Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate and Mascarpone Buttercream

My son and I both have July birthdays, and we are both chocoholics, which makes decisions on birthday cakes very easy. What's not so easy is finding something new and 'special' to make each year. I was in the process of looking for this year's cake when this recipe from Dan Lepard popped up on my Facebook page. I still miss Dan's weekly column in the Guardian newspaper, so the fact that he has new recipes appearing occasionally on Australian Good Food is very exciting for me. Even though I'm not a big fan of white chocolate (neither eating it nor using it), this cake seemed just what I was looking for, so I was prepared to try white chocolate once more.

My first problem, after reading the recipe, was finding solid-based deep sponge tins. After finding only one brand in my local cookware shop, at £10 a tin, I went for a cheap supermarket brand. I bought 3 tins for less than £10 - my thinking, which proved correct, was that they weren't very deep, so I would probably need to make three layers, rather than two. Incidentally, another surprise, while shopping, was to notice that silicone bakeware has almost disappeared from the marketplace. I've never been a big fan of silicone for large cakes as the early examples were too flexible, and bulged in the wrong places, but  I thought those problems had been overcome. I didn't realise the trend had passed altogether!

The second problem was that the three cakes didn't rise very evenly, probably due to uneven heating. Although I was using the fan oven to cook all three cakes at the same time, two of the cakes were on the same shelf and quite near to the walls of the oven. These irregularities were overcome, when assembling the cake, by slicing an off-centre bulge off one cake, carefully positioning the bottom two cakes so that the overall effect was level, and choosing the best cake for the top layer.

Apart from that everything went smoothly, even though it was quite an unconventional recipe. I decided to use sunflower oil rather than olive oil, but that was the only change I made to the ingredients. Once the cake batter was made and divided between three tins, using scales for accuracy, they only needed 25 minutes in the oven.

I was really careful when melting the white chocolate for the buttercream, as I've always had problems in the past. I used Green and Black's White Cooking Chocolate, as it had the highest levels of cocoa solids of all the brands I could find. I put the bowl of chocolate over a pan of just boiled water and removed it when the chocolate was about 2/3 melted, so that it didn't overheat. I was also careful not to overbeat the mixture when adding the mascarpone and white chocolate to the basic buttercream, as mentioned in the recipe. The recipe made more than enough buttercream to fill and top the three cakes - I still had leftovers, even with the additional layer! Just to finish off, I topped the cake with a dusting of grated 100% cacao

I was very pleased with this cake; the cake layers were dark, rich, tender and very moist - everything you want in a special occasion chocolate cake! The buttercream didn't seem as sweet as I expected, possibly because of the addition of the mascarpone, and complimented the bitter notes of the cake very well. Green and Black's White Cooking Chocolate contains quite a lot of vanilla, and this additional flavour worked well in the buttercream too.

I'm sending this cake to July's We Should Cocoa event, hosted by Choclette at Tin and Thyme. Choclette also has a July birthday, as do many of her friends and family, so wants participants in this long-running event to just celebrate July with chocolate! Anything goes, as far as a theme is concerned, as long as it's celebratory, so my birthday cake should fit in well!

Chocolate and Ginger Flapjack

As a sort of antidote to Christmas, when chocoholic cooks often try their best to impress their friends and family with showstopping desserts, cakes and other home-made treats, the theme for this month's We Should Cocoa challenge is........ Simple Recipes!

The We Should Cocoa challenge, to use some form of chocolate together with a monthly theme, was devised by Choclette at Tin and Thyme, but this month's theme of Simple Recipes has been chosen by guest-host Lisa, at Lovely Appetite.

I guess everyone's idea of simple will be slightly different, but to me, a simple recipe is more about ease and speed of preparation and cooking rather than the number of ingredients. After all, there aren't many ingredients in a macaron, but only an expert would call then 'simple' to make!

The recipe for Chocolate and Ginger Flapjack couldn't be much more simple - melt chocolate, butter, golden syrup and sugar together in a large bowl in the microwave (or in a pan on the hob, if you prefer). When all the chocolate has melted and the mixture is quite hot, stir in rolled oats and crystallised ginger pieces. Transfer to a baking tin, bake, cool and eat - simple!

To make sure the flavour of the flapjack wasn't as simple as it's recipe, I used 100% cacao, and the ginger was from a Christmas box of Turkish crystallised ginger pieces which were really fiery - I don't think I've ever eaten ginger that hot before! The bitterness of the cacao, and the heat of the ginger, gave these flapjacks a taste which might not appeal to children, but the effect could be toned down by using a chocolate with a lower percentage of cocoa solids (say 60-70%) and a milder ginger, or even replacing some of the ginger with dried fruit such as chopped dried apricots, so that the flapjacks taste sweeter.

Ingredients
100g dark chocolate or 100% cacao (I used Willie's Peruvian Black 100% Cacao)
100g butter
65g golden syrup
100g caster sugar
250g rolled oats
100g crystallised ginger, chopped into pieces about 1cm cubed (leaving the chunks of ginger quite large makes sure you get a good hit of the heat when it's eaten!)

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180C (160C fan) and line the base and sides of a 20cm (8") square baking tin with baking parchment.
Melt the chocolate, butter, syrup and sugar in a saucepan on the hob, or in a bowl in the microwave. The mixture needs to be quite hot to dissolve the sugar, but doesn't need to boil.
Add the oats and the pieces of ginger to the chocolate mixture and stir until the oats are well coated.
Transfer the mixture to the baking tin and spread into an even layer, pressing down firmly with the back of a spoon.
Bake for 25 minutes, then cool for 10 minutes. at that point, while still warm, mark into squares or fingers of the desired size. Leave in the tin until completely cold.

This recipe makes flapjacks which stay together well and are chewy rather than crisp and crunchy. If you prefer crisp flapjacks bake for a little longer - another 10 minutes, perhaps.

I'm also entering these flapjacks into January's AlphaBakes challenge, where co-host Ros, at The More Than Occasional Baker has chosen the letter G. Ros alternates her hosting duties with Caroline, at Caroline Makes. G is for Ginger, in this instance, of course!