Things Go Wrong

This will not be a long post, nor a very in-depth post – no themes or anecdotes or musings on words I particularly like that day. This is just about the two good things I ate today.

Risotto and cake.

I’ll start with the cake. I’d been dying to try this particular recipe for a blood orange and chocolate cake from My New Roots, and the abundance of near-rotting blood oranges in my fruit bowl dictated that today would be the day. Of course I could have thrown away the 60p worth of rotting oranges and saved myself the £10 I then went and spent on dates, maple syrup and spelt flour, but that would be wasteful (my usual logic when using up rotting things in the fridge – buy a ton of overpriced ingredients in order to utilise that last squidgy mushroom that I refuse to bin).

But anyway, I was dead excited to make this, and I burnt it. Luckily the orange layer stayed nice and moist, but the chocolate layer was already starting to crumble at the edges when I lifted it out the tin. And the icing was bitty. Normally this would be my day ruined. Cake would go in bin, bowls would be thrown with force into the sink, I would be sat in my room sulking and scrolling through Instagram looking at all the people who aren’t stupid enough to burn their cake. But this cake was different. This cake was special. This cake had cost me £10. It had to be salvaged.

So after making a couple of changes to a second batch of icing (and chilling the first batch, which, as it turned out, tasted fine in the end so is now going to be my chocolate spread for the next week), I began some cake architecture, cutting the two cakes into two neat little squares and using the extra icing to ice the sides of the cake as well as the top. Sorted. The moral of my story, therefore, is that sometimes my cooking goes tits-up, and that’s where all the fun begins. Life’s a bore if you’re constantly trying to make your creation look exactly like the picture – make it you own. My cake might not have been the picture-perfect creation with 4 beautifully striped layers like in the book, but my icing:cake ratio was way better, and I had a whole plate of off-cuts and icing to eat whilst I decorated – who’s the real winner here?

So here’s the recipe for my take on Sarah Britton’s blood orange and chocolate layer cake – of course, I burnt my cakes so I’m just estimated the actual cooking time.

Blood Orange and Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Date Icing

For the chocolate cake

120g wholemeal spelt flour

25g unsweetened cocoa powder

1stp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb of soda

pinch of sea salt

120ml maple syrup

155ml milk of your choice (I used hemp milk because it was on offer)

45ml melted coconut oil

1tsp vanilla extract

1/2tsp apple cider vinegar

 

For the blood orange cake

140g wholemeal spelt flour

1tsp baking powder

1/2tsp bicarb of soda

pinch of sea salt

120ml maple syrup

140ml freshly squeezed blood orange juice (or regular oranges if out of season)

45ml melted coconut oil

1tsp vanilla extract

1/2tsp apple cider vinegar

 

For the chocolate date icing

300g pitted dates

30g cocoa powder

pinch of sea salt

125ml milk of choice

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line 2 baking tins. If the dates for the icing aren’t very soft, heat them with water on the hob for about 5 minutes until warm and very soft, before draining and setting aside.
• To make the chocolate cake, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb of soda, and salt into a bowl and mix.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, milk, coconut oil and vanilla extract. Pour into the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Quickly add the cider vinegar and whisk again.
• To make the blood orange cake, do the same again, obviously omitting the cocoa powder, and adding the blood orange juice to the liquids before combining with the dry ingredients.
• Pour both mixtures into two separate tins, and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. I think mine baked for about 35 minutes, which was slightly too long for the chocolate cake but seemed fine for the orange.
• Turn out onto a cooling wrack and leave to cool completely.
• To make the icing, place the dates, cocoa powder and salt into a food processor and blitz to break up the dates. Slowly add the milk and keep blitzing until the mixture comes together as a thick, smooth icing that is easily spreadable.
• Shape, build and ice your cake in whatever way you fancy. 

The second thing I ate that is worthy of mention was a result of a severe lack of things in the fridge. My preoccupation with the cake meant that I had kale, rotting mushrooms, and spring onions to play with. And so a mushroom and kale spelt risotto or ‘speltotto’ with grilled spring onions was born. Oh my god. This dinner is testament to the fact that anything tastes phenomenal when you add wine and cheese to it. I’ve talked long enough about the cake so I’ll give the recipe for this without further rambling.

Mushroom and Kale Speltotto with Grilled Spring Onions, for 1 with leftovers 

1/2 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 portobello mushroom, sliced

1 mug chicken stock (I had some dried porcini mushrooms that I stole from home so I added those too – thanks mum)

75ml white wine

50g spelt or pearled barley

1 tbsp butter

1 parmesan rind (completely optional but I had it lying around and it adds more flavour)

3 spring onions

A handful toasted pumpkin seeds (if you can be bothered, but I add them to everything)

Sprinkling of parmesan

• Put the stock in a pan and simmer on very low. In a separate pan, heat a little oil and add the garlic and onion, cooking until soft. Add the mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes.
• Add the spelt and stir around before adding the wine. When the wine has been absorbed, add just enough stock to cover the pearl barley. Add the parmesan rind and season.
• Simmer on low for around 40 minutes, topping up with a little stock every 10 minutes or so, until the pearl barley is soft and the kitchen smells amazing.
• Heat the tiniest bit of olive oil in a frying pan on high and add the leeks, frying until charred. Add the kale to soften, before stirring it through the speltotto.
• When you think the speltotto is about done, add the tbsp butter and stir through – don’t skip this to make it ‘healthier’ – it really adds to the shine of the risotto, and you’re already eating spelt with kale so it’s pretty damn healthy.
• Remove the parmesan rind and serve the speltotto, topped with the spring onions and a sprinkle of parmesan.

Ps. it would have been nice with some fresh thyme but alas I had none.