Dining with the Bloggers - April 20th



Ahem. It really couldn't have been me that suggested this weeks theme should be a cake. Why, I never bake, - do I?;-)

Okay, so I do. On my recent trip to Berlin, I almost spend more money on cake tins, than on clothes (okay, almost - not entirely!) So cake had to be there somewhere.

The problem about this theme wasn't so much finding a cake I'd like to try making - the problem was more narrowing down the choices! To the rescue came a relatively new and GORGEOUS blog: Delicious Days, written by Nicky from Munich. She was trying to hide it, but I did a search on her site (typed CAKE - how hard can it be?) and up popped 4 posts, one of them titled: Chocolate Heaven. Uh-oh. Would the pictures be deceiving, or would it be as good as they suggested?

She's also got recipes up for a pink to the point of perfection glazed tuna, incredible sounding Antipasto Speciale, small doughy cushions, sounds so good! - and, should you be going round to Munich anytime soon, be sure to check Delicious Days for where to go. Or, you know - just look at the pictures - they're pretty!

The cake - the cake: a dense, fudgy chocolate cake, a cross between one of those mousse-like cakes and a brownie, I'd say. The batter is assembled in a matter of minutes, and bakes in 22 (twenty-two!) minutes. DO NOT feel tempted to cook it much longer, even though it looks a little wobbly - I did, and it had just that tiny bit of burnt crust on the outer rim that make you go ugh! when you eat that piece by mistake.

I'm having a period of how few ingredients can you use and have great results? Well, this recipe has 5 ingredients, two of them being equal amounts of chocolate and butter - heh! I used the 70 % Lindt chocolate Nicky suggested, but because the Boyfriend likes milk chocolate so much, I haven't done cakes with PURE dark chocolate for ages, so this was just a tiny bit bitter to me - I might try it with half dark and half milk chocolate next. While Nicky prefers it slightly warm, I'm all for the cold version. And let me just add that it works wonders on a lazy Sunday evening as I'm sure it would as a classy dessert after a nice dinner.

Now, jump over and have a slice of Cathy's cake...

Comments

Cathy said…
Hi Zarah - I thought sure I knew which cake you'd be making (one on your "list"), but I can see why you fell victim to the charms of this one... what a delicious looking cake. Pure, unadulterated chocolate!
Cerebrum said…
I had totally forgotten about that list Cathy - it's grown so much! Thanks for reminding me, sometimes one has to go back to the roots of it all, right?
Elizabeth said…
From time to time on my journey through various blogs, I come across this phrase "Dining with the Bloggers". I'm intrigued. How does one learn about what themes are when? Who decides whose blog will be searched for the themed recipes? Do you just wander around the various blogs?

(Nicky's dark chocolate cake sounds good. If we hadn't just overdosed on black forest cake, I'd make it this weekend!)

-Elizabeth
Anonymous said…
I'm honored and I'm blushing :))
BTW this slightly adapted cake recipe is from one of my favourite cookbooks ("I want chocolate!" by Trish Deseine). If you're in the mood for some chocolate treats (and another cookbook), you definitely should have a look at it...
Cerebrum said…
Hi Elizabeth! Is there REALLY such a thing as over-dosing on chocolate cake? I would never have thought so!

If by "various blogs" you mean mine and Cathy's (My Little Kitchen) you might have stumbled upon it around - but it's not an event as such, just a thing Cathy and I (well, Cathy came up with the idea, I just tagged along!) thought would be fun doing, a project of sorts, like Becks and Posh's Curry Week, Spicetart's Vegetable series etc. I am really bad at actually trying other people's recipes, so I wanted to keep myself in a schedule, and try to get better at it. So it's not like it's new, I see bloggers trying out other each others recipes all the time. Cathy and I just made things a little harder for ourselves, setting up a couple of themes. It's going to be put on hold for the summer, and we might change some things if we keep it up in fall - but that's basically the idea.

Hi Nicky - oh you look so sweet when you're blushing!:-) I've heard of Trish Deseine before, but don't own any of her cookbooks - this one might be a great one to start with, heh!
Elizabeth said…
It's a cool idea. I'm sure I've seen lots of others mention "Dining with the Bloggers". (Naturally, I can't remember where....)

And yes, one can overdose on black forest cake. (amazing, isn't it?) The one I make has an embarrassment of cream on it. It's really really good - probably not that authentic but it's definitely better than the atrocities that are passed off as Black Forest Cake by some Bflat bakeries here in town.

In case you too would like to overdose on the cake:
http://etherwork.net/recipes/blackforestcake.html

-Elizabeth

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