Mar 15 2009
A Return to Form
After a dull week- not a single foodie photo went onto the camera, and we ate a lot of snatched pasta + butter + parmesan type meals, we decided on Sunday to take the time to follow a recipe. We have also been feeling, acutely, the loss of society and friendship the Challenge gave us. In 2008 barely a week went by without us having a friend or two over for food. Sometimes we cooked for different friends multiple times in one week. This year, NOT ONCE have I had friends over for dinner. We cooked for a big group when we had our weekend in Galloway (perhaps more on that later) and I’ve thrown together food for my family a few times, which has been brilliant…but over all we’ve really let the 2008 side down.
This won’t do! Aiming to recreate the early 2008 ‘Pudding and a Pot of Tea’ idea, we invited a bunch of folk over for Monopoly and Chocolate Cake. In the event, only stalwart HarveyNick could make it (although LeCabinet didn’t get the message until days later and followed up with an invite to hers for dinner, so not all bad!) but that just meant more cake all round.
This glorious beastie is the Malteser Cake from the Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame in Nigella’s Feast. Feast is a gorgeous book and whenever I browse it (it’s a properly browseable tome) I find myself thinking ‘oooh, I must make that…and that….ooh, and that’. Needing to act on such notions and because I like Maltesers a lot meant this cake was an obvious choice.
Both the cake and the butter icing have Horlicks through them, which gives the cake a lovely malty warmth. The actual choccy sponges are very light and spongey, almost rubbery but not in a bad way! It simply means that despite a hefty load of butter icing you don’t feel too sunk after a two- or three-malteser slice.
There’s a new cake club thingy started at work; once a fortnight people bring in cake and people pay per slice, with the money going to work to support Burmese refugees on the Thai border. In the winter it is soup every Tuesday, and this cake thing is a new effort for summer. I never contributed to the Soup Club as 8L of soup is a bit of a liability to carry by bike or by bus. However a couple of tins of cakes & biccies should be manageable by bus. I reckon I’ll include one of these Malteser Cakes in my first effort, just after Easter.
it DOES look like a party, doesn’t it. And no doubt it was yummy, though probably excitingly calorific… ho hum (which my iPhone *insists* is go gun… WHEN will it learn that *I* use Ho Hum a LOT… bit like CAPITALS) x
Oh lordy, that looks delicious.
We’ve fallen out of the habit of having friends over as well and I miss it.
I’ve made this one a couple of times – it’s always a hit! I love it…and I hate Horlick’s.