World Goth Day 2019: Black Raspberry Mud Cake

Happy World Goth Day, everyone!

(wishing someone a happy day isn't very goth, is it? How about gloomy World Goth Day?)

So, it rolls around again. Pretty much every year since I started this blog I've done a World Goth Day post, and it's kinda difficult to work within such a restricting colour scheme: black, white, grey, and dark bloody tones like red and purple. Maybe next year, I'll focus less on colour and more on cultural iconography.

I thought this year I'd do something with red wine: I tried making a red wine and white chocolate ganache, which tasted incredible but looked a very strange colour. I also made a red wine chocolate cake mixture, which tasted amazing when it was raw in the bowl, but once it was cooked it tasted kinda beery and the red colour had cooked out.

So, this year I decided to go completely black on black! I used very dark chocolate in the ganache, and dark chocolate in the cake mixture. Oddly enough, though, once the dark chocolate was cooked in the cake it turned a deep red colour. It must have reacted with the other ingredients, but I'm not complaining! It was a happy coincidence.

INGREDIMENTS

For the chocolate cake

3 medium eggs

4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar

2 ounces (55 grammes) brown sugar

3 ounces (85 grammes) butter

3 ounces (85 grammes) dark chocolate

5 ounces (140 grammes) white plain flour: spelt, wheat, or gluten free

Salt, to taste

1 ounce (30 grammes) cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) hot strong coffee

Vanilla essence

About 4 or 5 ounces (115 to 140 grammes) seedless raspberry jam

For the ganache

9 ounces (250 grammes) dark chocolate, at least 60% cocoa

3 ounces (85 grammes) unsalted butter

3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar

3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) water

Black food colouring

METHOD

First, make the cake

• Preheat the oven to 170C (340F, Gas Mk.3), and grease an 8 inch (20 centimetre) with butter, and dust with caster sugar.
• In a small bowl or jug, melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler or in the microwave on low power. Make a slurry with the cocoa powder and coffee. In another bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda.
• In a large mixing bowl, whip the eggs and sugars together with three pinches of salt (one pinch for each egg) with an electric hand mixer until pale yellow, thickly foamy, and about doubled in size.
• Gradually beat in the melted butter and chocolate, and the vanilla essence. Sieve in half the flour mixture, then fold with a rubber spatula or wire balloon whisk until half mixed in. Fold in the coffee until, again, half folded. Sieve in the last of the flour and fold through completely.
• Pour into the tin, and bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for about 35 to 45 minutes. Check the doneness with a cocktail stick. You know the drill! 
• Once baked and cooled, level and split in half. Fill and coat with a thin coat of raspberry jam. chill thoroughly for about 2 hours before icing.

Then, make the ganache

• Chop the chocolate with a serrated knife into small pieces, and put it in a heatproof mixing bowl.
• In a saucepan, or in a jug in the microwave on high heat, melt and dissolve the water, sugar, and butter together until it boils and there are no more granules of sugar left.
• Pour the hot, buttery syrup over the chocolate and allow to sit and melt for about 3 minutes. With a wire baloon whisk, slowly mix the ganache together. Allow to cool completely and set into a spreadable consistency, about an hour or two. For best time management, make the ganache while the jam coating is setting. You can also colour it black, if you like.
• Ice the cake carefully with the ganache, so the jam doesn't get too disturbed. I made mine all swirly.

February Afternoon Tea Party: 3 Recipes!

This Monday I'll be brightening up the start of your working week with pictures of what I made for my monthly Afternoon Tea Party event!

I work in a community centre which is run as a "fresh expression" of its mother church (Methodist Church Ireland); a fresh expression church "seeks to transform communities and individuals through championing and resourcing new ways of being church". Through this model, I run a lot of interesting projects from community film groups to my monthly Afternoon Tea party event, which is a social group that revolves around baking and sharing, and is usually attended by women. The aim of this event is to bring people of similar interest together and to give them a social outlet in a non-judgmental and safe environment, but it also gives those who attend a creative outlet.

This month's theme was Valentine's Day, as it was actually on that same day (Saturday February 14th), so I made a selection of Valentine themed goodies:

• Bouquet of spicy chocolate cupcakes with buttercream roses (gluten- and dairy free)
• Dark chocolate dipped strawberries (Dairy free)
• Caramel shortbread with heart-decorated chocolate topping (Wheat Free)

Spicy Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Roses (Gluten- and Dairy Free)

These were made with a nice and simple recipe, which is basically my basic sponge recipe but prepared slightly differently. Using basically the same ingredients in the similar quantities, I prepared them as follows (using the same oven temperature): 

DRY

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) of self-raising gluten-free flour (or gluten free plain flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder)
• 2 tablespoons cocoa power
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• Half a teaspoon of cinnamon
• Pinch of salt

WET

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) sunflower oil
• 3 fluid ounces (90 fluid ounces) warm strong coffee
• 3 medium eggs

I sifted the dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl, and in a jug I mixed the wet ingredients, adding the eggs in last one at a time. I beat the wet ingredients well, then added them to the dry, folding gently until well combined. This made 12 cakes, but I only used 8 for the bouquet. There are countless of tutorials online for the method, but instead of a styrofoam ball (which I could not find for love nor money) I used half a red cabbage wrapped in cling film. Did the same job!

I used a traditional buttercream, loosening with a little warm water and flavouring with a few teaspoons of cocoa powder, but instead of butter I used margarine to make it dairy free. I had to use about half a teaspoon of red gel colouring to get this colour, but my food dyes are old so maybe a brand new bottle would need less. Using a closed star tip, I made the roses by starting in the centre of the cake and spiralling out, applying consistent pressure to the bag; again, many tutorials for this technique can be found on YouTube.

These turned out beautifully, and I even managed to get my brother and his girlfriend involved when they expressed an interest in trying out the piping technique! The only issue I had is that buttercream made with margarine can sometimes split, but I think it gave the roses a slightly wild look.

Dark Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (Dairy Free)

 

This is a simple one, and especially so when there's two 300 gramme punnets of strawberries in the reduced section in Tesco. To cover a pound (450 grammes) of strawberries, I simply melted 3 and a half ounces (100 grammes) of dark chocolate with 1 tablespoon of coconut oil in the microwave and dipped the washed and dried strawberries in. I allowed them to set for ten minutes, then gently reheated the chocolate to running consistency and re-dipped the strawberries. I also dipped some cherries and white grapes for myself to eat later with my Valentine (or, in other words, my mate Niamh who was doing nothing that evening).

Caramel Shortbread with Heart-Decorated Chocolate Topping

Using this recipe, I made a triple batch of shortbread. I made such a big batch because I had a bake sale on Thursday too, so I just made on massive batch and donated half for the sale, and kept half for myself. In addition to the milk chocolate topping, I melted some white chocolate topping at a 4:1 ratio (chocolate:sunflower oil) with 2 ounces (55 grammes) of chocolate and dropped dots of the white onto the milk. Then, using a cocktail stick, dragged the tip of the stick through the middle of each dot, making a heart shape. Simples! 

These were very successful, both at the bake sale and the Afternoon Tea Party. The day you make these, the caramel is super chewy, but over the days in storage is becomes a little more creamy and fudgy as the sugars crystalise.

All in all, I was very pleased with myself and how the event went. The women were full of chat, brought along some delights of their own, and a great time was had. I did, however, have lots of leftovers which I'm currently palming off on friends and siblings...

A Multitude of Different Kinds of Fudge

Christmas is the time for indulgence in all things rich and sweet, and as such I treated many people this year with bags of fudge. Fudge is basically sugar held together with dairy fat; what's not to like?

In a bid for greater efficiency, I made a giant batch of fudge using this recipe, and cut it up into one inch pieces. I then separated them into a few different cups so I could coat them all differently. Previously, I would have made many different batches, each of different flavours, but I decided this time to do what is done to jelly beans: make the centres all the same flavour, and then just flavour the coatings.

I decided that peppermint is a very Christmassy flavour, so lots of people got peppermint flavoured fudge. I made a few bags of fudge fully dipped in peppermint milk chocolate (I added a few drops of peppermint essence to the melted chocolate), and a few that were half dipped in peppermint white chocolate, decorated with sprinkles.

I also half dipped some in dark chocolate and sprinkled with coarse sea salt, which made for a rather interesting flavour and texture experience. I also gave away a few batches of plain old vanilla fudge, which was just the original fudge without any coating.

Overall, they were a big success. I think I still have some left over in my fridge to crack out if I have forgotten anyone!