Indecent chocolate cake

Now that I've got your attention...

That's the way some people advertised their parties while I was at college, with a notice where you could read SEX in a large font... followed by the details of the party in a much smaller font. Well, this post beginning has to do with the author of this recipe, the very well known British chef Nigella Lawson, the queen of food porn (just take a look...). Her recipes can send your blood sugar sky-rocketing and raise your cholesterol so much you'd need a chisel to clear your arteries. In fact I found the recipe already tweaked by Heidi of 101 cookbooks. She praised it so much it made me curious. So today it's a sweet and chocolatey day. I hardly try this kind of delicacy when I make it, but my children often appreciate these indecently caloric cakes, just because they don't put on weight (so far) and they can do it. Yes, they can.


I was intrigued by the sinking and deflating quality of the cake that Heidi talked about in her post. Oddly enough, my cake didn't sink although it didn't really raised a lot. It was extremely soft and moist (indecent, I tell you), I guess it has to do with the boiling water addition, which I had never seen before added to a cake. When you add the water it feels as if the chocolate in the batter melted again. My family loved this cake, I strongly recommend it, in spite of the health issues... And I dared to turn on the oven during a rather brief break from the scorching heat of this month.



Indecently rich chocolate cake

• 145g spelt flour (all-purpose will do too)
• 1 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 225g softened butter
• 215g muscovado sugar
  
• 2 large eggs
• 115g bittersweet chocolate
• 250ml boiling water (I really only added 2/3 of this amount)

1. Preheat the oven to 190ºC.
2. Sieve the flour, mix with the baking powder and the salt and set aside.
3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or a double boiler and leave to temper.
4. Cream the butter in a stand mixer until light and fluffy then add the sugar little by little while still beating. Scrape the bowl every now and then for all the butter to homogenize. When all the sugar is added, add the eggs one by one, beat well to mix.
5. Bring the water to the boil.
6. Add the melted chocolate at a slower speed and mix thoroughly.
7. Lastly, add the solid ingredients and the boiling water, first 1/3 of the flour mixture, then 1/3 water, mix and repeat 2 more times. I didn't add all the water because I found the batter too thin. Mix well.
8. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper, oil it well using a brush (I use tigernut or sunflower oil). Don't skip the paper, otherwise you just won't be able to take the cake out of the pan. Bake for 30 minutes, then lower the temperature to 160ºC and bake for another 15 minutes. Try for doneness (although it's difficult to make out, as it's quite sticky), and leave to cool in the pan: don't unmold while still warm, as it would crumble down; it's very fragile and crumbly.

I love to use spelt in cakes and cookies. But regardless of the type of flour, what I always try is to use stone-ground flour, because it contains all the essential oils of the grain germ, something that's missing in conventional industrially milled flour. When the flour contains the germ nutrients it goes rancid more quickly... therefore if you get rid of the germ the shelf-life is extended... so that large producers and distributors can speculate. If you want to know more about this fascinating subject, read Michael Pollan's In defense of food.