - or in today’s words ‘growing apart’. Divorce statistics show that on average, marriages end after 11 years. And ‘romance’ - the warm glow that all couples experience at the beginning - disappears 2 years, 6 months and 25 days into the marriage!
(To buy the cake topper, above, please click on the picture.)
From the French bakery
The one on the left is called ‘escargot’ or ‘snail’. The others are brioches and on the right, pain au chocolat - what French children eat for breakfast.
Chocolate and cherries
Anyone can be a chocolate artist! Melt a few squares of plain dark chocolate in the microwave (less than a minute). Take a spoonful of the melted chocolate, hold it up above a cold plate and drizzle it in a pattern. It will harden quite quickly, but if you don’t like your design, simply put the plate back in the microwave and melt it again. Then try again on a clean plate.
For more fun ideas (specially if you are a child) please click on the photo.
Chocolate celebration cake
At the end of the 7 course menu, they brought a surprise: a chocolate delice with a biscuit base, chocolate ganache filling and dark chocolate glossy topping. I wanted to take it home, but they’d already lit the candle - and I don’t think they do ‘take-out’ at Alain Ducasse!
Want some salt and pepper with your chocolate?
Chef Tony Maws is producing unusual desserts at Craigie on Main, in Cambridge, Mass. He makes a parsnip ice cream and has now come up with Olive Oil Chocolate Mousse. The oil adds a dairy-free creaminess, but Maws warns us not to lose our nerve and suggests we use a strong, spicy oil, rather than something sweeter or more neutral.
I used a deeply flavoured oil from olives grown near Arezzo in Tuscany and the chocolate mousse had a slight peppery note to add to the richness of dark chocolate and brandy.
Click on the photo to go to Today’s Recipe.
5-minute chocolate cake
This is fast food with a difference; good chocolate mixed with 6 easy to find ingredients. Simply stir them up in a mug, microwave for 3 minutes and watch the cake rise dramatically above the rim. Magic and science - and it tastes good.
To find out how to make it, click on the picture.
