Date:
Time: 8:28 PM
Although I've passed it on countless times (never giving it my own name), the recipe came from Jill Dupleix's New Food (William Heinemann, 1994).
Dupleix has admitted many times to having used, and fiddled with, a recipe first published in a slightly different form by Elizabeth David as a Chocolate and Almond Cake in French Provincial Cooking (Penguin, Middlesex, 1970).
In 50 Fabulous Chocolate Cakes (Anne O'Donovan, 1995), produced in association with The Age, Dupleix says she has felt protective of the recipe since first trying it.
"I have made it a hundred times and adored it every time ... I hoard it jealously and serve only thin slices of it at the end of dinner."
There are a couple of steps involved that are not difficult, but some cooks find them a challenge. One friend wondered why it didn't work when she used low-quality eating chocolate, rather than couverture chocolate; another met with failure because she "didn't have enough time" to beat the egg yolks in individually.
It usually falls slightly in the centre and looks rather ungainly, no matter how careful I am. But a friend once made it with "very large eggs" and although it wasn't quite as dense as my usual "flops", it looked absolutely perfect (and tasted divine).
I have tried it since, with the largest eggs I could find, and the result was a more even shape, but it was a different creature to the one Dupleix describes as "a funny-looking, misshapen brown sort of cake".
I don't think I'll fiddle with quantities or egg sizes again; in a sense, it's "my" cake and I don't care if it doesn't look perfect. It hasn't bothered anyone who asked me for the recipe. Or were they being polite?
Aunty Pam's Chocolate Cake
INGREDIENTS
1 tbsp vinegar
1 cup milk
11/2 cups plain flour
pinch salt
1/2 cup cocoa
11/2 tsp bicarb soda
11/4 cups castor sugar
185g butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, lightly beaten
METHOD
- Grease and line the base of two tins*. Heat oven to 180C.
- Sour the milk by adding vinegar. Stir and put aside.
- Sift flour, salt, cocoa, bicarb soda and sugar into a bowl.
- Pour in melted butter and half of the soured milk and beat for 3 minutes with a hand-held mixer.
- Add vanilla, the rest of the milk and eggs and beat for 2 minutes.
- Pour into two tins and bake for 35 minutes. Rest for 5 minutes and turn out to cool.
Hello!As is very obvious we are going to talk about Mocha cake personally ive never tried it but from what i gather from my teammates who have this is basically a chocolate cake with some coffee thrown in but it makes for a very delicious treat.As one would expect from all cakes it is very delicious and the cake usually is eaten as a snack.This cake is alson eaten during birthdays but not on the cheap side though.The decorations on the cake make it very apetising and makes one wonder how it tastes as i gather from one of my teammates it tastes exquisite and is highly addictive.This cake is best eaten with some latte to bring out the full flavour.
French cakes make u drooL and after eating it you won't regret.Mostly made up of ice cream and vanila cream and cake.=x