Bonus Post: Lil Ms Squirrel's Chocolate and Cherry Cookies - Food Blogger Cookie Swap

While I was on my mad blogging mission last year, I came across the Food Blogger Cookie Swap a day too late to participate.  In a nutshell, it's a postal 'Secret Santa' between food bloggers.  You bake three dozen cookies and send a dozen to three different people.  You get a dozen cookies from three different bloggers.  So unlike regular Secret Santa, you're never going to be disappointed with your gift.  Hopefully!

Ready for posting

So this year, I decided to take part but my new blog was too young at the final entry date so I had to enter via the 366 Recipe Challenge Blog instead.  I then used this as an excuse to try out several new cookie recipes, held a vote amongst my colleagues and the favourite biscuits were posted out to my (hopefully) lucky recipients.

In third place in the taste test were Dan Lepard's Ginger and Macadamia Cookies.  I had my heart set on using these for my exchange cookies, but there were mixed reviews from my co-workers.  Ginger is a bit of a Marmite flavour which divided opinion.  There was a complaint that they were too thin - they're chewy cookies so they spread a lot on cooking - and one person ate two together, thinking they were thicker than they were.  I then saved some of the dough to bake a few days later and managed to burn this batch so eventually decided not to risk attempting to bake thirty-six of them.

Freshly baked and drizzled

Second place went to another Dan Lepard recipe.  This time his Chilli and Almond biscuits.  I picked them because when people think biscuit, they generally think sweet and I wanted to be different.  You can read all about these over on my new blog 'How to Eat an Elephant'.

And the winning cookie?  Well originally, I was going to bake Nigella's Chocolate Mint Cookies as I liked the idea that they could be an alternative to After Eight's.  I had several half-used pots of chocolate chips in my cupboard so was merrily tipping them all into my bowl when I realised I'd mixed one of the half-empty pots with a load of left over dried cherries the week before when I'd been making my Chocolate and Cherry Bagels.  Luckily I'd not added the peppermint essence first.

As I had made all three batches of cookies on the one day, I'd also managed to run out of plain flour at this point so threw in a bit of pasta flour for good measure.  I think this made for a nice, soft cookie because when I made them with all plain flour for the actual Cookie Swap, they were a little crisper (although it might have been to do with me and my timings!)

Anyway, the cookies went down a storm at work in the taste test and when I took the leftovers from the ones I made for the swap in to work, there was a small scuffle as people rooted through the box seeking out the chocolate and cherry ones.

So here is the recipe, adapted Nigella's original recipe.


For the cookies

• 150 grams butter (soft)
• 225 grams light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 2 medium eggs
• 150 grams plain flour
• 75g 00 (pasta) flour
• 55 grams cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 200 gram dark chocolate chips (I use Waitrose ones)
• 100g dried sour cherries

To decorate

• 75g white chocolate, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas mark 4.  Lightly grease two baking trays with spray oil.
2. Cream the butter and sugar.  Beat the eggs together with the vanilla bean paste then combine with the butter and sugar.
3. Mix the flours, cocoa and baking powder in a bowl and gradually beat in to the creamed mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips and cherries.
4. Scoop out walnut sized balls of mixture and space evenly across the baking trays.  You will probably need to bake in two batches.
5. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes and then let them sit on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before  moving them to a cooling rack. 
6. Once cold, drizzle with the melted white chocolate.

And a massive thank you to Gill, Jen and Laura for the cookies they sent me!

Lil Ms Squirrel's Raspberry Margarita Polenta Cake

The theme for tonight's Clandestine Cake Club is "Sporty or Naughty" as a celebration of the forthcoming Olympics.  Having singularly failed to come up with a cake idea that is synonymous with Sport, I settled for Naughty, which basically means anything goes.

Ready for cake club

With time not being on my side, and a need to make something that I've never made before, I decided to go for a polenta cake, to further use some up some of the bag of polenta that's still languishing on my storage shelves.

The lovely Jacqueline from the Cake Boule blog recently wrote about a similar cake that was Mojito-inspired.  I loved this idea, but lacked the 7" cake tin to make it in.  I toyed with the idea of scaling it up to fit my eight inch tin but having read some theory on the Ruth from the Pink Whisk's website, I decided I didn't have the time or patience for that either (and her method required me to have a 7" tin to start with which kind of defeated the objective of the exercise for me).

A quick search turned up a similar recipe in Kitchen by Nigella Lawson.  The recipe is also available online which is really helpful.  And it uses a 9" springform tin which I have so there was no faffy adapting.

I then hit on the idea of using up some of the raspberry glut that my garden seems to be producing on a daily basis.  I know this makes my CCC offerings rather typecast - my last effort was an epic Raspberry and Lime Swiss Meringue Cake - but I figured that it would be a pretty twist to an otherwise flat, yellow cake.  Googling around for another recipe, I found this one from Jane Hornby on BBC Good Food.  I was intrigued by the idea of using frozen raspberries rather than fresh so I popped some in the freezer, mixing three quarters in with the batter and adding the rest ten minutes before the end of baking.  Given the often delicate nature of raspberries, it works really well.

The healthy/sporty factor was further increased by the lack of flour in the cake.  It's made with ground almonds and polenta so with the use of gluten free baking powder, it has some virtues.

My biggest baking problem is always time.  I never seem to have the time to savour the process.  It's something that's always squeezed in during Miss A's nap or before work (so at about 5am) or late at night just before bed time.  This often means I make mistakes or get a little stressed by missing ingredients.  The entire kitchen was turned upside down looking for the baking powder.  It's always to the right of the bunny biscuit jar.  But while I was away at the weekend, the husband took it upon himself to "tidy up".  I couldn't find it for love nor money so ended up making my own courtesy of this fabulous substitutes guide from Joy Of Baking.

Fresh from the oven

Everything was going smoothly.  I was thinking about the look and texture of the batter so I could comment on it for this post.  It had a lovely, sunny tinge yet was quite stiff and heavy.  Obviously from the almonds and polenta.  I popped it into the oven.  Started to tidy.  Found egg number three still sitting uncracked next to the bunny biscuit jar.  That serves me right for trying to bake without my egg-cracking assistant.  She would never have allowed such an oversight.

As for other adaptations, I replaced the one of the lemons with two limes and added 25ml of tequila and a pinch of sea salt to the syrup for the Naughty bit.  Just enough tequila to get a taste without putting you over the drink-drive limit.  Essential when driving back from cake club.  The salt to balance the sweetness of the sugar and give it that authentic margarita twist. It does make quite a lot of syrup, but if you spoon slowly, the cake will drink it in.

If I was serving this for dessert, I'd probably use a side of lightly whipped marscapone, thinned with a little creme fraiche, sweetened with some icing sugar and spiked with lime and a pile of fresh raspberries from my garden.

Will update with the verdict and some pics from cake club in the morning.

Raspberry Margarita Polenta Cake - Adapted from "Kitchen" by Nigella Lawson

for the cake:

• 200g soft unsalted butter, plus some for greasing
• 200g caster sugar
• 200g ground almonds
• 100g fine polenta/cornmeal
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder 
• 3 eggs
• zest 1 lemon and 2 limes (save the juice for the syrup, below)
• 200g frozen raspberries

for the syrup:

• juice 1 lemon and 2 limes
• 25 ml tequila
• pinch of Maldon sea salt (other brands are available, but Nigella would approve!)
• 125g icing sugar

• extra icing sugar to dust

• 1 x 23cm (9") springform or other round cake tin

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C (fan)/gas mark 4.
2. Lightly butter the base and sides of the baking tin then base-line with baking parchment.
3. Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder.  Beat a third into the butter mixture followed by one egg.  Repeat until all the dry mixture and eggs are incorporated.
5. Beat in the zest, carefully fold in 3/4 of the raspberries (reserving the rest for decoration) then pour into the baking tin, smooth the top and bake for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and decorate with the remaining raspberries by gently pushing them into the surface.  Take care not to push too hard!  Return to the oven for another ten minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and check with a cake tester which should come out clean.  The cake should be shrinking away from the sides at this point.  Place the tin on a cooling rack.
8. Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon and lime juice, tequila and salt with the icing sugar.  Once the icing sugar has disolved, carefully prick the sponge all over (in between the raspberries) and carefully spoon the warm syrup over the cake.
9. Leave in the tin to go cold before removing to serve.

If you don't need this to be gluten free, but want it to be nut free instead, you could replace the almonds with 200g of plain flour.

Updated: 2nd September 2012 - I've decided to enter this for the September 2012 Alphabakes competition.  The key ingredient this month should begin with 'P' so polenta cake definitely counts!

Nigella's Bacon Brownies

For some reasons, lots of software developers seem to have an infatuation with bacon.  Don't ask me why.  I used to be a developer myself and I am partial to a bacon sandwich.  But some developers seem to worship the stuff.  To the point that the majority of their test user names and passwords are bacon related.  Or if they want to choose something different, then they'll use something sausage-related.  I have a password sheet in my desk drawer at work for all the test systems our developer has worked on and every single password on it is related to a pork product.

There really is bacon in there

Developers of a feather flock together.  We're (and I use we because I still consider myself part of this elite club) are generally thought of as long-haired nerds or weirdoes.  If you've seen Graham Linehan's IT Crowd, characterisation absolutely captures the stereotypical view of IT workers.  In fact, I am often referred to as being Moss' long-lost sister.  A little hurtful, but probably true.  I even used to sport that hairdo and I did once have glasses like that too.  I think that's why I get along so well with M and wanted to make this recipe just for him (well okay I had one too)

A few months ago, I came across a recipe for Bacon Jam from Not Quite Nigella.  M, our developer, was having a bit of a bad time and so I promised to make him some.  Of course, life got in the way and with me working at a different site for the last four months, I've not managed to keep my promise.  More recently, I happened across this recipe for Bacon Brownies on Twitter and just knew I'd found a recipe that might just go down a storm with everyone.  Or not.

Yep, I really did put bacon in there

I lined up the ingredients for the first shot and wavered a little when I realised that I had the makings of bacon and eggs and I was going to potentially be wasting that as a meal option plus a whole bunch of chocolate to boot.  Then I remembered my love for Canadian pancakes with crispy bacon and maple syrup and kept going.

The bacon was hard to dice finely so I snipped it into tiny squares, fried it off and then chopped it up with my big cook's knife once it was a bit crispier.  I substituted maple syrup for the golden syrup and, having forgotten I'd run out of bicarb, used 3 tsp of baking powder instead.  There was so much chocolate in the recipe that I was worried that the bacon flavour would be lost.

The finished brownies were beautifully soft and gooey and the salty nuggets of crisp bacon gave a wonderful contrast.  I'm not sure if you'd know it was bacon in there if you weren't told up front.  It could equally have just been flakes of sea salt.

Being a Nigella recipe, it's the antithesis of the Guilt Free Brownies I made back in January.  And of course, it's not veggie friendly.  But there are plenty of other brownie recipes on this blog for my lovely veggie friends to try.    

If you're looking for a talking point, it's definitely one to try.  You can find the recipe online at Emerald Street.  Hopefully M will appreciate them.  And another brownie-fearing colleague has also expressed an interest in trying one for the experience.  I'll update the blog with feedback later.  Oh and it'll be interesting to hear the husband's opinions too!  I won't be telling him what the secret ingredient is until he's finished eating it.

Update 23/04/2012 - Well the husband had a bacon brownie and was warned it contained bacon and he ate it without fuss, without gagging, without complaining.  His only comment was that it was more cakey and less fudgy than my usual brownies.  I am impressed!  I think it was just the sheer amount of chocolate that one him over.  As for M?  Well he took all six home to share with his cats.  I still await his verdict.

Bacon, eggs and chocolate

Bacon Brownies Recipe

• 125g thin rashers of streaky bacon, scissored into small pieces and then chopped fine
• 2 tsp of golden or maple syrup
• 150g of soft unsalted butter
• 250g of soft light brown sugar
• 75g of best cocoa powder
• 150g of plain flour
• 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
• 4 large eggs, beaten
• 150g of dark chocolate, chopped, or dark chocolate chips/morsels

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C and get out a 25cm square tin and line it, or (as I prefer) a throwaway foil baking tray measuring 30cm x 20cm x 15cm.

2. Heat a heavy based (preferably non stick) frying pan and when warm, add the bacon bits and cook, stirring occasionally until beginning to crisp. Add the syrup, stir again to mix and transfer the sticky bacon bits to a cold surface, either on some foil or a plate. The syrupy bacon juices left behind are just delicious when mopped up with some bread: a cook’s treat!

3. Melt the butter over a gentle heat in a medium sized saucepan and when it’s melted, add the sugar, stirring with a wooden spoon.

4. Now take the pan off the heat and add the cocoa, flour, bicarbonate of soda and stir, then add the beaten eggs and stir again to mix.

5. Add the chopped dark choc or chips and the bacon bits, breaking them up with your hands if necessary. Fold together then pour and scrape into the tin.

6. Place in the oven to cook for 20-25 minutes; you want a little gooeyness inside still.

7. Transfer the tin to a wire rack and sit until cooled a little (but not to the point of coldness) and cut into 16 squares.

Stove Top Coconut Rice Pudding

Now this is one of those times when I wonder if this will become my own recipe as it was inspired by Nigella's recipe, but I adapted it.  So is it now Rebecca's Stove Top Rice Pudding?  Or will it forever be known as 'Adapted From Nigella's Stove Top Rice Pudding'?  Answers on a postcard...

I'm not sure what got me into making this recipe today.  I'm in a bit of a post half marathon funk really.  You'd think I'd be ravenous, but I'm right off my food at the moment.  I think it's something to do with running 13.1 miles in blazing sunshine bringing back the lovely sinusitis and chest infection that I'd been battling with for three weeks prior to the run.  It held off for the big day and then came back with a vengance.  That coupled with post race stiffness is making me feel a little lacklustre.

Nevertheless, I'm still healthier than a lot of people and the blog still needs keeping up (post 172, day 169 due to a few double blog days).  So I settled on the rice pudding which I've been meaning to make ever since I got my copy of Nigella Bites back in 2001.  Eleven years is a long wait.  And was it worth it?

Well I adapted the recipe slightly because I had some coconut cream left over in the fridge.  I may not be here tomorrow as it said on the carton to only keep for two days after opening it.  I opened it 12 days ago when I made a Thai prawn curry.  It looked okay.  I couldn't tell what it smelled like thanks to a bunged up nose.  But what the hell.  In it went.

It looks a tiny portion, but it's Nigella sized....

The recipe uses arborio rice rather than the traditional short grain and involves lots of ladling and stirring just as if you were making a savoury risotto.  I must admit I was lazier than Nigella and just poured bits in every now and again.  She ladles hers tablespoonful by tablespoonful.  But then again, I believe her fussy husband only eats weetabix or boiled eggs whereas I had to cook a slightly more complicated meal for my husband tonight whilst also tending to the rice pudding.

I did also Google the recipe because it was easier than having the recipe book in the kitchen with so much going on.  The one review I found of it over at 41 feasts mentioned that it took just over an hour to cook which worried me a little.  Nigella cites about 35 minutes.  I found that with mine bubbling away at just shy of a simmer, it took under 40 minutes.  That works for me.  Just enough therapy time of mindless stirring.  And an indulgent rice pud without the nasty skin from a baked pudding nor having to zap it in the microwave.  The coconut cream gave it a lovely subtle flavour which worked really well with mango and a little lime zest sprinkled over

So here is my adaptation of Nigella's recipe from Nigella Bites

Makes 2 generous portions (or one Nigella portion)

• 500ml milk -Nigella suggests full fat, I used skimmed, but you can use any kind of milk
• 100g arborio risotto rice
• 150g coconut cream
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp caster sugar

1. Heat the milk and coconut cream in a saucepan until the coconut cream has melted.  Pour into a measuring jug (or you can leave in the pan and use another pan to make the rice pudding in).
2. Melt the butter and 1 tbsp of sugar in a clean pan over a medium-low heat.  Add the rice and stir for two minutes until well coated in the butter and sugar.
3. Add a small amount of milk to the rice and cook until nearly absorbed. I probably did mine about 75ml at a time, Nigella does this tablespoon by tablespoon.  Repeat until the rice is tender.  Start tasting after about 25 minutes but be prepared to wait for 35-40 minutes for the perfect texture.
4. Add the other tbsp of sugar (or more depending on your taste).
5. Serve topped with fresh mango slices and lime zest or other fresh fruit.

Stir Fry Vegetables with Cashews

"What's exciting about this?" I hear you ask.  I never professed that these recipe choices would set the world alight (especially when I have to get through 366 different ones on 366 consecutive days).  My personal challenge was to broaden the food horizons of my family.  As you know, I struggle with (but haven't totally given up on) the husband and the child, so most days it's just me trying out new recipes on me.  That said, the child actually ate chicken today, which is another first so she's getting there slowly but surely.

Anyway, after a day where I spent most of my time sneakily grazing on bad stuff  (I worked from home today and was unusually working downstairs ie near the kitchen, making face stuffing far easier than when I'm banished to the study on the second floor of our house) so I felt the need to compensate somewhat with a healthy choice for tea.

Earlier in the week, with virtuosity in mind,  I'd bought some pak choi with the intention of doing a prawn ramen soup.  Except I forgot to check that I had all the necessary condiments and so rather than have prawns and chinese cabbage in boiling water, and having failed to find any mention of pak choi in 95% of my recipe books (they're either too old for something so trendy or about cakes) I settled on a BBC Good Food recipe.

It's a really simple stir fry that most people just whack together of an evening.  And once you've made this recipe, you'll probably never refer to the website again and just make it up as you go along.  But sometimes, we all need a starting point and for me this the start of a new veggie stir fry.  I had a really good chicken and cashew stir fry recipe that was a staple of our weekly diet until the husband decided on consecutive weeks that he didn't like the carrots (too orange), then he didn't like the bamboo shoots (they make the kitchen smell like stargazer lilies which in turn smell like burnt saucepan handles), then he didn't like the mange tout (too squeaky), then he didn't like the peppers (too crunchy), and finally he didn't like the nuts (too nutty).  So we were effectively left with chicken and rice.  Of course the rice was home cooked basmati rather than Uncle Ben's Express so that got the chop too (okay this bit is poetic license, it didn't quite get that bad!)

And I miss the once a week ritual of eating all five of my fruit and veg in one sitting.  And hoping that by having fruit salad for pudding I can store up extra fruit n' veg points for other days of the week when I forget to eat more than two or three.  So this works really well and is great for assuaging any giant-chocolate button-snorfing-induced-guilt that may be hanging around.

Your five a day in one healthy meal!

Incidentally, I happened across an article on the Guardian website today that 'analysed' Nigella's eating habits based on her Twitter feed.  Apparently she eats quite unhealthily with a lack of wholegrains and vegetables.  What the author chose not to highlight until right at the end was that she only had the meals that Nigella chose to post to base her opinion on.  Hell, if she read this blog, she'd probably think I lived on nothing but cake and only ate vegetables about once every three months.  What a slanderous judgement to make (although thinking about it, it might actually be true!)  Anyway, if you want to read about how the Domestic Goddess herself indulges her Twitter audience, you can do so here.  Interestingly, there was no mention of the bacon brownies that I know Nigella tweeted about last week...

I adapted the recipe slightly by adding a teaspoonful of ginger which gave a lovely subtle flavour to the leaves of the pak choi.  I also used chilli olive oil instead of vegetable oil - something I always use for stir frying as it adds a little heat to Chinese dishes without blowing your head off.  And finally, I roasted my cashews first as this gives them a more intense flavour and a better crunch.

Ingredients - serves 2

• 2tbsp chilli olive oil (or plain vegetable oil if you prefer)
• 1 red onion sliced
• 1 red pepper , sliced
• 200g mushrooms , sliced
• 2 heads of pak choi , cut into quarters
• 1 garlic clove , crushed
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 100g cashews, roasted
• soy sauce , sesame oil, chilli oil to drizzle (optional)

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok or large pan. Add the onion and cook for 2 minutes. Add the red pepper and mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the pak choi, ginger and garlic, mix well and cook for 2 more minutes. Finally, add the cashew nuts, mix and serve with a drizzle of soy, sesame oil or chilli sauce if you like.

Updated: Nigella's Chocolate Fudge Cake

In just two short weeks, my little girl will turn two.  I realised this morning (with a touch of horror) that I have four different events to bake for.  Her actual birthday, cake to take to nursery for her last day in the baby room, cake for when my two neighbours pop round with their children for coffee and a cake for when the 'rents visit the weekend after her birthday.

I prefer 'Sausage' dog, myself

For her actual birthday, it's just me and her and the husband. The husband isn't really allowed cake, what with his diabetes, but in my world, birthdays should always be celebrated with cake.  And so I wanted to make something quite small that we can easily share and not have too many leftovers (although I'm sure my work colleagues would have done the honours on the remains).

Googling about for inspiration for her main cake, I happened across some adorable Sausage Dog cupcakes.  My cousin, the lovely @BridestockBride and Miss A are both doxie obsessives.  If you're a regular follower, you'll know that we have a doxie called Rolo and she's Miss A's best mate.  We also regularly make 'Rolo' shaped cookies and I've been spreading the doxie cookie cutter love amongst my Twitter friends - discovering the lovely @LaurenPrince (go and visit her blog when you're done here!) is also a fan.  If you want to know where to get your own doxie cutter from, then visit Cakes, Cookies and Craft Shop.

Anyway, the cupcake doxie appears to be just a line of ganache-topped cupcakes with biscuit ears and faces.  I'm going to use Dame Mary's cupcake recipe from 100 Cakes and Bakes (and the subject of last week's Weekly Bake Off challenge) and try out the Primrose Bakery Bourbon Biscuit recipe which was recommended to me by the lovely @HungrySquirrels (another fab blog to read) - because they are dachshund shaped!

With antennae made from rice noodles!

For the visit from the neighbours and their assorted toddlers, I'm going with further cupcakeage.  I still can't decide which to make although ladybirds are currently at the forefront of my mind.  I joined Pinterest today.  If you're not au fait with this, it's an online mood board website where you can post pictures of things that you like.  I love it as I often happen across pictures of things I'd love to have a go at baking and then forget where I saw the picture.  You just click a button on your browser's bookmark bar and it saves the pic to your Pinterest profile for posterity.  Love it.

Finally, for the main event, I'm hoping to make a dalmatian themed cake.  These are Miss A's second favourite dogs.  My poor spaniel will be jealous - but he doesn't like her unless she has food so he can't complain too much.  I want to make a fondant covered chocolate cake and, despite being a huge fan of Angela Nielsen's Ultimate Chocolate Cake, I felt the time was ripe to see if there are any other comparable (or better) recipes on the market.  Given that it's for such an important occasion, I wanted to road-test it first.

I asked Twitter and Twitter suggested Nigella's Guiness Cake.  Sounds amazing, but not really suitable for toddlers.  Flicking through my copy of Nigella Bites, I happened across her Chocolate Fudge Cake which sounds like it fits the bill.  Twitter confirmed this to be so and it's currently cooling in the kitchen, waiting to be iced.

So far, the experience has been worrying.  The recipe states to use two eight inch (20cm) sandwich pans.  I fear Ms Lawson's must be at least three inches deep as by the time I'd finished the batter, it was very evident that I would head for disaster using my little two inch deep pans.  I quickly fished out my 8 inch Christmas cake tin which is five inches deep.  Even this only had a gap of an inch at the top when the cake went into the oven.  At twenty minutes, I was on my knees in front of the cooker, praying to the High Priestess of Baking (Dame Mary) that it wouldn't overflow and leave me scraping burnt offerings off of my grill pan which I'd sensibly put underneath.

Thankfully, it rose a mere half inch out of the tin, leaving me with a cake that's even bigger than Nielsen's Ultimate Chocolate Cake.

Excuse the messy edge on the cake board please!

I am now off to finish off the icing.  It's taking an age to cool - I guess because it was in the oven for an hour and a half vs the fifty minutes recommended for the two-pan method.

And if it's a nay, then I'll be moving on to Lorraine Pascale's 'I Can't Believe You Made That Cake' next.

Verdict and photos will be posted tomorrow once the work mates have got their teeth into it.

Update 1st March 2012: Well my colleagues were really impressed with this one.  And when someone finally was brave enough to have the first slice, it went like wildfire.  I even got asked for the recipe.

However, and it's a pretty big however, I'm obviously getting really fussy in my cakeage because I really didn't like it.  It tasted just like a mediocre chocolate fudge cake that you'd get with squirty cream or cheap soft scoop ice cream in a chain pub.  Now there's nothing wrong with that kind of cake, necessarily.  But I don't aspire to bake cakes like that.  The icing was bland and too buttery for me.  The cake lacked a deep chocolate flavour.  Someone asked if it was cherry flavoured and I must confess even I got a hint of cherry once it was pointed out to me - but no fruit was harmed in the making of this cake.

So it's a crowd pleaser, but like always, I'm never part of the crowd.  So it's back to the drawing board with James Martin and Lorraine Pascale's chocolate cake recipes now in the running for birthday cake of the year (for Miss A!)