Chocolate Liquorice Cake

I know I have been away for quite a while and so much has happened since I last updated this blog!

I have been handed my 5 week notice from the Civil Service and am looking to find a new job asap.  Although I knew this was coming for a little while now it still feels as though you’ve just walked into a glass wall.  You know, that shocking impact that comes out of nowhere and leaves a bewildered and slightly quizzical look on your face.   

Being handed your notice is like having the ground fall out from under your feet.  You feel queasy and sick.  You feel as if things don’t seem right or taste right and you feel very very scared.  I’m an optimist for the most part and believe everything happens for a reason but those first few days after being told the news were unpleasant to put it mildly.

So although I have put my head down and have been applying for jobs virtually non-stop for the past couple of months I have to admit I have found a lot of solace in baking when I’ve had the time to do it. 

This cake has been in the ‘idea section’ of my notes/favourites folder for a long time.  I like the taste of liquorice; it’s almost like a sharper sweeter version of cinnamon but without cinnamons complexity.  Almost a single note sweetness which I feel cuts through the taste of chocolate very well.  I’ve tried this combination before with my Upside Down Chocolate Plum and Aniseed Cake, where I paired the chocolate and plums with star anise, so I know that the chocolate/liquorice combo works well. 

Instead of using star anise this time though I used a liquorice bar which I chopped up and melted down in water which was then added to the cake.  I found a chocolate cake recipe which used a lot of water in the batter in order to achieve this.

The Easy Chocolate Cake recipe is one I’ve used many times.  True to its name, you just dunk all the ingredients into a bowl and mix, then mix in the water at the end.  I was thinking of trying this with mint leaves where you boil the water with fresh/dried mint and add to the recipe instead of mint flavouring – I wonder if the mint flavour will be strong enough to show up in the chocolate cake though...

Anyway the cake was lovely and soft with a nice dense fudgy texture but not too heavy.  It cut very well and the ganache goes very well with it.  Unfortunately the liquorice flavour wasn’t as strong as I expected it to be so I would definitely increase the liquorice from one bar to two bars.  Saying that though, the liquorice flavour seemed to get stronger on the 3^rd day (yes there was still some left over on day 3 – you only need a little slice to satisfy your chocolate craving) so the flavour somehow developed and deepened.  I would still increase the liquorice though and I’ve included the modification in the recipe below.

Chocolate Liquorice Cake

·         225g plain flour

·         350g caster sugar

·         85g cocoa powder

·         1 ½ tsp baking powder

·         1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

·         2 free range eggs

·         250ml milk

·         125ml vegetable oil

·         2 tsp vanilla extract

·         250 ml boiling water

·         2 bars liquorice, chopped up (I used Panda All Natural Soft Liquorice Bar)

Preheat oven to 180 C, prepare two 8” round baking tins.

Boil the water with chopped liquorice until all the liquorice is dissolved.   Pour into a measuring jug and top up to 250ml again as some water will have evaportated.

In a large bowl, beat all the ingredients except the flavoured hot water until well mixed. 

Gradually add the boiling water until mixed in smoothly.  The batter will be very watery.

Divide the batter between the two tins and bake for about 30-35 minutes.  The cakes will be done when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Allow to cool before icing.

Chocolate Ganache

·         200ml double cream

·         200g dark chocolate (I used Callebaut Fortina 65% dark chocolate)

Heat the cream until it just comes to a simmer and is heated through – don’t allow it to boil.

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and leave alone for at least a minute.

With a whisk, gently start moving the mixture in small circles until you see a deep chocolate stain form, after which mix the whole until it is a uniform deep chocolate colour.  Don’t mix more than you need to. 

Leave the ganache covered to cool down and become spreadable.

Ice the two halves of the cake together.

Add some dark chocolate curls for decoration (again mines were from Callebaut - just saying for information sake, no product placement intended!).

Upside Down Chocolate, Plum and Aniseed Cake

I have to say I’m very proud of this cake.  I wanted to create a fudgy but not too rich chocolate cake and it turned out to be even more luxuriously chocolaty and soft than expected.  This is indulgence without the heaviness.

I always wonder at how cocoa powder on its own manages to impart a chocolatiness that exceeds even that of good chocolate itself.  I remember that about a year ago I endeavoured to make a cake I saw online at a website called Epicurious.com.  This cake had one of the highest ratings on the site and is featured in their ‘Best Ever Cakes’ section.  Called the ‘Double Chocolate Layer Cake’, it uses a blend of actual chocolate and cocoa powder in the batter, and a fair good amount too.  With these quantities I had such high hopes for this cake and was so utterly disappointed.  I couldn’t believe the high ratings.  So I made it again (in a giant cupcake mould).  And again the chocolate taste was there but almost muted.   

I realised then that the chocolate cakes I had had before this one all contained cocoa powder and no chocolate, which is why I am now of the opinion that cocoa powder and not actual chocolate is what makes chocolate cake chocolaty.

I have to concede there have been a few exceptions to this since then, but not many.  The most notable being the ‘Chocolate Buttermilk Cake’ from Tea with Bea which became a firm favourite for a while and was made numerous times which is why I have gone off it a bit now (although I will come back to it I’m sure because that was a great tasting cake).

This cake is now my new favourite and I will be making it again when a chocolate cake is called for.  Unfortunately that’s not very often as my family aren’t as keen on chocolate cake as they are on a good vanilla sponge.  I know it seems crazy but it’s true.  My dad outright refuses to even taste chocolate cake anymore despite my pleas.  I just can’t understand how someone can not like chocolate cake but there you go.

This cake was amazingly soft with a beautiful tender texture.  As mentioned already, it was chocolaty but not too rich and had just the right hint of anise in the batter and the sauce.

I thought putting the aniseed flavour into the plums, cake and chocolate sauce might be a little too much but it wasn’t.  The aniseed flavour was not mild but not dominating either.  It took the chocolate taste into a new angle and one which suited it very well. 

Some people weren’t too overly keen on the addition of the plums but I loved them.  They soften even more in the oven making them very easy to cut through but still adding a new texture to each mouthful, and the plum, chocolate and aniseed flavours mesh very well together.

The chocolate sauce though was what brought it together and gave the cake a pudding-like indulgence.  I had left over ganache from my Banana, Chocolate and Caramel Tart lying in the fridge, which was very difficult to salvage as everyone started scooping spoonfuls out once they saw what it was and how it tasted.  I heated up what I could save in a saucepan until it was fluid again.   

To this I added some of the caramel sauce that the plums had been cooking in and which now had a gorgeous plumy caramel flavour and colour.  This imparted the aniseed hint to the chocolate sauce and the whole was just the perfect topping for the cake.

A word of warning though – the sauce makes this cake very messy.  I got it all over my sleeve, my mum got it all over her sleeve, a guest got it all down her front, everyone got it over their hands (despite using spoons) and one of the kids even managed to get the cordless phone covered with it.

Upside Down Chocolate, Plum and Aniseed Cake (own recipe)

For the plums:

·         4 plums, halved and de-stoned

·         50g butter

·         3-4 tbsp sugar (any sugar – I used dark muscavado)

·         5 star anise

For the cake:

·         100ml water

·         5 star anise

·         1 egg

·         50ml single cream

·         50ml Greek yoghurt

·         65ml vegetable oil

·         ¼ tsp vanilla paste

·         75g plain flour

·         50g spelt flour

·         40g cocoa powder

·         1 tsp baking powder

·         ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
200g caster sugar

·         Pinch of salt

For the chocolate sauce:

·         200g dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces

·         200ml single cream

Prepare the plums by melting the butter in a wide frying pan and adding in the sugar and the star anise.  Let the sugar melt and bubble for a bit, then add in plums cut-side down.  On a very low heat these will take about half an hour to soften up.  You need to keep these on low heat because you don’t want the caramel to burn, just gently simmer away with plum halves.  I flipped them over for about 10 minutes at one point, so that the rounded sides got some heat too.

While the plums are cooking, boil the water and star anise together so that the aniseed flavour infuses into the water.  The longer you can do this the better as the flavour will be more intense – remember to top up the water as it will evaporate – you need to have 100ml for the cake batter.

Preheat oven to 180 C, prepare a 7” round cake tin.  Place the softened plum halves in the tin with the cut sides facing down.  Spoon a little of the caramel (which turns a beautiful deep caramelised plum colour) over the plums, about 2-3 tablespoons, leaving the rest for later on.

In the meantime, prepare the cake by sifting the flours, cocoa, raising agents, sugar and salt, together in a large bowl.  Mix the wet ingredients together including 100mls of the aniseed flavoured water.  Pour the wet into the dry ingredients and mix just until all the flour has been incorporated.

Pour the batter over the plums in the tin.  Bake for about 40 minutes, checking to see if it’s done after 35 minutes.

While the cake is baking, make your chocolate sauce by placing the chocolate in a bowl and placing the cream in a saucepan over a medium heat.  You’re essentially making a soft ganache here so when the cream is just starting to boil, take it off the heat and pour it over the chocolate pieces.  Leave for about a minute then begin to gently stir with a whisk until the chocolate and cream has emulsified.  Then take the remaining plum caramel left in the pan (ideally you should have at least 2-3 tablespoons left of this) and add it to the ganache.  This should be a sauce like consistency so if you feel it is too thick add a little more cream to thin (don’t add the cream cold from the fridge - warm it up first).

Once the cake is baked leave it to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before very carefully turning it out onto a serving platter.  Pour the sauce on top and serve.