Baking notes

I made three cakes this week and just wanted to add some notes for myself about them.

Apple cake was for Debora's birthday, and taken from an Anna del Conte recipe ('torta di mele') which uses oil instead of butter; this and the apple made it similar to making a carrot cake. I soaked the sultanas not in warm water, but warmed brandy; and did not add quite as much flour as suggested - perhaps using 10 instead of 12 ounces. It was a stout and hearty cake, perhaps marginally too healthy-tasting: next time I will try skewering and drizzling brandy over whilst the cake is still hot ... and a crunch top layer of demerara sugar would be good too. It improved over the next day.

Next came Nigella's chocolate fudge cake 'serves 10 or one with a broken heart' (or as an incentive to attend a work meeting...). I am still not quite comfortable with the oven and find the heat a little uneven - the two cakes rose so much that the bottom cake touched the cake tin above - but at least they cooked at the same time. I normally even the cakes out so they stack on top of each other neatly, but this time I just sandwiched them, with the filling oozing out, and covered it in a mudslide of the icing. Even in my big cake tin, the lid touched the cake - never have I made this one so tall!

By lunchtime I realised I had chocolate over my jeans and hands, and icing sugar dust coating my glasses. Back home, I had to wipe my computer keyboard as the icing sugar had blanketed this too... note to self: good cake, but use your ipod in the kitchen!

For all that the oven seemed too hot with the fudge cake, it turned petulantly cool with the cheesecake I made on Saturday, which I left in for about 20 minutes longer than normal. It showed: the centre was perfect, but the outside had the slight, spongy crust of being cooked too long. It was my contribution to a cheese party, hosted by Phil.

There was a fondu which we all gathered around, vulture-like. Everyone had contributed cheese on cheese (stilton, manchego, wine washed rind cheese, Port Salut, um emmental... and more), olives, crackers, fresh bread, chutney, tricolore salad ... endless amounts of beautiful food. Only after I had eaten too much did I recall that that was supposed to be a starter - and out came the fantastic macaroni cheese, lasagne, halloumi salad, baked vegetables with cheese, and pizza. It is testament to everyone's enthusiasm that we managed cheesecake as well.



Anna Del Conte, 'Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes: the best of Anna Del Conte' (Vintage, 2006)
Nigella Lawson, 'How to be a domestic goddess...' (Chatto & Windus, 2000)