Month: February 2013

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Squidgy (gluten-free) chocolate wrap cake thing

I had forgotten how easy, and quick to make, this ruinous dessert is. It was a regular favourite in the 80s after someone brought one over for a dinner party. I’m not sure of the origin but it could be Delia Smith or Miss Bell. I made it this week for Zoe’s going away dinner – my gorgeous girl is off to university already. We were all amazed at how good it was! There is no flour included but it’s pretty high on the fats and sugars – you can’t have everything I guess when you want your cake and to eat it too! It’s not as formal as a roulade and certainly I like the casual way it is folded.

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Squidgy chocolate wrap cake thing

Cake: 6 eggs (preferably room temp & free range of course!), 5oz caster sugar, 2oz fair trade cocoa (sifted);

Filling: 8oz double cream, block of dark chocolate and/or chocolate cream.

Turn on oven to 180 C degrees (350 F). Oil and line with baking paper a rectangular cake tin or roasting tin. (I used a baking tin with a 12 x 8 inch base).

Separate the eggs and whisk the whites until soft peaks form but not stiff. Then, in a separate bowl, whisk the yolks lightly and add the sugar. When creamy add the sifted cocoa. Fold the whites into the cocoa mixture.

Fold in the whites lightly.

Fold in the whites lightly.

When mixed, pour into the tin and spread evenly. Bake for 15-20 minutes. When it’s cooling, it will contract a bit so don’t be alarmed!

Stretch out a length of baking/greaseproof paper and sprinkle it with icing sugar. When the cake is still warm, tip it out onto the paper.

For the filling you can spread layers of chocolate cream or mouse (see below) and whipped cream; this time I whipped the cream and folded melted dark chocolate into the cream which, as it cooled in the cream, created crackly chocolate striations. I then added a layer of mixed berries.

After spreading on your filling, to make the loose roll, lift the end of the baking paper and roll it over (as per photo). To finish, sprinkle with sifted icing sugar. (Tip: I think it’s easier to fold over when it’s still a little warm, i.e. pliable.)

Chocolate Cream

1/2 cup of butter (100g -ish), 1 egg yolk, 6oz dark 70% chocolate (fair trade, melted and cooled), 1 tbsp cognac or sherry, 1/2 tsp vanilla essence.

Cream the butter, beat in the chocolate, egg yolk, cognac/sherry and vanilla.

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Oatmeal Stuffing for Roast Chicken

Sunday lunch was always a social event while we were growing up. My memories are mostly set at the, what seemed to me at the time, an enormously long table in the upstairs dining room of the Georgian 48 Polwarth Terrace  (I lived there from age 1-10). I can see the 60s blue curtains and similar table cloth, as well as wince at the thought of when I ran full pelt around the table and whacked my head on the corner of a night storage heater – my temple still bears the scar 44 years later! My brothers will recall Sundays at the Buccleugh, Northfield and Carberry dining tables, so it would be nice to hear abut them – boys?

International visitors either studying in Edinburgh or Aussie rellies, teachers and lecturers, friends and adopted maiden aunts frequently joined us. Cousin Ant came back with Mum from Australia in 1971 was a regular at the table, also the Rowlands, Hollingworths, Musich’s and other post grad students who lived in the flat at the back of the house.

It was simple fare – usually roast chicken, sometimes pork, very rarely beef and, once we moved to East Lothian, our home grown delicious Longwood lamb. A fruit crumble, sponge or apple pie with ‘fluff’ usually followed for pudding, in the 60s and 70s.

A perennial factor was the roast chicken’s oatmeal stuffing. I’m not sure where Mum learnt this one, but being oatmeal it sounds quite Scottish, and perhaps Mum learnt it in Aberdeen – perhaps Andy or Dad can tell us?

Andy recorded the simple recipe, over the phone:

OATMEAL STUFFING FOR ROAST CHICKEN

Take an onion and chop up finely.
Put in a pan with about a dessert spoonful of butter and some bacon fat, (if you have it). 
Add a desert spoon of chopped dried herbs and simmer till well mixed.
Keep moist!
Add some chopped streaky bacon.
Then add a cup of oatmeal but not so much it becomes dry. 
Stir and make sure it sticks (or becomes sticky). 
Then stuff in the chicken.

Oatmeal stuffing for roast chicken

Oatmeal stuffing for roast chicken