I made a cake. It’s a proper, cut with a trowel cake that’s hearty and perfect with a cup of tea. You do need to sacrifice rather a lot of pistachios to the cause, but I am okay with that, for they add a sweet, nutty saltiness to the cake which makes it pretty special. READ MORE
Today I wore a ski jacket to feed the ducks so I guess you could say summer isn’t quite here yet. That doesn’t mean we can’t all enjoy an ice-cream though. My eldest son disappointed me immensely as a baby by showing zero interest in ice-cream. Unperturbed Mr B and I selflessly set out on a crusade to introduce him to joys of the cold stuff by feeding him a spoonful every Saturday. He’s 4 this year and you could say our hard work has paid off.
This is a simple idea that I am disproportionately excited about. Already I dream of stem ginger attached to my ice-cream cones in great sugary cubes… macadamia nuts on white chocolate and of course praline of any kind set into rock hard caramel, like an ice-creamy toffee apple but without the fruit, which frankly always ruins it for me.
Ingredients:
1 ice-cream cone
50g dark chocolate
5 pistachios, shelled and chopped
Grab a glass and set aside – you want a tumbler type glass where the top of your cone clears the rim of the glass. Take the dark chocolate, break into pieces and then melt in the microwave in short blasts. Mine took a minute to get to the almost molten stage, then a few stirs with a teaspoon to get it all the way there.
Let the chocolate sit in the bowl/cup/whatever you melted it in until it starts to harden a little. Once it’s at the still-mixable but visibly-thicker stage, spoon it into your cone with a teaspoon being careful to get a good covering on the inside and also a little around the edges.
Take your chopped pistachios and sprinkle into the cone and around the edge. Prop the cone in the glass to set completely before filling with ice-cream. You can fill it before it’s set but for me the crunch of thick, thick set chocolate is worth waiting for.
I mean seriously, how good does that look. I’m already thinking some cocktail themes could work here. Toasted coconut on a white chocolate covered cone filled with Malibu and pineapple sorbet?
I’m off to buy some kulfi.
It is my humble opinion that certain cakes are not manly. Dear Mr B has often taste tested a cupcake or two for me but I don’t like to watch. It’s not right to see the father of my children eat cupcakes adorned with swirly icing and glitter. It’s just not what I want from him. Call me old fashioned.
It’s Father’s Day this weekend so I think it only fitting that I make him a little something that’s both sweet and indicative of my appreciation of his wonderful fathering, but also manly and not in the least likely to induce a snigger from his mates. This is the beast.
NB: It’s also flour free, keeps for a good few days and according to Mr B is best eaten with cream or homemade (yes, he is that fussy) ice-cream. But if you can’t be arsed to bake a cake for Father’s Day then entice your man to bake instead by buying him My Daddy Cooks – an excellent recipe book if ever I saw one.
Ingredients:
Preheat the oven to Gas 4. Grease and line a 23 cm springform tin. Whizz up your pistchios if they’re not already ground.
Take a bowl and pour the coffee into it then add the cocoa and mix until completely smooth – it will be quite thick. Leave the mocha mixture on the side to cool.
Take a bowl and using a handheld mixer/freestanding mixer cream the butter with 195g of the caster sugar until it’s lighter than when you started and fluffy looking. Beat in the egg yolks in little dribbles and make sure you scrape the sides to incorporate the lot. Beat in the mocha mixture followed by the ground pistachios until the mixture looks creamy and smooth and like a slightly knobbly looking chocolate mousse.
Place the whites in a very clean bowl, (you can wipe with lemon juice if you’re uncertain how good your washer upper is) with the dot of salt. Beat the egg whites using the very very clean handheld electric mixer/freestanding mixer you have just washed and beat until you have soft peaks. Then add the remaining 30g caster sugar and beat until you have stiff meringue that sits in peaks.
Take a spatula and mix in two large tablespoons of meringue to the chocolate moussey mixture to loosen it, then fold the rest of the mixture in a third at a time. Pop into the tin and smooth the top with the back of a metal spoon. Bake in the oven for about an hour. It’s ready when the centre has puffed up and a skewer comes out clean. (If you notice the cake browning too much, too early, feel free to fashion a hat for your cake out of foil but please don’t open the oven door until at least 40 minutes has passed.)
Let the cake cool in the tin for about 5 minutes on a wire rack, then unlock the springform thingy and let cool completely. It will sink. It’s supposed to. Fret not. It should have a ridge around the outside and be lower in the middle. Texture is kind of mousse like and close and fudgey. It’s manly, see.
Serve in wedges with strong black manly coffee. Try not to add glitter and pink icing if you can at all help it. Green icing is just about acceptable if you sling it on top of the cake in a Jackson Pollock style manly fashion.
Holly Bell 