A seventies cake for a seventies chick - Black Forest Victoria Cake

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Retro. That’s me. And that being the case, it was only fitting that my birthday cake of choice would also be, like me, of a seventies vintage, the Black Forest Gateau. I don’t care if it’s naff, the combination of chocolate, cream and cherries is, quite frankly, lush, and I thumb my nose to all you dinner party aficionados who think it a gastronomic crime to serve this after your prawn cocktail and your duck a l’orange… (I lurve duck a l’orange by the way…)

I was flicking through some cookery books for an idea as to what to indulge myself with (and force upon others) for my birthday and when the book fell open on this cake I thought to myself, bingo… I have all the ingredients, so no visit to the supermarket (a dangerous business when you are in the midst of ‘healthy eating’ and feel like eating your own arms…) and I like chocolate. And cherries. And cream. And more chocolate. If I am abandoning my current pastime of living virtuously, albeit temporarily, then this is a beautiful way to do it.

This recipe is from ‘Gorgeous Cakes’ by Annie Bell. A completely apt title if you ask me. I made some adaptions, like adding some vanilla extract and salt to the chocolate cake mix, for chocolate likes vanilla and needs salt for that chocolatey ‘hit’. I brushed the warm cakes over with some kirsch because I don’t believe that you can ever have too much of a good thing, and I sweetened the cream with some vanilla and a little icing sugar. Because I can.

The other nice thing about Black Forest Gateau is that you can make it look as pretty as a picture. It didn’t need the 42 candles that should have gone on it. Just as well really as I imagine that such an amount of candles constitutes some kind of fire hazard.

Black Forest Victoria, adapted from ‘Gorgeous Cakes’ by Annie Bell

Makes a 1 20cm cake with sides of 9cm deep, (but I divided the mixture into three 18cm sandwich tins)

Ingredients:

For the cake -

225g unsalted butter, at room temperature

200g golden caster sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

1tsp vanilla extract

200g self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

25g cocoa powder, sifted

4 medium eggs

100ml milk

Pinch of salt

10 – 15ml kirsch, for brushing over the cake

For the filling –

Half a jar of black cherry jam

1 tbsp kirsch

350ml double cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

To decorate:

Approx 50g of grated chocolate (Should have used dark chocolate, chose to use milk due to fussy children!)

Cherries (I used some from a jar)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c and prepare tins by greasing and then lining the bottoms with greaseproof paper.

The original recipe recommends putting all the ingredients together and creaming them until combined. Rightly or wrongly I did it the way mama taught me, that is, creaming the butter with the sugar, then added the syrup, the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, putting a spoonful of flour into the mix after each egg to stop the mixture from splitting. Then I added the flour alternately with the milk and mixed to only just combined. Lastly, I added the salt and then for the final mix together I used a spatula to ensure that all the mixture was combined.

Pour the mixture into the tin(s). If using the sandwich tins then bake for about 20 mins, until the cake is firm to the touch and has shrunk away from the sides of the tin. If baking in the recommended tin, bake for about 55 mins or until a toothpick placed into the centre of the cake comes out clean).

Once the cakes come out of the oven and whilst still warm, brush a little of the kirsch over the top of the cake(s). If you are making one cake then you will need to cut the cake into layers.

To make the filling: Whip up the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla until it forms pretty stiff peaks which will hold whilst piping. Do not overbeat.

Put the jam into a bowl and loosen with the kirsch. Grate the chocolate.

To assemble. Once cool, spread jam over the layer and then pipe some cream on. Place the next layer onto the cake and then repeat the process.

On the top layer, brush the jam over the top and then cover the jam with grated chocolate. Once the top is completely covered in chocolate, pipe the top decoratively. Adorn the cake with pitted cherries.

Don your bell bottoms and Cuban heels and then serve to all and sundry.

I'm thinking of France - Provencal chicken

 

 

 

 

Actually, I am often thinking of France. I don't know if I am so disenchanted by this country  that I see France as some kind of example of the good life,  although I think the warm sun, a sense of society and a two hour lunch has a lot going for it. In fairness I could also counter that with the fact that trying to get anything done in August is a thankless task because everyone is on holiday and maybe, thinking about it, it should be. I don't really appreciate the way that so many of us are worked like dogs for so little tangible benefit and maybe a little more time where you could actually stop and appreciate the simplicity of life rather than not seeing any of it because you're sat in front of a computer screen or (insert suitable phrase for whatever is the bane of your working life) for hours on end would be beneficial to all of us.  Anyway, before this gets too overly political, let me just say that I see myself with a little house with a little bit of land -nothing grand, just room enough for a little pool and somewhere to put a table and chairs, and then the rest given over to an array of fruit trees, rows of herbs and a veg plot where I don't have to be concerned about whether my tomatoes ripen or not. Because they will. I have, too many times, converted those sad looking green things withering on the vine in my garden into some kind of green tomato chutney because it's been yet another year of Atlantic storms and general greyness.

 

And if I were somewhere in, say, Provence, I might get on my bike one morning (yes, really!) and go off to the market and buy myself a chicken and a few other bits and bobs, and I might return home and cook something like this and the heady smells of rosemary and garlic will envelop my simple little kitchen just as it did when I made this in my real kitchen. If you want one of those meals which has you feeling hungry half an hour before you are due to eat it because is smells so damn good, then this is the one for you.

 

And, it is so easy to make - far easier than roasting a chicken and the meat is moist, flavourful and falls off the bone.

 

Provencal Chicken, loosely based on the version from the Low Carb Cookbook by Annie Bell

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad

 

Ingredients:

 

olive oil

one medium free range chicken

two - three onions, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

12 - 15 cherry tomatoes

150ml white wine

2 tsp chopped rosemary

a handful of green and black olives, pitted (optional)

salt and pepper

 

(There is an option to make a type of pistou with this, by blitzing basil leaves with olive oil, but I didn't bother as Lola and Finn are not pistou (or, indeed 'pesto') fans. One day they will discover that just because it is green, it is not horrible...)

 

Method:

 

Sadly blurred, but you catch the drift...

 

Rub a little of the olive oil onto the whole chicken and season it. Then, in a large enough pot that will contain the chicken and the sauce once assembled, start to brown the chicken all over. Remove to a plate.

 

 

 

Add a little more olive oil to the pan and start to sauté the sliced onions over a medium heat for about five minutes or so until they are translucent. Add the garlic and cook briefly until it is fragrant, but take care not to burn it.

 

 

 

Add the wine, the tomatoes and the rosemary and stir together. Season. Place the chicken on top of the sauce and put the lid on the pot. Lower the heat and cook for about an hour or so, until the juices from a knife inserted into the thickest part of the chicken run clear.

 

 

 

At this point, you can remove the chicken to a plate, wrap it in foil and allow it to rest for a little whilst you attend to the sauce. It may be that the sauce is greasy (mine wasn't) but you can allow the sauce to settle and skim any fat off the top. It may also be that the sauce is too liquid. If that is the case, raise the heat and reduce the sauce.

 

If you are using the olives, stir them into the sauce once you have removed the chicken and allow them to warm through. Check the seasoning. It should be very intensely tasting, to counteract the relative blandness of the chicken.

 

 

 

 

 

Serve the chicken and the sauce together - you could bulk this out with potatoes or rice or salad if you like.

 

 

 

 

Take it easy chicken! Chicken and Pepper Traybake

 

 

This is so easy and so good. And colourful too, from the moment you scatter the ingredients over the bottom of the tray to the point where you put it all on the plate, this is food to make you feel summery. A scattering of parsley makes the red and yellows brighter somehow, and then you have the golden glow of the roast chicken, nestled, waiting to be torn from the bone, if you are Finn that is. His general finickity behaviour does not stretch to 'meat with bones' surprisingly. He relishes sucking every inch of sinew from the bones and licking his fingers. I have often said that the 21st century is not necessarily the place for his preferred way of eating; instead I see him at some long table in a draughty castle round about the time of Henry VIII, devouring with gusto whatever had been hunted in the name of survival.

 

Anyway, I am not sure one of our most famous monarchs would have gone for this tray bake - mainly because I don't think we had the peppers back then, but luckily we do now. I am wondering whether there is any better taste than a roasted pepper, and with a splosh of balsamic vinegar to finish, it makes them even better.

 

The inspiration for this recipe was from Annie Bell's 'Low Carb Cookbook'. She cooked this with chicken breasts, but I only had boned thighs. I deviated from the recipe by browning my chicken thighs in a frying pan first before putting them on a bed of peppers, onions and herbs, thinking that it might speed up the cooking process a little bit; I didn't want cremated vegetables and undercooked chicken. I also tried to drain off some of the oil, once the chicken and vegetables were cooked and then try to reduce the chicken, pepper and herb flavoured sauce a little. I did find that what sauce there was needed seasoning and a couple of teaspoons of balsamic vinegar to make it zing.

 

The good thing is that it was one of those meals which is healthy, lacking in faff and quick. 5 minutes prep and 30 - 40 minutes cooking and you have yourself something wonderful to eat.

 

Chicken and Pepper Tray Bake, adapted from 'The Low Carb Cookbook' by Annie Bell

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad

 

Ingredients:

 

two onions, sliced

two red peppers and two yellow peppers, cut into chunky slices.

a teaspoon of dried thyme and oregano

olive oil for drizzling

six chicken thighs, bone in and skin on

salt and pepper

two tsp of balsamic vinegar, or more to taste.

chopped parsley, for scattering

 

Method:

 

Preheat the oven to 180c

 

 

 

Scatter the onions and peppers over the bottom of a suitable tray. drizzle with the olive oil, salt and pepper and the herbs. Mix it around to ensure everything is evenly coated.

 

 

 

Put some olive oil into a frying pan. Season the chicken then put it skin side down into the pan to brown the skin.

 

 

 

Once the chicken thighs are brown, place them amongst the onions and peppers.

 

 

 

Cook for about 30 - 40 minutes, or until the vegetables have begun to caramelise and the chicken juices run clear when a knife is inserted into the thickest part of the meat.

 

 

 

Remove the chicken to a board and taste the peppers and onions. They may need more seasoning. Stir the balsamic vinegar into the tray and taste again.

 

 

 

Serve the chicken with a helping of peppers and onions. I served a bit of couscous on the side.