A chocolate birthday cake to die for.

My step-son's 17th birthday recently passed and, while I generally try my hardest to make the most girly cake possible for him, things got a little more classy this year. I'm not quite sure what's wrong with me because I'm not in any way concerned with sparing his manly pride. Anyway, after much searching for a good chocolate cake recipe, I settled on a recipe from the fabulous Baking Bites blog. This turned out to be what was probably one of the best baking-related decisions of my life.

Recipe link:Classic Chocolate Cake from Baking Bites

The last time I was visiting my mom and dad in the states, my mother sent me home with a couple of those fancy silicone cake moulds. I gave one to my mother-in-law and the other sat in the corner of my kitchen collecting dust for two months. The recipe I used only filled half the mould, but in the end that was better as there were only 4 of us (and even still the cake lasted for two puddings).

Needless to say, I did not use the chocolate ganache recipe for icing. Instead I made a simple pourable (icing sugar + milk) icing and then decorated that with a tube of freshly melted dark chocolate. Topped with a few dozen yellow and blue marzipan balls, this really was a glorious hit to the tastebuds.

My step-son, a tried and true chocolate lover, found this decadent cake to be a treat and a half. So did the rest of the family. American style cakes sit on a pedestal of moist goodness (and please understand this is a huge compliment because I detest using that particular m-word). That's not to say that English cakes aren't good; they are certainly lighter and hence do not cause me a full day's bed rest after a single slice. American cakes just tend to use a higher quantity of fat, whether oil or butter, and end up far more dense and moist. The upside is they are incredibly rich and delicious. The downside is, as mentioned, more than a small slice is too much for my body to handle. That's why, on a special occassion like a birthday, I make sure to seek out a recipe that's really special, and this recipe certainly is that. It was chocolate heaven. Enough said.

Recipe courtesy of Baking Bites