Sometimes I wish I ate chocolate, especially when I look at the picture above. Unfortunately, chocolate gives me a migraine, so the prospect of lying in my bed while a jackhammer is having a party in my head is usually enough to keep me from touching the stuff. .. Oh well, it could be worse; I could get migraines from beer. And then I would really have to kill myself .

Thankfully there’s plenty of other people who do love chocolate, and I can always put a smile on their faces whenever I bring this cake with me. The initial protests of “just a little piece for me” quickly fade when they taste it, and I often find people surreptiously sneaking extra bites when my back is turned. Now, I have no claim to the success of this wonderful cake; it is all Nigella’s doing. But I’ll share the recipe here so you too can impress friends and colleagues with true death by chocolate! I’ve adapted it slightly because some of the original ingredients, such as muscovado sugar, are very hard to find here in the Netherlands.

You’ll need two 20cm cake tins for this cake, as well as a handheld electric mixer (whisking gives too many lumps, but maybe you have a stronger mixing arm than I do).

For the cakes:

• 400g plain flour
• 250g golden caster sugar
• 100g golden brown cane sugar
• 50g cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 small tub of sour cream (app. 140 ml)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 175g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 125ml corn oil or sunflower oil
• 300ml chilled water

For the fudge icing:

• 175g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
• 175g unsalted butter (Nigella uses 250, but that’s a bit too much for most people)
• 250g icing or powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Butter the two 20cm cake tins. You can put baking paper in the tins to extract the cakes more easily when they are done, but if you butter the tins well this shouldn’t be a problem anyway.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt. In a smaller bowl mix the eggs, sour cream and vanilla until blended. With an electric handheld mixer, beat the melted butter and corn oil/sunflower oil together, then beat in the water. Add all the dry ingredients, and mix together on a slow speed (or you’ll end up with batter everywhere, as I usually do). Add the egg mixture, and again mix until well blended. Divide the mixture over the two cake tins.

Bake the cakes for about 50 -60 minutes. They are done when a fork or cake-tester comes out clean. Let them cool in the tins for about 15 minutes, then remove the tins and let them cool on a wire rack or wooden board.

Now, in the original recipe Nigella has you melting the chocolate in a microwave. I’ve tried it once and ended up with a block of charred chocolate and a very smelly house; not quite sure what went wrong there. Anyway, I usually melt the chocolate using the fool-proof method of au bain marie. Just put the chocolate in a pot, and put it in a slightly bigger pot with simmering water (don’t forget to make sure that the water cannot spill into the chocolate, or you’ll end up with some very watery and disgusting chocolate).

Mix the butter until it’s soft and creamy, and add the powdered/icing sugar. If you want to make absolutely sure that there will be no lumps, sieve the sugar. Finally, add the vanilla extract and the chocolate, and mix until smooth.

 Sandwich the two cakes together with about a quarter of the icing, and then ice the top and sides with a rubber spatula. The result will probably look something like the picture above.

Apply to face and enjoy the sugar rush.

but after I returned from Madrid it was so hot for a while, that I barely cooked at all. Tossing a salad was usually as far as I went, not in the last place because the temperature in my kitchen rises to about a million degrees when I turn on the oven there (the dial is missing, so the temperature is either 260 degrees Celcius or nothing). Not the ideal temperature to become creative, I can assure you. But the past week it has been a little cooler, and I’m back in the kitchen. Unfortunately, pictures of my latest creations are absent, because I was far too hungry to let something futile as photography distract me from wolfing down my dinner. *sigh*. So instead, I want to direct you onward to a recipe which I discovered about a week ago. I made it on Monday, and I fear there will be no other way to eat green asparagus now…This is far too delicious!

Next, I will share Nigella Lawson’s recipe for the best.chocolate.cake.ever! And no, that is not an exagerration.

After a refreshing break in Madrid, where I consumed enough cured ham and sausage to feed a small country, I’m now back for a new post. And this time I’m going to give you a recipe that will change your life, and best of all, it only uses one ingredient! How great is that?

The origins of dulce de leche are a bit murky; although the Argentinians claim it was one of their own who accidently concocted the caramel-like substance, Wikipedia claims it is probably European in origin. Who cares, as long as we all get to enjoy it, right? It can be made from milk and sugar, but the easiest way only requires a can of condensed milk and a few hours on the stove.

The first time I made dulce de leche the can (which I carefully perforated first) started to make a lot of noise in the pan of water in which I placed it. I hovered in the doorway of my kitchen, not wanting to get to close in case the whole thing exploded, because being blinded by hot milk and shards of can is definitely not my thing. But it turned out great, and I’ve learned that explosions are not likely as long as you perforate the can (two holes will do the trick) and that the noise is perfectly harmless.

So, after you’ve perforated the can of condensed milk, place it in a small pan with enough water to cover about two-thirds of the can. Heat the water until it just starts to boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer.  It takes about three hours before the whole can is turned into dulce de leche, but there’s no need to stay in the kitchen that long. Just make sure to pour some more water in the pan every once in a while, otherwise the can may explode when it is all evaporated (and that would really make a mess in the kitchen).

Then, after three hours, you turn the heat off and wait a bit for the cans to cool. Now you can whip out your can opener and see the brown gooey goodness for yourself (and why just look? tasting is even better)… It resembles caramel. You will probably need to stir a bit to see the deep brown colour.

I usually make two cans at a time and then store it in a glass jar in the fridge. I guess it’ll last you a couple of weeks, although I have never made it that far. I use it on ice cream (or just dip my finger in it), but it’s really good on brioche (a type of sweet French bread), cake, bread, cookies…everything, really. I’ll post a recipe for chinois, which is basically brioche filled with bakers’ cream or creme patissiere. Together with dulce the leche it’s heaven. But ice cream is a good place to start: