Serves: ~12
Approx cost: €9
Approx calories (per serving, if divided into 12): ~500
Approx preparation and cooking time: 2 hours
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #0B0B61;”]Greetings everyone – I hope this day sees you well. It was four days since my last post and I did say that I’d be posting something special on Saturday. Well, saturday has arrived and I’m pleased to let you join in my celebrations. No – this time it’s nothing blog-related. This time it’s all “in real life”, for today I am indeed a year older! You might not be able to have a slice of my cake unless you live really close but I hope you can look at the pictures and imagine the awesome flavours! At the time of publishing, this post won’t have all the photos in it – I’m going to update it later with pictures of cutting the cake… much more nom nom! Photos have been uploaded now… enjoy 🙂
The cake itself? Many years ago, like many children my age, I was a huge fan of Roald Dahl books – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, Matilda and so forth. There used to be a whole load of delicious foods mentioned in these books (and sometimes not so delicious but interesting-sounding nevertheless) which really piqued my imagination. Imagine my glee when a recipe book was published featuring some of the recipes from my favourite books? This particular cake is from Matilda and is called Bruce Bogtrotter’s Chocolate Cake. The story goes that Bruce Bogtrotter (a bad seed, you can tell by the name!) steals something from a wicked teacher (also a bad seed I’m sure! :D) and his punishment is to eat an entire chocolate cake by himself. The cake in its non-fictional form is very rich so I can imagine that being forced to eat a whole cake would probably be quite an unpleasant experience, although a slice or two is definitely a pleasure!
I’m going to get back to enjoying “my” day, but I should mention that normally my wife makes me my birthday cake. Before anyone thinks she has not done her wifey-duty this year I must point out I forbade her from making this cake with the words “no, I want to blog about it”, so there you go 😉 If anyone is interested, you can buy the book “Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes” on Amazon. It’s not very much and it’s full of some cracking recipes to inspire (and disgust) kids and adults alike. If you happen to know an kids who are starting to get old enough to become active in the kitchen I think personally this would be a wonderful book to get them – even more so if they’re familiar with the stories behind them!
Have a great day everyone 🙂
Ingredients
For the cake
- 225g Plain Chocolate
- 175g Butter
- 175g Self-Raising Flour
- 125g Caster Sugar
- 6 eggs
For the ganache
- 225g Plain Chocolate
- 225g Double / Heavy Cream
Instructions
- Start by pre-heating your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and then we’ll start making the cake. Crack open the eggs, separating the yolks into a small bowl and the whites into a large bowl. Ensure you get no bits of yolk in the white otherwise you will not be able to whisk them.
- Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a large pan over a gentle heat, stirring regularly. When it is completely molten add in the butter and continue to stir until the butter has completed melted and mixed with the chocolate.
- Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Pour the yolks into the mixture and mix well, ensuring the yolks are well blended with the chocolate/butter mixture. After this, whisk the egg whites until you can form stiff peaks with them. You’ll find it easiest to do this using an electric whisk, though if you don’t have one a balloon whisk will work just as well.
- Set the whites aside for a moment and then sift the Self-Raising flour into the chocolate/butter mixture. Mix well before adding in the sugar. You’ll need to ensure you beat the mixture as much as possible to ensure you get not clumps of flour inside, though don’t worry if it looks a little like this.
- Transfer the chocolate mixture to the bowl with the whites and fold into the whisked egg whites. This will take a minute or two, but it’s worth it to take your time to properly combine everything, without beating out too much air from the whites. When you have done this, grease and flour a baking tin. I used a baking tin with a 20cm diameter, 4cm deep. You could equally go a bit bigger, though do ensure that it has sufficient depth. 4cm was really cutting it fine on my tin – luckily it didn’t rise too much. Pour the mixture into the tin and then place into your pre-heated oven. Cook for about 40 minutes. Choose a time between about 35-45, depending on how wide your cake ends up being (and thus thinner). It should still be slightly gooey in the centre when cooked (it will firm up more when cool) so err on the shorter.
- Allow to cool in the tin when done until it is cool enough to handle. Then remove from the tin and trim the top and edges using a knife to ensure it it sufficiently smooth and flat all over. Once you’ve cut a layer from the top you may find turning the cake over and laying on a plate is very helpful.
- Once the cake is cool we’ll make the ganache. Start by heating the cream in a pan and once hot, add in the chocolate, broken into pieces.
- Stir the mixture until completely molten and blended. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 30 minutes or so.
- Pour some of the ganache onto the cake and spread around to cover the top and the sides. Allow to set slightly before repeating the process. Continue like this until all the ganache has been spread on and around the cake and then enjoy! 🙂
Happy happy birthday! ) I wish you all the best, a lot of happyness and luck, and I wish that all your dreams come true)
The cake looks incredible, but I guess it tastes even better. Too bad I am not living "really close" ((
P.S. I love how you mentioned the calories )
Thanks Marianna – move to the France office and you can be guinea-pig tester for all my creations I bring to work 😉
Omg you bring food to the office…
This is definitely something to consider!
Happy Birthday Charles! Your cake looks wonderful, simple, yet flavorful, and beautiful. I sincerely hope you have a year full of happiness and good things! Enjoy your day.
Thanks so much Eva – it was a wonderful day. I got a new copper frying pan and a book of chefs' tips from my wife and a saucepan from my parents (are you spotting a trend here? :D)
Happy Birthday!! Hope you have a fab day and will definitely check back later for more photos. I love chocolate cake too and this one looks absolutely amazing. Wish I could have a slice but think I'm a bit too far ;P
Thanks Bakingaddict – Alas I think you might be a touch far away, and I've eaten or given almost all the rest of the cake away now so there remains only one little slice for myself 😀
Happy Birthday Charles. Your cake looks gorgeous. So wish we could share it with you. Have a wonderful day
Thanks a lot! You should give the cake recipe a try – I'm sure you'll find it a hit!
Happy birthday,old boy. Cake looks yummy!
Thanks Clare – it was delicious 🙂
Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Charles! Happy birthday to you! Yay!!!!! Now if you're a chocolate lover – this looks like a beautiful cake to celebrate your special day with. I hope you're having a fantastic weekend Charles!!!! I say you milk your birthday for all it's worth – the whole darn week!!!! 🙂 I'll raise a glass to ya tonight. I'm so happy that we have "met" and wish you nothing but your most amazing year yet. 🙂
Thanks Kristy – I had a great weekend of eating far too much – back to work now, but at least it's Christmas soon – hooray 🙂
Happy Birthday, Charles! I wish you all the best in your private, professional and, of course, blogging life!
I don't think Bruce Bogtrotter as punished severely: I would be probably unwell afterwards, but I would be able to devour this cake without any problems! It looks gorgeous! Thank you for the cookery book advise: I loved so much the Moomins cookery book that I'm convinced this one is excellent.
I hope you are having fun on this special day (by the way the "one candle" idea is excellent, why do I always torture myself with a candle per year???) Joyeux Anniversaire!
Hi Sissi – I think I actually overcooked it ever so slightly. I left it for maybe 5 minutes too long in the oven (I adjusted the time in the original recipe to compensate) but it was delicious! Thank you for your birthday wishes – on the subject of candles, I read that as you "advance in years", the correct way of arranging candles on a cake is to use layers and then treat the candles/layers as a bit like beads on an abacus. For example, if you're 27, you should have a two layered cake with two candles on top (the "tens" layer) and then 7 candles on the bottom. If you get above 100 then you need three layers of course. Not sure if this is some sort of "official standard" but personally I find the one symbolic candle more than enough. I tried to jam on about 28 candles for an ex-girlfriend's birthday cake once… it was disastrous. The heat from them made all the candles melt really fast all over the cake! Yummy, candle wax frosting 😉
Hope your birthday is wonderful. The cake alone should have you smiling all day long.
Thanks so much Karen. I have just a small slice left to save for those "post birthday blues" which will hit sometime soon 🙂
I love 'Matilda' and have watched the film several times :)! When Bruce is punished to eat the cake, it is indeed one of the strongest scenes of the film which I remember – the cake in the film, just like your cake, actually looks very yummy, I wouldn't mind getting punished to eat such a cake (but certainly not a whole cake ;)!!). Unfortunately my husband is not very into rich chocolate cake, he prefers something lighter like vanilla cake with a bit of choc chips :(.
Hehe, I think I too would feel pretty bad if I had to eat a whole cake. It'd probably put me off cake for life no doubt. I enjoy lighter cakes too – I should publish my seed cake sometime – I find that absolutely delicious and it's very light and fluffy!
And of course, Charles, happy birthday, I wish you all the best :)!!
Thanks so much CG!
Being forced to eat chocolate cake… yeah, I’m thinking that would definitely qualify as torture under International Law 🙂
Happy, Happy Birthday Charles! I hope you are having a splendid day surrounded by those you love. I wish I could swing by and have a big bite of that delicious looking cake of yours – you know how I share your affection for the dark confection 😉
A quote from my older son who caught a glimpse of your cake as he was passing by: “I like the layer of surrounding icing around the cake giving it some texture” (he was trying to be food reflective 😉 although he was more likely just mocking his mom!) Either way, we both love the look of this silky, delightful cake. Cheers Charles!
k.
Thanks Kelly! As you know, I live abroad to my parents, and my sister lives on the entire other side of the planet so meet-ups are difficult – something which especially hits home around this time of year, but I had my wonderful wife supplying me with gifts and a full English Breakfast in bed!!!
The cake was wonderful – rich and chocolatey. I was half tempted to make a Chocolate Stout cake, or alternatively a chocolate log cabin cake – I demanded this cake from my mother for every single birthday all the way up until I left home! – but I figured it wouldn't be quite the same making it myself!
Hi again Charles. Don't worry, I'm not stalking you ;p Just wanted to come by again to see the cake sliced and it is gorgeous. I really wish I could have a slice even though it's way past my bedtime now. Hope you had a lovely birthday and best wishes for the coming year.
Hi Bakingaddict – So glad you came back to see them – I took the rest to work today and it seemed to go down well 😉
Love that name! Love the texture! Love the icing, MORE PLEASE!
Hehe, thanks Jesica! The ganache icing especially was unbelievably good (and super simple!)
Happy Birthday, Charles! Or rather, happy belated birthday …. wait, it's still a Saturday in the US of A! What a great way to celebrate … chocolate cake! And I love that think layer of ganache, mmmm. If I remember correctly, Bruce finished the entire cake with no problems whatsoever… now I wonder if I could do that. If I had this cake …. maybe.
Thanks Ping – you know, I can pig out with the best of them, but even I think I'd have a few problems wading through the whole cake 😀 I was worried the ganache wouldn't set at first but it firmed up beautifully after a few hours 🙂
Happy Birthday Charles! and oh my, what a way to celebrate!! How rich and delicious is that cake! The way that cake sliced so perfectly, you just know the texture is awesome!!
Thanks so much Linda – perfect slices?! Hehe, I guess dragging a huge carving knife to the table to use on the cake worked out for the best after all 🙂
Hi Charles, Looks like Birthday wishes are in order – Happy Happy Birthday. i would just like to eat that ganache straight out of the bowl. I make birthday cakes for my two daughters and husband every year – they wouldn't have it any other way. I laughed at your comment, "No I want to blog about it", that's a frequent comment I make around here too. Glad I stumbled upon your blog. I'll be back.
Thanks so much Linda, and thank you for coming by! I come from a household where my mother would *always* make the birthday cakes (and celebration cakes in general – doing her utmost to take our wishes into account. Right up until I finally left home around 18 or so I was having a chocolate log cabin cake every single year (it was just *that* good!). I was really into a TV show one year called "Dr. Who" and my parents stayed up until crazy 'o' clock making a cake in the shape of a TARDIS – in the end it turned out not too bad, but they told me they thought it would be a disaster and everything was covered in bright blue icing by the end 😀
Aww, Happy Birthday to you Charles!!:) What a lovely cake your wife made for you!:) She's such a sweetie 😉
I am a fan of Roald Dahl's books too!!!:D Oh ya, this cake reminds me of my wedding cake, hehe;)
Thanks Christy – did you post pictures of your wedding cake in the end? I vaguely remember you did but I'm not sure…
Wow, this looks sinfully good!
Thanks Jen 🙂 Hope you're having a good day, even if you don't have any cake!
More please! 😛
lolz 😀
Happy belated birthday, Charles!! Hope you had a wonderful day. That is one gorgeous cake. You're too funny, I probably would have said the same about wanting to make it myself so I could blog about it. Gotta get all of the right photos, etc! 😉
Thank you Caroline – yeah, I wouldn't mind so much if I could hang over her shoulder and take photos as the process is going along but the problem is, the kitchen is so damn small… so it makes it really hard!
This looks like pure chocolate HEAVEN!!! YUMMY. Thanks for sharing the recipe, and the book title. My daughter will love this! I'm thinking "stocking stuffer" for Chiristmas. 🙂 Happy Birthday to you!
~Melissa
Hi Melissa – I hope you're able to get that book… it's so much fun and some of the recipes look amazing… marshmallow pillows, a big sandwich table-piece which looks like a crocodile… SO much fun!
mathilda was one of my favourite childhood books, in fact it still is one of my favourite stories! that cake looks dangerous, because I can imagine I'd be tempted to have more than just a slice. there's a famous cake shop in singapore called Lana cakes, and they are so known for their chocolate cakes people have to call in advance to order. your cake looks almost exactly the same, no kidding.
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! if you don't already know, you're a fabulous person and I wish for lots of fabulous things to happen to you this coming year (:
Thank you Shuhan 🙂 My mind is already busy working to think how one could make the cake even better next time – perhaps a mix of white chocolate with the plain chocolate… swirl some white choc into the ganache too… mmmmmm 😀
Did you see my post the other day when I mentioned that American Bakery/Coffee Shop in Paris? It was so nice to find "regular" cakes… like, triple layer pistachio cream chocolate cakes and so forth. I enjoy the cakes in France but contrary to popular belief, there *is* such a thing as "too many Opéra cakes" and "too many chocolate éclairs" so it was a wonderful find.
Thank you for your birthday wishes 🙂
Happy belated birthday. That cake looks phenomenal. The icing is just perfect and I think one piece would definitely do, so rich!
Thanks Greg 🙂 My colleagues at work were pretty happy with it 😀
I just love the concept of your blog. I'll definitely be back to investigate more of your recipes!
Thanks so much Barb! Hope to see you back soon 🙂
Let me just tell you a little story Charles :). Every year, my mother would ask me what cake I wanted for my birthday and I would always say.. Chocolate :). And every year a friend of hers made me a chocolate cake with hard chocolate frosting. I could never figure out how the frosting was hard and delicious. Now after seeing your post.. I think she did a similar process as you did with the ganache (your frosting is hard right?). I will definitely have to try this.. because I've been trying to recreate that cake.
Hi Kay – the frosting can be hard or soft, depending on how you choose to make it. Usually a 1:1 ratio of chocolate to cream will yield a smooth ganache, while using more chocolate will make it much more hard, once it's set. I wouldn't say it's "hard" though, not as in "cracking" at the touch. Maybe you're thinking of a butter/sugar based frosting?
This cake is simply irresistible! I loved the ganache! I am definitely gonna make this before the new year (and after that!)! All in all, excellent presentation and a perfect recipe.
Thanks so much Purabi 🙂 Let me know if you try it!
Belated Birthday Wishes Charles and have a wonderful year ahead. The cake surely looks fantastic and surely tempt anyone to ask for "MORE".
Thanks Sadhana! I enjoyed my last slice a few days ago, so alas, for the present, there's no more 😀
Loved this when I first saw the picture 🙂 Making the Ganache over banana bread for superbowl weekend – thanks for the recipe 🙂 and check out my Hummus fest – to be posted soon
Cheers, Priya
Oops, completely missed your comment Priya – thanks for dropping by. Ganache over banana bread sounds awesome, and I remember well your hummus fest 😀
Just came across your blog today… what a lovely blog you have out here!! and this chocolate cake is on my must-do list!! 🙂
Thanks so much 🙂 Nice to see you here 🙂 Based on your blog name I’m guessing you make a lot of baked goods so I’ll be heading over to your site full speed ahead later on 😀
Hi Charles! I came across your blog and this cake sounds amazing, my mom read to me all Roald Dahl’s books as I grew up, so I’m so happy you shared this with us. I want to try it this weekend but do you think I’d be able to do cupcakes instead?
Hi Chelsea – thanks for stopping by! You know, I’m sure you could convert it to cupcakes, but the tricky part would be getting the cooking time right. If you go for cupcakes I’d bake just one on its own first, for maybe 20 minutes? See how it turns out, poke it a bit and let it cool before baking the others. That way you’ll be able to get a good result without wasting the entire mix in case something bad happens!
Hope it turns out well, let me know how long you end up baking them for, I’d love to know!
Have a great day 🙂
I made the cupcakes over the weekend and they were so yummy 🙂 they only took about 15 to 20 mins. The only thing was they wilted inward a little but I loved them. I definitely want to make again as a cake!
That vale looked yummy & East 2 make.thanks kath
You videos look amazing! I want to try some of your recipes, but do not know the equivalent measurement in teaspoon, tablespoon, cup, etc. Can you help me with that?