So last year i put on a huge hulla-ba-loo for my daughters first birthday where i made about a bajillion different sweets and went a little pink crazy! So when my step sons birthday rolled around i thought to myself, i better get my act into gear and make him a little something special…

I know he loves chocolate so the flavour of the cake was easy, but when it came to what on earth i should make the cake into i had NO idea… I mean 11 year old boys right? What on earth do i know about 11 year old boys?

ANYWHO…

I asked him.

And guess what 11 year old boys want their cakes to look like?

Lamborghini (yes i had to do a spell check on that one…)

Now when he first told me i thought to myself, a car, easy, not too hard…. OH MY was i wrong…

Do you people know what a Lamborghini looks like?

Let me show you….

My heart started pounding, you know that kind of anxious pounding you get when you start thinking you have gotton yourself in too deep?

So then my step son found this image for me to use…

And i began thinking, yeah i could maybe manage some sort of version…

So it began…

The Cake – Chocolate of Course

Stuff You’ll Need (recipe taken from “Gifts From the Kitchen” by Annie Rigg)

• 300grams dark chocolate (i used 70%)
• 200grams unsalted butter
• 6 large eggs, seperated
• 200grams castor sugar
• 150grams almond meal
• 1tbls plain flour
• pinch of salt

How i did it

Preheat the oven to 170 deg cel, grease and line a tin of your choice.  As i was making a car cake i used a wide square loaf tin.  You may just have to adjust the cooking time depending on what tin you use.

Break the chocolate up and place in a heat proof bowl with the butter.  Place in the microwave and zap for short bursts stirring in between to melt.  Set aside to cool.

Place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and mix with a hand mixer on high until thick and pale. Slowly add the cooled chocolate mixture and mix until smooth.  Fold in the almond meal and flour.

In a separate clean bowl whisk the egg whites with the salt until thick and hold stiff peaks.  Slowly add the whites to the chocolate / flour mixture making sure not too loose any air.

Place in the tin and into the oven for about 50-60 minutes depending of course on the size tin you have used.  Make sure you check in on it every so often and if the top is browning too much be sure to cover it.

Once cooked remove from the oven wrap and freeze.

Now to the carving and the icing of the car cake…

I didnt actually manage to get many images of the creation as i was totally in a zone and really really focused on getting it right.  My husband managed to find me a model car to work off and i created a template on paper to sort of guide me on the shape.

Basically like with making any shape cake i got the basic details down pat and left the rest to the icing.

and yes, yes i am a VERY messy cook!

Anywho…

I am not sure if i actually did this right as i have never used marzipan before, but i gave it a shot and it sort of worked…. There is always a next time to figure it out better!

I used premade marzipan and bought some dyes.  I kneaded the marzipan out and added the colour, using icing powder to dust the bench.

I rolled the marzipan out and used some warmed jam as glue on the cake before placing the sheet of marzipan over the cake…. Umm does that make sense?

The marzipan is rather like play dough and i was able to, more easliy than expected, form the shapes i required for the car, stick them on and smooth the joins over.

I am sure most of you have done this sort of thing before but to be honest i was quite impressed with myself for my first real attempt at creating a ‘designer’ cake! Anywho, here it is… Let me know what you think!!

Oh and FYI the cake is DIVINE! Very heavy, kind of like fudge very easy to mould / carve!

and here is just how much fun we had with all the family eating the very very rich cake!!

Now as part of my 30 before 30 quest i thought i would make my friend from the gym some white chocolate bread to go with all the condiments i made for her as a gift for chirstmas.  She loves white chocolate and what better way to enjoy marmalade, nut butter and lemon curd then to place it on top of chocolate bread?!

I didnt have a recipe i simply thought i would give this combination a shot and see how it went… The reports back were fantastic and as far as i am concerned that means it is a winner worthy of the blog ;o) oh and worthy of being number 16 on my list!!

White Chocolate Bread

Stuff you’ll need

• 300 grams of white chocolate (you could sub in milk or dark chocolate if you prefer)
• 3 cups bread flour
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbls sugar
• pinch of salt

How i did it

Chucked it all in the bread machine and put it on normal white bread setting.

YUM is all i can say.

And i will say it again…

YA-UH-MMMM!

This one was just divine   I made it for our Christmas celebrations with my side of the family (hence why it is number 14 on my list… While it wasnt specific to one person it was baked especially for “The Bowens” and i cant tell you just how much we all enjoyed it! So much better than the traditional Christmas cake – and so SO much richer!

Stuff you’ll need

• 125g dried figs
• 3-4 tablespoons of rum (or enough to cover the figs)
• 100g almonds
• 100g walnuts
• 50g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 350g dark chocolate (70% coco)
• 150g butter
• 5 eggs, separated
• 75g caster sugar
• 4 tbls honey

How i did it

I followed the recipe! ( as found here in this book)

Chop the figs and soak them over night in the rum.

Preheat the oven to 150 deg cel.  Grease and line a spring form tin – 23cm.

Toast the nuts in the preheated oven until pale golden.  Let cool then roughly chop.  Place in a bowl with the flour cinnamon and salt and mix to combine.

Place the diced butter and chocolate in a microwave proof bowl and give a zap stirring every 20-30 seconds to ensure you dont burn the choclate, set aside to cool.

Whisk the egg yolks, castor sugar and honey together until thick and pale – i used an electric mixer for this.  Add the chocolate mixture, the dry mixture plus the fig and rum mix.  Fold in together until smooth.

In a clean dry bowl place the egg whites and a pinch of salt, whisk until stiff.  Slowly fold the egg whites into the choclate mixture being careful not to loose to much air.

Place the mixture in the baking tin and into the oven it goes for about an hour.  Keep an eye on the top and if it is browning too much be sure to cover it with foil.

Once cooked – check using a squewer that comes out clean, allow to cool in the tin then remove and wrap in foil and glad wrap.  You can store this in the cupboard but i prefer to keep these sort of things in the fridge!

You can serve with a nice chocolate gnache as i did, sprinkle with icing sugar or if you like to decorate use marzipan and make it more like a traditional Christmas Cake!

Whatever you choose be sure only to cut a thin slice as this one is deadly!!