HOW TO MAKE A KING CHOCOLATE CAKE - EASY!

Now the origins of this cake start with my Maths skills. Which are pretty much zero.  I have a Maths teacher who likes chocolate - a lot. He made us a chocolate cake on the last day of the school year last year as a promise he had made for the whole year. It was a packet mix, so I promised myself that if I achieved my C at GCSE early and therefore got to drop Maths for Year 11 I would bake him a completely homemade chocolate cake as a thanks for being such a great teacher. This is the recipe for a super rich/easy/relatively cheap chocolate cake that is better and quicker than popping to the supermarket! (Picture below). Enjoy!


In full glory! x

 To make the cake, my basic chocolate cake:
1. Cream 6oz/160g of softened butter with 6oz of caster sugar until pale and creamy. Gradually add 3 lightly beaten eggs and beat in.
2. Stir in gently 5oz of self raising flour and an ounce of sifted cocoa.
3. Put into one round medium cake tin and cook at 160 degrees fan oven/ 180 normal oven for 45 mins. It is done when it has come away from the sides and stopped sizzling. Put on a rack and leave to cool ...

Meanwhile, while the cake is in the oven, get cracking on the buttercream!
1.  To make the icing:
Beat 600g sifted icing sugar with 200g softened butter until soft, creamy and combined. Mix in 80g cocoa powder until combined. Add 6 tablespoons of milk a little at a time and beat until fluffy, light and creamy and resembling buttercream.
Now: divide the buttercream into two in separate bowls, one bowl having about 3/4 of the mix, one bowl 1/4. The one with 3/4 in add  a little more milk and a little hot water from the kettle until it has a less stiff more slightly shiny liquid consistency like you can see in the picture on the base of the cake but still spreadable. Cut your cake in half very carefully, then spread this adapted buttercream on top of one half, placing the other half on top. Then ice the top of the second half so that there is this shiny icing in the middle and on top. Put the other bowl of original unadapted buttercream in a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe a ring of stars around the edge of the icing top. Decorate the top with any kind of edible and chocolate decor, I use dark, milk and white choco balls I found in a supermarket on holiday. Enjoy immensely or dedicate to a Maths teacher like I did :( (or make two and do both) :) xxx

KITCHEN SONG OF THE DAY: PIAZZA NEW YORK CATCHER, BELLE AND SEBASTIAN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7wSBqOIJBo

BASIC FRUIT CAKE - GET IT DOWN!!

Alright, so if you want to cast a general hand around and say, "yeah, I can do cakes!", in my book, you definitely need to have the Magic 5 nailed down: a rich chocolate cake, the humble lemon drizzle, light and airy Victoria sponge, creamy cheesecake and the stalwart fruitcake. Carrot cake, layer cake, sachertorte, battenburg, pound cake, parkins and brownies - they can wait until later my friend. The fruit cake is one of the most overlooked legendary cakes of all time. Kids rush over to grab the bright green delights of buttercream clouds and decorous french fancies, all the while leaving the uncompromising figure of the fruit cake sitting like a stocky headmistress in the corner. And yep, I'm having my midlife crisis moan around 34 years too early. But just trust me - you need this one in your locker to be a certified cake maker. A proper serious one anyway ....

Grease and line a loose bottomed cake tin. Melt 110g/4oz butter on a low heat. Add 1 American cup or 180g soft dark brown sugar and 1 American cup of water 240ml (if you have a Tala measure or a measuring cylinder, just do this part in American cups). Then add 8oz/225g sultanas, 4oz/115g currants and 4oz raisins. Chuck in 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda, 1 tsp mixed spice and simmer for 5 minutes. It'll look like this.

Take off the heat and add 2 American cups/200g self raising flour and add 2 large beaten eggs. Stir it, so it's all combined and put it in the tin. Bake for 75 minutes at 180 degrees or 160 fan until when you skewer the top of the cake, it comes out clean. Take out of oven and leave in tin until cooked. Turn out and enjoy.

KITCHEN SONG OF THE DAY:Video killed the Radio Star, the Buggles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs