Yesterday was my birthday. I turned the grand old age of 28. It's a beautiful age, apparently. (So one of my friends was informed by a Polish lady we work with.) I took the day off work and had the laziest of days pootling around Cambridge and my flat. I had a bath at 1pm. I read a detective book set in Sicily as part of my acclimatisation in preparation for my upcoming holiday. I could afford to relax, you see, because my birthday cake had already been made, taken to work and devoured. (Though there is talk of Mr 'Splorer baking me another just for me and him.)
I toyed with the idea of making this dressy chocolate loaf cake. I still really want to make that cake - it looks so classy and sophisticated. But I decided that for a cake worthy of my birthday I needed drama. And I think meringue just screams drama. Not to mention a cake that contains the best part of five bars of chocolate. (No one tell Mr 'Splorer how much that means I handed over to Green & Black's!) So I chose this Chocolate & hazelnut meringue cake, from the wonderful blog Tartelette. Check out her post for some gorgeous photos of what it should look like! She's adapted the recipe from Martha Stewart. It's basically a rich chocolate brownie-like cake, with a meringue topping with bits of chocolate and hazelnut folded in. It's very rich and very delicious. Personally I wasn't sure that the chocolate in the meringue was really necessary, but it went down very well in some quarters. And I got buckets of positive feedback from the workmates. So, all in all, a highly successful cake and I would totally recommend the recipe.
I do, however, have one small gripe! Why, oh why, do Americans measure butter in tablespoons? (Or am I being unfair? Is it only some Americans?) Why would you decide to measure something solid in spoonfuls, especially assuming that you have a perfectly decent set of scales somewhere about your kitchen? Madness!
Oh, and before I go, I must just be a proud big sis and show you what I got from little sis for my birthday:
This is me 'sploring you see...
And here I have conquered a cake mountain!
The cake looks delicious. I've only had failures when trying to cook a meringue on top of cake, so I'll be checking out the recipe.
ReplyDeleteYour personalised birthday present is cute - what a thoughtful little sister you have!
BTW - a tablespoon of butter is 1oz (or 25/28/30g depending on how you are converting)
Belated Happy Birthday Nora.
ReplyDeleteLOVE those prezzies, think I might print out this post and leave it as a gentle hint (will have to print THIS IS WHAT I WANT on it of course!!!)
The cake sounds fantastic (looks great too) will have to try it soon.
Happy belated birthday Nora! Your birthday pressies are so cute.
ReplyDeleteThe cake sounds and looks really yummy.
Maria
x
Happy birthday - cake looks great, rich and decadent!
ReplyDeleteLove the personalised crockery - the art work is so cute
I think it's a stunning cake--and sounds very tasty, too.
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for any Americans, but in the same way UK butter is marked in 50 g parts on the wrapper, our Canadian butter was marked in 1/2 cup measures on the foil. And I guess that simplifies things since 1/2 cup = 8 tablespoons. But maybe it was a British recipe first and got converted to American measurements, because I can't imagine anyone measuring butter using actual spoons! Shocking.
Happy birthday Nora! The cake looks brilliant, I remember seeing it at Helen's site, glad to know it was tasty!
ReplyDeleteLooks like another yummy one!
ReplyDeleteThe butter thing is very annoying if you're outside the US. All of our butter is divided into "tablespoons" so all you have to do is cut that part off the stick of butter. Here, I usually convert it into grams and then guess (because I'm too lazy to pull out the scale!)
Happy Birthday to you!!!! Sounds like you had a grand old day of it and who can blame you. I totally agree with your choice of birthday cake (and how american's measure their butter!)
ReplyDeleteYour little sister came up with the best gift ever. What a lovely idea!
A bleated Happy Birthday and hope Mr Splorer did indeed bake you another cake. This one sounds very hard to beat though and heaps better than the one I took into work for my birthday. Very yum yum and this is going on my list - I just wish I didn't keep losing it!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday! It was clearly a wonderful one! Fab cake! Gorgeous crockery!
ReplyDeletebest wishes for the year ahead!
Happy Birthday Nora! The cake looks delicious, I've never tried baking meringue on top of cake.
ReplyDeleteYour birthday presents are gorgeous, what a thoughtful little sis you have!
And I completely agree - what's with measuring a solid block with a spoon!!!
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