Cake club is only three days away and inspiration deserted me. Then I flicked through The Great British Bake Off recipe book Well a loaf cake will be easy enough I thought, having already done a version of the recipe last October. I decided to revisit the Chocolate Chilli loaf cake.
This time, I would revamp the flavours, giving them more oomph and frankly, more taste! Attempting to get more chilli taste and warmth in to the chocolate loaf cake should not be too difficult as I had been tentative with flavours last time. Not so this time as the theme is ‘Fire and Ice’. Working towards the ‘fire’ idea, I added a little more (ok quite a bit more) ground ginger and Tabasco sauce than the recipe recommended.
In working through the recipe, I was glad to finish off some ingredients from the cupboard and use more of the new ground ginger from the jar and also some of the recently opened baking powder. I measured the baking powder and the bicarbonate of soda carefully. All the other ingredients were as before, and so was the 900ml loaf tin. Ok it did not have the dimensions that were helpfully given in the recipe book, but I thought it would be adequate capacity for a cake I’d cooked before with no problems.
No those of you ‘of a certain age’ or older, may appreciate the reference in the title of this little note, and therefore you can see where this story is heading. If not, I urge you to read a children’s book, (published in the year I was born!) of this name. To buy what is now regarded as ‘vintage’ then look here. [I strongly object to the story being made in to a Bl**DY POWERPOINT by an author giving the story a contemporary edge!]
Worked it out yet? I was delighted with my rich cake batter, and loaded the tin and two tasting bun cases to assess the heat of the chilli! I thought this was going to be my best cake, AND I would get to taste test it in about 15 minutes when the buns would be ready. “Cook little cake, cook!” When I approached the oven to retrieve the little buns, sitting in a low tin, this is what I saw in the oven (obviously NOT porridge!). I gasped in horror, in the manner of the woman in the picture, but without the headscarf!
I was quite shocked. This was to be the cake for the cake club evening. All my chocolate and ingredients were in there. One of the little buns could be rescued but the other was swamped by batter oozing out over the top of the loaf tin. No matter how I tried to scoop up the mixture and stop it overflowing, it still kept coming over the edge. Lots of cake was lost in the oven tray below!
“Stop little cake, stop!”, I said to the oven, and eventually, the cake stopped oozing in to the tray below and the rest of the cake cooked beautifully with a layer of biscuity edge that was quite delicious when I prized it off! Although the cake had a good trough in its centre, the whole thing was cooked and looked perfect when upside down! It’s safely packed away ready for decoration later this weekend.
I couldn’t resist some dark chocolate mint sticks for on the top of the peppermint icing! The cake was well received at the cake club though I was still disappointed with the last of chilli warmth! Anyway, I like peppermint!
And all’s well that ends well- for now!
PS: The cake was finished off and a couple of spare slices were saved in the freezer. The cake plate was left covered in crumbs. It did occur to me for these crumbs to be used for something but having dried out, I couldn’t really think what they could be used for, and then…….
Well it’s a bowl of blueberries, yoghurt and muesli and the crumbs were being added. It was going to be a flavour experiment.
The bowl of yumminess! In fact the slight peppermint flavour came through the chocolate cake crumbs and enhanced the breakfast with the fruits and yoghurt! Unusual crumbs and stuff!