So I am not sure what it is with chocolate recipes from Stephanie’s book and me but both of the recipes I have embarked upon have resulted in a significant amount of stress and anguish.First it was the chocolate mousse that I had to throw out halfway through the cooking and then this cake. Now, granted, the problem I had with this cake probably lie squarely with me (or at least the dodgy cake tin I was using) rather than the recipe. But it was still a problem. More so because of the fact that this cake was being made for the Lithuanian 30th birthday party and throwing it out at the last minute was not really an option – at least not without replacing it with something hurriedly purchased from the Cheesecake Shop.
As I said before, the problem lay with the dodgy cake tin and the fact that this cake is cooked in a water bath. Hmmm – dodgy spring form cake tin and a water bath. What could possibly go wrong. The cake was cooked. Looked fantastic. Skewer came out clean. All good. Until it came out of the cake tin to reveal a cake bottom that was sodden. Not just damp. This thing was wet. Mild panic ensued. I mean this cake has 9 eggs in it. And those eggs came from our backyard chooks. Its not like I could go out and squeeze another nine eggs from them. No panic was definitely the best course of action at this point.
Or at least the second best course of action because it was suggested that maybe we could just put the cake back in the oven to dry it out a bit. Would that work, I thought? At this point it all that I had left, so in the oven it went to dry out while I sent my wife to the shops to either get some more cake ingredients or perhaps another cake.
The good news is that it turns out you can put a wet cake in the oven to dry it out. Who knew. Certainly not the people at the party although, to be fair, there had been a lot of wine and beer consumed by the time the cake was eaten. In any case, it all went and no-one complained or was any the wiser. Until now of course.
Ratings: Would eat it again.
Cooking the "Cooks Companion" 