Goth cake

[shewhomust]

I baked a Goth cake yesterday. That's not what the recipe calls it, but it has many black ingredients (prunes, treacle, dark beer), and what's more, I managed to switch the oven off while it was baking (pure inattention, I was trying to switch the grill on), so it also came out slightly sad. Goth cake, what else?

The recipe comes from the Guardian, but I had thrown it away, so credit is actually due to Sue, who baked the cake and brought it along on a walk. It was good enough that I decided to bake one myself, and took it along on our first visit to samarcand and Candy in their new home - which is already very comfortable in the spaces between the boxes, and they are working very hard to enlarge (and decorate) those spaces.

Disclaimer: the recipe tells you to ice the cake. I didn't. I practically never do, because a) it's just more sugar, and who needs it? and b) it means you have to bake the cake early enough for it to cool down before you ice it, and that never seems to happen.

Comments

[artistatlarge.livejournal.com]

Goth cake! How can I resist? I followed the link and gakked the recipe at once.

Will have to get some proper kitchen scales to make it, I suppose, but based on your recommendation- sounds well worth the investment!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Last time I looked, you were doing some serious cooking: how have you managed without scales so far? If it's because you're used to cup measurements, it can't be too hard to convert these...

On the other hand, I find scales much easier to use: but no doubt that's a matter of habit!

[artistatlarge.livejournal.com]

The biggest difference between cooking in North America and the UK- here, measurements are almost universally given in volumes, not weight. So yes, cups and spoons.

But I do remember baking in England using scales, and I do have a Delia book I'd like to use more...

You're so right, though, we are indeed creatures of habit!

(My Serious Cooking of last weekend paid off: I had enough food for three hungry people all week, and still some left over. Whew!)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Goth cake sounds great, all of it (except the orange icing) sounds fab - but, ummm. Aniseed. Am I man enough? I've just been bragging in another comment how macho I am food-wise, how I'll eat anything - but. Um. Aniseed. Cake...

[backs slowly away, making vague see-you-later, when-I've-thought-about-this gestures]

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with orange icing (other than the sheer faff of icing cakes, and I know you're not a man to flinch from that)?

I used fennel - with some hesitation over the quantity, but went for it anyway, and it's good: identifiable if you know what it is, but not overbearing.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Orange icing on an aniseed cake? Hrrrmph...

Actually, this is probably just a reflection of my general suspicion towards the uses of orange as a flavour. Particularly, the world is mad to mix orange and chocolate, and that's bad. Baaaaad. And here we are with another dark sweet dense rich thing, and - nah, what for does it need or want to be glossed over with orange?

[NB - I am not anti-orange per se. I do a St Clements cake - oranges and lemons - which is fab; I use oranges many times, for many things. Just not in chocolate, ever, and not often as a topping or an extra flavour to complement or contrast something other. It's a Chaz thing.]