While in a lockdown we’ve had two birthday parties in our bubble. First, Kanika turned 6, and Kristel organised an online party for her and her mini mates and made her a beautiful chocolate volcano cake. Next, Kristel turned (I better not say it) and… “I expect a bubble birthday party and a cake!”
Despite there are four of us in our bubble, all eyes were on me. “What, why are you all looking at me?”
“Well, I can’t rely on a 6-year old, and I’d rather not rely on Marty either. Which leaves you. Beside you’re an event organiser and a food blogger so you cover all the bases.”
She’s got a point. However, I have never organised a party for 4 people in a lockdown. And my food blog is all about my struggles in the kitchen. Hence, I’m not exactly sure how can I be an obvious choice for either of the two tasks?!
Despite my initial worries, the ‘party’ and the cake were pure success! We took Kristel on a little scavenger hunt around our town, on our way to the supermarket so to adhere to the lockdown rules. And I nailed the cake! Here is how it goes…
The base of the cake was made as per Nigella’s chocolate Guinness cake recipe. She describes it as ‘magnificent in its damp blackness. I can’t say that you can absolutely taste the stout in it, but there is certainly a resonant, ferrous tang which I happen to love. The best way of describing it is to say that it’s like gingerbread without the spices.’
When Kristel did the same cake a couple of weeks ago, for some reason it didn’t rise and we ended up with super tasty but a rather small cake. So she asked me to double the ingredients to make it bigger (and to look more like a birthday cake). And I did. This time, however, the cake rose so we ended up with this humongous cake!
I split the cake in two layers. The cake itself is moist and soft, so this wasn’t necessary. But I thought I’d add a bit to it, to make it even more special. I am a huge fan of Sacher Cake, a traditional cake from Sacher Hotel in Vienna, Austria. ‘In 1832, Prince Metternich of Austria had requested a dessert for a special occasion, but the chef was ill at the time, so 16-year-old apprentice Franz Sacher filled in. The cake he created could not have been more delicious. The Original Sacher-Torte is still hand-made using Franz Sacher’s original recipe to this day.’ There is a layer of apricot jam in this cake, which I used as an inspiration for my cake. I put a thin layer of feijoa jam in between the two parts.
For the icing, I used Sarah Wilson‘s idea from her chocolate volcano cake. The original recipe requires:
- 500g of cream cheese, at room temperature
- 50g of butter, also at room temperature
- 1/4 cup rice malt syrup
- 1/4 cup raw cacao powder
- 150ml pure cream
- 1/4 cup gelatin powder
As I am not really fond of cream cheese, I only used 250g of it. I also passed on the gelatine powder and added caster sugar. The latter softened the taste of the cream cheese and made the icing a bit sweeter (which I prefer). I left the mix in the fridge over night. It didn’t harden up completely, just enough for the icing to slowly slide down the sides of the cake and cover it evenly.
I am very proud to report that Kristel (as well as the rest of our bubble, including myself) were amazed!
MAYHEM IN THE KITCHEN 
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