Chocolate Gingerbread Cake

It's my younger son's birthday next week, he will be a very grown up 24 years old, which is far too old for my little boy!  Anyway as he lives in Glasgow, we made the trip up there today to take him and his girlfriend out for lunch and deliver his birthday cake.

I took this opportunity to make a chocolate gingerbread a la Nigella but not as a traybake type cake rather a proper birthday cake.  The mixture made two 20cm sandwich tin cakes and, as a bonus, a little loaf tin which we kept for ourselves!

This cake is for those who like their chocolate cakes dark, rich and spicy but I didn't fancy the icing recommended in the recipe.  I asked my twitter friends whether I should make a ganache or buttercream and got  a mixed response.  In the end I decided to go with a basic buttercream flavoured with cinnamon extract and decorated the top with pieces of crystalised ginger and shavings of dark chocolate. 

There wasn't an opportunity to taste the cake when we visited (just as well I have my bonus cake) but my son was impressed by the idea of a chocolate gingerbread cake and loved the look of the cake.



I'm entering this cake for We Should Cocoa, the theme for this month is chocolate and ginger.  The challenge is run by Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog and Chele at Chocolate Teapot.  This month it is being hosted by Jen at Blue Kitchen Bakes

The cake was made using Food Thoughts Fair Trade Cocoa for Fairtrade Fortnight.

Fairtrade Fortnight (25 February – 10 March) will call on the British public to Go Further for Fairtrade in 2013 to look after the food we love and the people who grow it. Without our support now, farmers in developing countries face a difficult and uncertain future.
The two-week long campaign will highlight the need to think about where our food comes from, and through an interactive petition will call on the government to take action before the 2013 G8 Summit. The petition will signal the start of a three-year long campaign by Fairtrade Foundation – ‘Make Food Fair’.

Go further this Fairtrade Fortnight at www.fairtrade.org.uk/gofurther

Smallholders in developing countries are increasingly hit by fluctuating commodity prices affecting their income and the prices they pay for the food they buy themselves, rising global food prices, rising production costs, and climate change.

Fairtrade Fortnight is the nationwide effort to promote awareness of Fairtrade and urge people to buy products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark. It unites all Fairtrade supporters, bringing together retailers, manufacturers, producers and consumers.

This year thousands of people up and down the country will get creative with their Fairtrade campaigning to highlight the importance of small holder farmers in agriculture and their role in food security. Fabulous sculptures made from Fairtrade product packaging will form the centrepiece of this year’s local campaign -  towns, villages, churches, colleges and schools across the nation have already begun creating installations, collages and even tea cosies as protest petitions to deliver to MPs and commercial organisations to ask for change. Their creativity will be uploaded to www.fairtrade.org.uk/gofurther to form a visual online petition.

Michael Gidney, chief executive of the Fairtrade Foundation, says: ‘Companies and governments need to make a stand to ensure small farmers can achieve sustainable livelihoods and play their full role in building fairer, better food systems for the future. Choosing Fairtrade is one way to help secure a better deal for millions of people in developing countries, so we want people to try a new Fairtrade product or create a work of art to ask for change. From the 25 February, they will also be able to pledge their support in a new, exciting way, so watch this space.’

Farmers and co-operative members from Malawi, Costa Rica, Uganda and St Lucia will visit various locations around the UK during Fairtrade Fortnight, giving talks and hosting discussions on what Fairtrade means to their livelihoods, and the need to Go Further.

Businesses are also doing their bit to go further this Fairtrade Fortnight, from pop-up Fairtrade shops to new Fairtrade certified products. From Fairtrade Fortnight 2013, every single KIT KAT 2 Finger sold in the UK will be Fairtrade certified, while Divine Chocolate will be opening the doors to its first ever POP UP shop. The organic and Fairtrade chocolate company will also be unveiling two brand new flavours – Divine Dark 70% Chocolate with Chilli & Orange, and Milk Chocolate with Toffee & Salt. Tate & Lyle have unveiled their new Golden Syrup Fairtrade cane sugar, while Liberation is going further by supporting a new peanut processing plant in Malawi.

Labels: Blue Kitchen Bakes, chocolate, chocolate gingerbread, Chocolate Log Blog, Chocolate Teapot, Gingerbread, Nigella Lawson

posted by Janice @ 19:37 10 Comments

Nigella's Sticky Chocolate Pudding

We only eat puddings at the weekend and I try to make something on Saturday that will do for Sunday as well.  I wasn't sure what I was going to make but it had to be something messy and sticky (more of this later in the week) so sugar was going to feature and I had a big bar of dark chocolate and a new tub of Green and Blacks Cocoa powder.  Some rootling around in the recipe books and I found Nigella Lawson's  Sticky Chocolate Pudding from 'How to Eat'.



What happens is that the sponge rises to the top and you have a lovely chocolate sauce in the bottom of the dish.



On Saturday I served it with soured cream.  I then divided the remaining pudding into ramekins and on Sunday reheated it in the microwave and served with ice-cream.

I would thoroughly recommend this pud.  You get between 6-9 servings, depending on how greedy you are!

I'm entering this for the February Forever Nigella challenge #12 at Maison Cupcake

Labels: chocolate, chocolate pudding, How to Eat, Nigella Lawson, pudding, Sticky Chocolate Pudding

posted by Janice @ 20:00 15 Comments