Just a quick one

Hey there everyone, Long time no see!

Sorry its taken a while for me to post anything but my new job is keeping me busier than i thought it would. In addition to that i haven't had much time to cook anyone worth talking about.

However, A birthday has just gone by and inevitably i was conscripted (is that the right word?) to make something.

Now.. the fun thing about being able to cook is that i will never be short of a present or a surprise for anyone. Whenever i use to mess up with my ex-girlfriends i would usually be able to smooth it over by making something nice... and usually with chocolate or liqueur in it... or maybe even both depending on how badly i screwed up Lol!



So its come to April the 4th and i'm happily lying in bed when my youngest sister walks by my door carrying a present.... I'm like "oh whats that for".... She replies... "Um.... its Amanda's birthday Matthew....... OMG YOU FORGOT!! I'M TELLING!!!"

Lol turns out ive forgotten my Other sisters birthday....

So naturally i panic slightly, then i remember i had some flour and stuff in the pantry, enough to make a cake perhaps, but certainly enough to get me out of trouble with cookies or something at a push lol.

So here it goes!

Black Forest Forgetmenot Cake!



Ingredients

(It was a pretty big cake so feel free to half these values if ur making a smaller one)

200g Softened butter
200g Self raising flour
3 Eggs
180G Castor sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla essence
100g cocoa powder
40g hot chocolate powder
1 Tin black cherries (i think thats 325ml in a normal tin)

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together and then when full incorporated add the eggs one at a time slowly and beat them in.

2. Add the vanilla essence to this mixture and set aside

3. Sift the remaining dry ingredients into a separate bowl (i was lazy and sifted them right into the first bowl with the wet stuff)

4. Mix all the ingredients together and then when fully mixed remove most of the jelly surrounding the cherries and stir in the cherries. (you can save the jelly for other things if u want, but it wont be used int his recipe)

5. Grease up a cake tin, set the over to 180 (do this first lol) and then whack it in! give it about 25 minutes before checking on it, and poke it in the middle wtih a skewer to make sure the cake is done.

6. When it is done set it to the side and leave to cool. It will be difficult to decorate if it is still hot/warm

Chocolate frosting

For the chocolate frosting i improvised and (without my ego exploding too much) the texture and taste came out perfectly.

50g butter
100g cream cheese
180g chocolate (i used milk chocolate)
80g icing sugar

This is a really simple method. Just melt the chocolate in a banmarie or in a glass bowl over some water on a stove... or if ur in a rush, for 1 minute int he microwave then take it out and stir.

Once the chocolate is melted, stir it into a combination of butter and cream cheese and icing sugar. Mix until fully incorporated, it should go quite stiff and then just put it into your piping bag and GO GO GO!

Now what i did on the sides of the cake is to use the remaining frosting that i didn't use on the top to cover the sides. And then using the remaining pistachio nuts i had in the previous post, i chopped them up and (with a lil bit of difficulty) stuck them to the frosting that is on the sides.

Good luck guys, and remember.... Chocolate is ALWAYS a good present lol.

Enjoy!