Chocolate Day! Any excuse…

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The fair Angela shared with us that today is Chocolate Day. I have no idea if this is just a Birds thing that she made up or just for the UK or what – but who cares…

There is another World Chocolate Day in September – we will celebrate that one too.

Image by rock_rollheart via Flickr

For today I offered to share my favourite chocolate cake recipe. Everyone loves it and it has even met with acclaim when offered as charity auction prizes.

This is taken from Nigella Bites and is ridiculously simple for such luxury – the trick is to get everything ready before you start mixing – then it is a breeze. Before you even start this though, chill 300ml water (just put in the fridge the night or morning before you’re baking).

1. Into a big bowl place 400g plain flour, 250 unrefined (ideally) caster sugar, 100g light muscovado sugar, 50g cocoa powder, 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon of bicarb of soda.
2. Into a jug blend 3 eggs, 142ml (OK – just a small tub) of sour cream (I have dolloped in cream and creme fraiche instead at times, and always tastes great) and a tablespoon of chocolate extract if you have any (or vanilla extract if you prefer – but neither is essential).
3. Then in another big bowl – this is the one you bring it all together in, so make sure it is big enough – you want 175g melted and cooled butter and 125ml corn oil (or any bland oil – sunflower works fine, as does grapeseed, but have not tried light olive oil) – get out your mixer and mix these 2 before whizzing in the 300ml chilled water – you’ll end up with an emulsion of sorts.
4. Into that liquid mix throw in the dry ingredients and mix at a slow speed so it’s all blended nicely.
5. Then bring in the egg mixture, blend well and you’re ready to share this batter between 2 cake tins – nicely buttered.
6. Bake for 50 or so minutes at 180 C or gas mark 4 – until whatever your choice of cake poker comes out clean.
7. Cool in the tins for quarter of an hour or so then turn out onto racks to cool completely.
8. This is one of those cakes that definitely improves overnight, if you can bear it.
9. The fudge icing is made up of 175g dark chocolate (I often use more and am really vague with this bit – so long as it’s vaguely fudge-like, nobody’s bothered) – melted and cooled a tad. In another bowl beat 250g softened butter with 275g sifted icing sugar (again I use unrefined – I’m sure this adds a slight depth to the chocolatiness of it all). Blend in the cooled melted chocolate and then slap it between and around the cakes.
10. Eat!

What else can you do to celebrate Chocolate Day?

◊ Well, you could take a trip down memory lane and see how many of these Cadbury chocolates of the past you remember.

◊ Book a chocolate workshop with Chocolate Delight: learn about the history of chocolate and make delicious Belgian truffles by hand using raw chocolate ingredients, guided by an experienced chocolatier.

◊ Read some amazing chocolate facts, including:

• One chocolate chip provides enough food energy for an adult to walk 150 feet. Therefore, it takes about 35 chocolate chips to walk a mile or 875,000 to get you around the world;
• If the number of Toblerones sold in one year were laid end to end, they would equate to 62,000 Km – equivalent to the circumference of the Earth;
• 66,000 Creme Eggs are made every hour.

◊ Have your own Chocolate Day spa with yummy chocolate beauty treatments:

• Raw chocolate face pack from Raw Gaia
• Chocolate Heaven bath bomb from Bomb Cosmetics on Amazon
• Chocolate and Mint shower gel from Original Source
• Peruvian Chocolate Body Wash from Bella Luccé
• Chocolate scented massage oil from Simply Essential UK

◊ Or why not make your own chocolate body scrub with this recipe from JamieOliver.com?

◊ Last, but not least, eat chocolate! You know you want to.

If you really need an excuse to eat more chocolate; it contains serotonin and phenylethylamine, two chemicals associated contentment and happiness. Although actually I think chocolate contains phenylethylamine in much smaller quantities than, say, tomatoes or fruit so given that chocolate is loaded with calories, perhaps we should be turning to fruit as a mood elevator!

On that note, if you’re looking for healthy chocolate treats (an oxymoron?), you could always assuage your guilt with a bag of chocolate covered raisins, or chocolate covered almonds. Oh and apparently dark chocolate contains more antioxidants than strawberries, so strawberries dipped in dark chocolate = lots of antioxidants

About Babs
Babs runs The Blogmistress to help people use WordPress for their websites and/or blogs. Here on Birds however she lets loose on just about any subject other than WordPress! Follow her on twitter
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