... Little recipe

By popular demand, here is the recipe for the cake from Friday's post.

4oz/100g unrefined soft brown sugar
4oz/100g softened butter
2oz/50g self raising flour
2oz/50g ground almonds
2oz/50g cocoa powder
2 large eggs (or 2 medium and a splash of milk)
A few drops of almond essence - Not almond flavouring as it's cheap and nasty and made of chemicals.
4oz/100g dark chocolate drops or chopped chocolate

Mix up everything except for the chocolate with a hand mixer or in a food processor. Don't mix for too long otherwise all the air will be beaten out of it and it won't rise so well. Stir in the chocolate by hand, then you're ready to bake. But first, you must choose your tin. Actually, you probably should have done the tin-choosing before you started mixing. This recipe is good for making individual cakes (about 12) in muffin tins, or one large cake in an 8inch/20cm square tin - Remember to line the tin with baking parchment/paper.
Oh, and you should've turned the oven on, too, so it's hot by the time you've finished mixing. Gas mark 4, or 180 degrees should be fine. Maybe about 170 if you have a fan assisted oven?
Bake the muffin-style cakes for 15-20 minutes or until just firm to the touch. The large cake may take 20-25 minutes.

If you have an Apocalypse Oven like mine, put your space suit on, and pick up the tin of raw cake mix. Open the oven door and hold the tin in front of you - DO NOT PUT IT IN THE OVEN! If your face plate hasn't cracked from the intense heat, you should notice the cake is cooked after a few seconds. Shut the oven door, and relax as your space suit's internal cooling fans struggle to bring your body temperature down to comfortable levels. Swear at Apocalypse Oven and kick it as you walk past to the kitchen counter where you can put the cake onto a cooling rack.

You might like to have a nice glass of wine while the cake is cooling. Possibly even two. Personally, I prefer to finish the bottle - 'Waste not, want not' as the saying goes. Alternatively, why not try a nice gin & tonic or twelve?

Once the cake is cool, and you haven't lost your hand-eye coordination from one too many gins, you can decorate it as you see fit. I spread the muffin-style cakes with chocolate icing/frosting and sprinkle grated chocolate on top. Or, if I've made a square cake, I cut it in half making two rectangles, spread chocolate icing on one, put the other half on top, then spread that with icing too.
Friday's cake was made in a special mini-cake pan with six individual round 'tins'. I sandwiched two of the mini cakes together with icing, spread more icing on top, sprinkled it with grated chocolate and finished off with crystalised violet petals.

I've found that this cake has a moister texture to it if it's left overnight in an airtight tin before eating it. But if you want to wolf it down right away, go ahead!