Chocolate Fudge Cake

I've neglected my blog recently but I'm back and hope to blog more regular. I have still been baking and cooking but I post about it all on my Facebook page. I find it's quicker and I don't have to do a  big write up like on here, not that I have to on here but you get my drift. If you haven't joined my Facebook page, please do so and say hello. 

I baked this cake for Mother's Day last Sunday, a favourite in our home and always a hit, my boys loved it. This weekend I am baking the obligatory Chocolate Guinness Cake or cupcakes for St Paddy's Day. 

Have a great weekend and I will be back next week to blog my Guinness cake.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Ingredients

For the cake:

400g plain flour

250g golden caster sugar

100g light brown muscovado sugar

50g cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 medium eggs

142ml sour cream

1 tbsp vanilla extract

175g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

125ml corn oil

300ml water, chilled

For the fudge icing:

175g dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids

250g unsalted butter, softened

275g icing sugar, sieved

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180oC/fan 160oC/gas mark 4.

Butter and line the bottom of two 20cm sandwich tins.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt. In another bowl or wide-necked measuring jug whisk together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla until blended. Using a freestanding or handheld electric mixer, beat together the melted butter and corn oil until just blended (you'll need another large bowl for this if using the hand whisk; the freestanding mixer comes with its own bowl), then beat in the water. Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix together on a slow speed. Add the egg mixture, and mix again until everything is blended and then pour into the prepared tins. And actually, you could easily do this manually.

Bake the cakes for 50-55 minutes, or until a cake-tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes in their tins on a wire rack for 15 minutes, and then turn the cakes out onto the rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, melt the chocolate in the microwave - 2-3 minutes on medium should do it - or in a bowl sitting over a pan of simmering water, and let cool slightly.

In another bowl beat the butter until it's soft and creamy (again, I use the KitchenAid here) and then add the sieved icing sugar and beat again until everything's light and fluffy. I know sieving is a pain, the one job in the kitchen I really hate, but you have to do it or the icing sugar will be unsoothingly lumpy. Then gently add the vanilla and chocolate and mix together until everything is glossy and smooth.

Sandwich the middle of the cake with about a quarter of the icing sugar, and then ice the top and sides too, spreading and smoothing with a rubber spatula.

Pasta with Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

This pasta dish of meatballs in tomato sauce has to be one of our all time favourites which I have been making for years. It is a Nigella Lawson recipe and features in the Nigella Bites Cookbook. The rolling of the meatball is quite time-consuming but I find it quite therapeutic and I can’t help but feel like an Italian mama in the kitchen. If you are a pasta lover this is definitely a must try, the combined flavours of the meatballs cooked in the passata sauce leaves the tongue craving more, even when the belly is screaming “please, no more”! This is one pasta dish that the “Godfather” himself could not refuse.

Pasta with Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Ingredients
For the meatballs
250g pork, minced
250g beef, minced
1 egg
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp Oregano
3 tbsp semolina, or breadcrumbs
1 pinch Pepper
1 tsp Salt

For the tomato sauce
1 onion
2 garlic clove
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp Olive oil, (not extra-virgin)
700g tomato passata (sieved tomatoes)
1 pinch Sugar
1 pinch salt and pepper
100ml full cream milk

To make the meatballs, just put everything in a large bowl, and then, using your hands, mix to combine, before shaping into small balls. Place the meatballs on baking sheets or plates that you have lined with clingfilm, and put in the fridge as you finish them.

To make the tomato sauce, put the onion, garlic and oregano into the process and blitz to a pulp. Heat the butter and oil in a deep wide pan, then scrape the onion-garlic mix into it and cook over a low-medium for about 10 minutes. Don’t let the mixture catch, just let it become soft. Add the bottle of passata and then fill the empty bottle half full with cold water. Add this to the pan with the pinch of sugar, some salt and pepper, and cook for about 10 minutes. The tomato sauce will appear thin at this stage, but don’t worry as it will thicken a little later. Stir in the milk, and then drop the meatballs in one by one. Don’t stir the pan until the meatballs have turned from pink to brown as you don’t want to break them up. Cook everything for about 20 minutes, with the lid only partially covering it. At the end of cooking time, check the seasoning as you may want more salt and a grind or two more of pepper. Serve with pasta of your choice and a sprinkle of parmesan.