Black forest cake

Ingredients  - serves ( 8-10)

For the chocolate sponge ( I use 200 ml cup)

Plain flour- 100 gm( 1 tbs less than I cup)

Sugar – 140gm ( ¾ cup)

Butter – 50 gm /1/4 cup (melted)

Cocoa powder – 25 gm

Eggs – 4 large

Baking powder – ½ tsp

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Salt – pinch

For syrup

Sugar 3/4 cup

Water – 1 1/2cup

Brandy/cherry brandy  – 3 tbs

For filling /frosting

 Double cream – 600 ml

Icing sugar – 5 tbs or according to your sweetness

Vanilla extract – 1 ½ tsp

For decoration

Fresh cherries

Grated chocolate/ chocolate strands

Method

Making the cake

·         Measure flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt in a mixing bowl and keep it aside.

·         Beat eggs with sugar and vanilla extract until its thick and trebled in volume for about 5-8 minutes.

·         Sieve the dry ingredients from mixing bowl to the egg mixture and fold in gently.

·         Add in the cooled melted butter and gently fold in.

·         Divide and pour the batter into two 8 inch cake tins and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree Celsius for about 10-12 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

·         Cool the cake completely .

  Preparing the syrup
         In a saucepan add sugar and water and stir it until it boils and all the sugar melts.

         Turn off the flame and 2 tbs of brandy. Let it cool down.

  Preparing the filling

Whip the cold cream with icing sugar and vanilla extract for couple of minutes until soft peaks are formed

Assembling the cake

·        Cut  each layer of cake into two and you will get 4 layers of cake.

·        Place the  first  cake layer on a cake stand and pierce with a tooth pick and pour the sugar syrup over it.

·        Spread cream over it evenly

·        Place the next  layer and repeat the process.

·        Cover the whole cake with whipped cream and decorate as you like with fresh cherries/ grated chocolates etc

·        Chill the cake for the flavours to mingle.

Wholemeal bread

               

Hello all…

Unless I start taking food pics in my  phone, my blog is not going to survive because  I haven’t got the time to take my camera out, style it, take pics and edit it after spending all my energy running after a 1 year old ! Hopefully I might get time to do all that again  soon, but until then  I would rather update my blog  with phone pics than losing my tried and tested recipes  fore ever. So here I am with a bread recipe which I have made couple of times with whole meal flour which is a hit in my household. Nothing can beat the taste of freshly baked home made breads …trust me got to make it to believe it !

Recipe adapted from Paul Hollywod

                

Ingredients

Whole meal flour – 250 gm

Strong white bread flour – 250 gm

Salt – 5g

Instant yeast- 8 gm

Unsalted butter – 40 gm

Tepid water – 320 ml

Olive oil

Method

Tip flours, salt, yeast, butter into a bowl, add water little by little and knead until you get smooth dough. You might not need all the water.

Put the roughly kneaded dough into a work surface and knead with little olive oil, folding the dough inwards for couple of minutes until you get a smooth and silky dough.

Place the dough in a bowl and cover it with a tea towel and let the dough proof for one hour or until double in size.

After an hour knock out the air in the dough and knead again, folding inwards until you get smooth dough.

Place the dough into an oiled loaf tin and let it proof again for another hour by covering it with a clean plastic bag.

Preheat the oven to 200 degree C. Put a roasting tray in the oven with hot water to create steam which gives lighter crust.

Place the loaf tin inside and bake the bread for about 35 minutes, you should hear a hollow sound if you tap the base of the bread if it’s cooked.

Let it cool.

Enjoy!