Cake You Gotta Make - Part 2

My birthday cake is on the menu this week. My Warm Chocolate Fudge Cake with Raspberry Compote, Chocolate Biscuit Ganache & Whipped Salted Caramel Mascarpone will tickle just about anyone’s pickle.

Gooooood Morning Friends!

I hope you are well this week? I am just FINALLY coming through a bout of what I believe was Covid – I tested negative on Monday but this 2 weeker had *all* the covid hallmarks: never ending fatigue, a headache which felt like I could feel my brain pressing against my skull, a sky high fever and a cough which was determined to see me cough up a lung. Thankfully I did not, and many a flu bomb later (a very lethal but VERY effective concoction made up of fresh grated turmeric, grated ginger, a clove of garlic, a tsp of cayenne pepper and one lemon in hot water and drank 3 times a day), I am finally just about feeling myself.

This did mean a rather unconventional birthday spent very low key, very chilled and very much partly in bed BUT you know one thing I will always do? I will ALWAYS pull through for a bit of cake. Sure, I may have made my own cake a few days later than the occasion but BOY was she worth the wait. We are still living out of cardboard boxes over at James Mum & Dad’s house so baking isn’t as swift as it used to be over at the old house where I had my routine locked and nailed to the point I could happily knock out a couple of bakes a day with ease however these days, cardboard box and covid (maybe) dependent, the old baking is taking a teeny tiny bit longer to do so this weeks newsy is gonna be a short one.

Rejoice! Celebrate! For once the newsy won’t knock you out cold and for any of you who read it as a means of a sleep aid, I am sorry to say you will have to resort to alternative methods cause ya girl doesn’t have much to offer this week other than straight up filth.

---

The menu this week is super simple and straight forward – we are keeping it salty, keeping it rich and most importantly, keeping it filthy. We have my birthday cake from this week BUT I am also offering up two *bonus* recipes because unlike many other weeks, we are low on the recipe front as I have been bedbound, but I still want to make sure you are all getting the yum you signed up for.

First up, we have my Birthday Cake, then we have a sneak peek at an upcoming recipe of a Cardamom Loaf with White Chocolate & Lemon and finishing off with a bonus book recipe of my Salted Caramel Basque Cheesecake.

For any of you who were around last year, you may remember my beloved birthday cake of ’23. It was decadent. It was sumptuous. It was gorgeous (in flavour and in looks). After my first forkful of it, I KNEW it had to go on my hypothetical bakery menu (we still be manifesting folks) and honestly, I didn’t know how I was ever going to outdo it. My Chocolate Fudge Sponge with Dulce de Leche still remains etched in my brain and frequents my thoughts on the regs but…I fear I may have outdone myself this time round. I fear I have screwed over future Rubes for any other birthday cakes because how does it get better than this years one?

How does it get better than a WARM CHOCOLATE FUDGE SPONGE WITH CHOCOLATE BISCUIT GANACHE, RASPBERRY COMPOTE AND WHIPPED SALTED CARAMEL MASCARPONE CREAM???? HOW????????

WARM. FOLKS. WE WARM UP THE SLICE UNTIL THE SPONGE IS WARM, THE CREAM IS SLOPPY (for once this is a good thing), THE GANACHE IS SMOOTH AND THE RASPBERRY IS JUST…well, raspberry. Sorry for screaming the deets at you but you know when something is just so good that you don’t know how else to convey it other than just *imagine clenching your fists and giving them a shake* so thought capital letters was the only way to convince you. Did it work? I hope so, but if it didn’t, feast your eyes on this baby…

See!! I told you!!! Smushy, delicious, has its sh*t together yet is sloppy in all the right places. It is perfect. It’s rich, it’s indulgent, it’s sumptuous, yumptuous, salted and sweet. Smooth, scoopable or forkable, delightful hot or cold. Serve it up as a slither or slab, underbake it (as I will always opt to do), make it till it’s just baked or overbake it; construct it as a sandwich cake like me, or half the quants to make a single layer tray bake to spoon up into bowls as a pudding.

Do it your way but make it my way. I PROMISE YOU she is a keeper.

Recipe Makes: 2 x 20 cm / 8 inch sponges

Recipe Serves: A LOT