Cake Five

 It was my Dad's birthday recently and he needed a cake. I decided to take a risk and make a cake recipe I had never tried before all just a matter of hours before his birthday celebrations began. Here's what happened next...

The choice of music to cook to was one my younger self, as well as my dad's younger self, could well have scoffed at. On the player was not only Frank Sinatra's first album, but one of the first album's ever made. In fact original copies came with the records comprising it presented in a booklet that was like an old style photograph album. The record is more primitive than Sinatra's more polished and slickly produced later efforts. It contains lots of songs that seem about adversity and staying power as well as the simple joys of life. Check it out here at: The voice of Frank Sinatra album - YouTube 

Like my Dad before me, the teenage me disliked the Frank Sinatra listened to by the parents before growing to appreciate his music after seeing a bit more of the world and life generally. Plus Ca Change down the generations clearly!

So to the ingredients which were as follows:

The Cake Mix:

150 grams of Gluten Free Self Raising Flour.

2 tablespoons of Cocoa Powder.

4 tablespoons of Instant Coffee. 

150 grams of Unsalted Butter Cut Into Cubes.

125 grams of Demerara Sugar.

25 grams of Ground Almonds. 

3 Duck Eggs beaten well. 

The topping:

150 grams of Icing Sugar.

25 grams of Unsalted Butter.

2 tablespoons of Cocoa Powder.

2 tablespoons of Instant Coffee.

3 tablespoons of lukewarm water. 

The method goes like this:

1. Cream the Butter and Sugar together until they are light and fluffy.

2. Add the Flour, Cocoa Powder, Instant Coffee and Ground Almonds and stir them together with the Butter and Sugar until they are fully combined. 

3. Add the Eggs and stir them in until there is a pliable, semi solid paste.

4. Put the mixture in a greased Cake Tin. Cook in the oven for twenty minutes at Gas Mark.

5. After this stage the interior of the cake will still be pretty moist, so turn the heat up to Gas Mark 6 and cook for a further twenty-five minutes ensuring the cake does not burn. Check it is ready by poking it with a skewer. If very few bits come out on the skewer the cake is ready. 

6. Leave the cake to cool on a wire rack. 

7. While the cake is cooling, combine the topping ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir hard to form a sweet paste. 

8. After the cake is cooled, spread the paste over the cake's top and allow it to solidify. 

The cake and I made it to the celebrations where my Dad enjoyed consuming it as we talked of the way the world is falling about our ears as well as engaging in critical appraisals of our favourite Velvet Underground and Miles Davis Records.