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Saturday 3 July 2010

Flirting with Nigella



I've probably mentioned somewhere in this blog that The Lovely Wife loves adding cookbooks to her collection. She especially likes 'celebrity cookbooks' - you know the Jamie Olivers and the Wolfgang Pucks and the Nigella Lawson's.

I quite fancy Nigella Lawson - not so much her cookbooks but her! I love watching her cooking shows where she makes cooking look so effortless. She always looks so good while she is cooking and you know she is playing the erotic cook by the way she flutters her eyes, smiles at the camera and swishes her hair. She is one sexy cook!

Anyway, sexy cook aside, I had never tried any of her recipes. So a few weekends ago, when some friends said they were popping over for tea, I decided to flip through her book and see what I could find.

This recipe comes from How to be a Domestic Goddess and Nigella calls it her Store Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake. I've edited the recipe but only for ease of typing and reading...



Ingredients
125g butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g, thin cut marmalade (I used Apricot Jam)
150g caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
150g self raising flour
20cm springform, buttered and floured
Method
Preheat oven to 180C
Put the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan and melt over low heat. When its nearly completed melted, add in the chocolate. Leave for a moment to soften and then take the pan off the heat and stir with a wooden spatula until the butter and chocolate are smooth and blended. Now add in the marmalade, sugar and eggs. Stir with the wooden spoon until amalgamated. Beat in the flour bit by bit. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 50mins or until a cake tester comes out clean. cool on a rack for 10 minutes before turning out.

I had my doubts about this cake as it looked like it didnt have enough eggs nor butter and I thought it would yield a cake that didn't rise. However, it turned out to be a well risen cake.


As Nigella points out in her book, the recipe doesnt produce a pretty cake and she suggests that if you want to 'beautify' it, to dust it with Icing sugar or something along those lines.

The taste was different, slightly chocolatey and with a jammy taste to it as well - probably due to the load of apricot jam in it. The Lovely Wife and our friends reckoned it would have tasted better with Orange Marmalade and weren't quite sure whether they really liked it or not. To be fair, we ate it on its own and immediately realised that it would definitely taste better with some cream or ice cream.

The next day it tasted a whole lot better with Vanilla Ice Cream. It tasted better on its own the day after too! The cake was taken over to my mother-in-laws where my children and their cousins did a fine job of polishing it off!



This was my first flirt with Nigella. Well, flirt with her cookbook that is - and I know that's the closest I will ever get to flirting with her!

8 comments:

Pat said...

You naughty, naughty boy! I do believe you - about your crush on Nigella, though. Know why? Go check on your typos! Your mind must've been on her!

I love her too, and watch the so-many repeats of her shows because she is happy when she cooks. I hate grumpy, unhappy, unsmiley cooks!

I think I'll try this recipe; and with the orange marmalade, which I always have.

I find that chocolate cake always tastes more moist, and flavourful on the day after it was baked - if there's any left, that is.

Thank you for sharing the recipe :)

Mallini said...

I LOVE this recipe! Made it into a blog post too. Dad usually can't stand having orange flavouring in cakes, but he makes an exception for this one.

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

Nigella doesn't seem to be on our Food Network any longer. I would love them to bring her back rather than being forced to watch another episode of Battle of the Network Stars. Thanks for sharing the recipe Dharm:D

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

Hey Dharm! That looks great. Which book is this recipe from? :)

Dharm said...

Ooppss... should have put that into the post. The recipe is from How to be a Domestic Goddess. Think I'll go update the post now...

Alicia Foodycat said...

I don't often make chocolate cakes, but I must keep this one in mind!

Cookie baker Lynn said...

I got to meet Nigella in person and she is lovely and gracious. I love her approach to cooking - that it's something for everyone, not just snooty chefs.

Putting orange marmalade in this cake would make my husband wild with delight!

Ms. Kong Piang: said...

Ha, ha, most men love her, all earthy and rich like her food.