heart attack on a plate...

Minty and I made chocolate cake today. We used this recipe which comes from Molly Wizenberg's 'A Homemade Life'.

What can I say? This cake is intense. Possibly it should even come with a health warning on the side similar to a packet of cigarettes, only instead of graphic pictures of mouth and lung cancer, it would depict someone vomiting while their heart is being shocked back into rhythm. But if Rosemary Stanton is your idea of the Anti-Christ this is the cake for you. It is a true inversion of the food pyramid, containing vast quantities of all the 'good fats' - butter, eggs, sugar and of course chocolate. My soon to be 'late' husband polished off half the cake this afternoon and has been heard periodically murmuring 'that's gooooood cake' as he potters about the house.

Molly apparently made this as her wedding cake (which made me feel a little sentimental while I was baking). It certainly isn't the first thing I'd think of as a wedding cake - it isn't a show stopper in terms of presentation, with nary a fondant flower in sight, and frankly looks a little like an old boot. But it certainly does pass as a special occasion cake in terms of flavour and with an extra pinch of love stirred in, who am I to judge?

This cake is very easy to make - there are no complicated steps, you only use one bowl and stir everything by hand. This meant Minty could be involved through the whole process and had a lot of fun… though waiting for the cake to be cooked was unsurprisingly a little challenging for her.

Also I should probably mention that my cake took 45 minutes to cook… which was almost double the recommended cooking time. What the…?? I suspect my oven may have been up to it's usual tricks… it likes to keep me on my toes whilst baking.