Big Chef, Little Chef

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Big Chef = Heston Blumenthal. Little Chef = Me.

By now I suspect you’re wondering what the heck I’m twittering about, aren’t you? Well,I’ll tell you, last Thursday was my birthday and my main gift was the glorious The Big Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal. I’m not really one for playing too much with my food by way of foams and airs etc but Heston’s creativity amazes me and this book has long been a wish-list item for me.  Like Heston’s food this book is a work of art. The books hard cover is beautifully finished and embossed in silver with the Fat Duck Restaurant motifs and the pages are of the thickest paper almost, bordering on card and embossed with silver. Multiple bookmarks add to the extravagant feel of this tomb. There are beautiful abstract drawings throughout the book alongside mouth-watering photography of The Fat Duck food also. There is of course a lot of detail about Heston’s life and inspiration not just recipes in this book; however, the recipes included are fully laid bare, they are almost scarily complex on first reading but when you actually take the time to look at the individual recipe components and the original feeling of fright soon dissipates, in fact the recipes become appealing and inspiring.

As it was my birthday I needed a cake and where better to look than my lovely new book I decided it had to be chocolate cake, not just any old chocolate cake but a dense, fudgy, creamy cake. I went for a scaled down version of the Black Forest Gateau (but it was nothing like a Black Forest Gateau in the end), much as I would have liked to recreate the entire dessert it would have taken at least two days, lots of ingredient buying and a little chemistry set style cooking too; far too much effort on my ’special’ day.

So I ended up deciding on using Heston’s sponge recipe and adapting the ganache recipe to suit my tastes and ingredient availability. The ganache instead of using Kirsch contained amaretto and had whipped doubled cream folded through to lighten it a wee bit.  The effect I suppose came out a little like a more decadent version of Nigella Lawson’s Easter Egg Cake without the eggs

The cake was beautiful; powerful (almost bitter) dark chocolate; the silky smooth amaretto ganache enriched (but lighted also) by the cream and a light, springy but airy sponge, gives such a lovely variety of textures with the touch of alcohol providing a lively surprise.

Oh my, you must make it!!!

Of course with a birthday comes an excuse for a shopping spree, especially in my case for a kitchenalia spree. We’ve had a lovely new kitchen shop open up in my nearest town and I had to make a beeline for it, Livsstil. I was very surprised by the shops name but after visiting their website I’ve learnt that Livsstil is Danish for “lifestyle”. The shop really is an Aladdin’s cave of great quality goodies, I was (I felt at least) very restrained in my purchases, and by that I mean I only came out with two shopping bags The staff were incredibly helpful and willing to offer advice/order in items they didn’t have in stock etc. I’ll definitely be regularly stopping by the shop and I advise you to do the same if you ever pass one, you’re bound to find something fantastic.  Just look at the goodies I bought …

In case you can’t see clearly in the photo’s, here’s what I bought: 

• A red teapot (perfect as it matches the colour of the red Kitchen Aid equipment exactly )
• 3 squeezy sauce bottles 
• Bake O Glide 
• Silicone cookie mat 
• Silicone ice cream scoop 
• Heart shaped spring-form tin 
• Mini pudding bowls
• Small enamel pie dish (which I’ve been on the hunt for a long time)

The (adapted) Recipes:

The Cake:

• 225g whole eggs
• 125g unrefined caster sugar
• 50g plain flour
• 30g cornflour
• 30g cocoa

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Place the eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk until thick and glossy.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and fold together.
4. Line a 29 x 19 x 3.5cm baking tray with parchment (I used a 20cm round tin instead) and pour in the mixture.
5. Bake for 15 minutes or until firm to the touch.
6. Cool on a wire rack.

The Ganache Topping:

• 50g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
• 500g 70% chocolate
• 450g sour cream 
• 50g honey 
• 110g amaretto liqueur
• 3g salt
• 250g double cream, stiffly whipped.

1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and set aside. 
2. Bring the other ingredients (except the butter and whipped cream) to a boil and then incorporate them gradually into the chocolate (preferably use a hand blender or food mixer).
3. Slowly add the butter to the hot ganache, piece by piece, until they are all amalgamated.
4. Leave the ganache to cool before folding through the whipped double cream).
5. Top the cooled cake.

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Filed under Cakes & Cookies, Desserts, Vegetarian