ah, my friend had a farewell party in her house. She's leaving 3 days before me.. hrm, so anyway, I decided to make her a cake since (i think) she's not eaten before. I was flipping thru the recipe books looking for a suitable cake, and also one that doesn't take too much time, or funny weird ingredients, and something that sounded fail-proof too. haha

(I never repeat my cakes so I always hope that it would taste good, HAHAHA, it's quite risky, but, repeating would be boring. So everytime, I do something new, and try to minimize mistakes. heh)

Back to the cake, I did Nigella's Sour-cream Chocolate Cake with sour cream icing. Nigella's recipe are quite fail proof, and there's always a forum to ask if anyone's made it before, so, I guess choosing a Nigella recipe is, good. haha

This, however, is the only chocolate cake that Nigella's daugher likes. So I assume, it should be of some level of tastiness (oh does that word even existed ? )

For the cake

200g plain flour
200g caster sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
200g soft unsalted butter
40g best cocoa
150ml sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a large bowl. Then, using an electric mixer, add the butter. In a whide-mouthered measuring jug, whisk together cocoa, sour cream, eggs and vanilla, then slowly add this cocoa mixture to the ingredients in the bowl, beating until thoroughly mixed.

Pour the batter into the prepared tins and bake for 30 mins at 180 C. when they're ready, the cakes should be starting to shrink back from the edges of the tins. Leave for 10 minutes in their tins on racks, then turn out to cool

Icing Recipe

80g milk chocolate
80g dark chocolate (i used 160g dark chocolate + a bit of whipping cream)
75g unsalted butter
125 ml sour cream (only had 50ml)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp golden syrup (used honey)
300g icing sugar (used 200g only, a bit too sweet)
1/2 hot water (didn't use)

To make icing, melt the chocolate and butter. Let cool for a while, then stir in the sourcream, vanilla and syrup (I added some whipping cream as well, cause there was insufficient sour cream. It's not a substitute, but just added some) Add the seived icing sugar and a little hot water, blending till smooth. Add icing sugar or water till the texture is right – thick enough to cover but supple enough to spread.

Then, ice the cake as creative as u can go. or as u like

I spreaded some of the icing on the first layer, then added some roughly chopped ferrero rocher. about 10 of them.

Then I cover another layer, iced the cake (untidy though) and decorated with more ferrero rochers and almonds at the side. Strawberries are nice, but I wanna make it CHOCOLATE-EVERYWHERE !!!!

*now I have some chocolate overdose*

That's how it looked inside. The sour cream chocolate was really smooth. Sour cream rocks! it makes everything smoother. HAHAHA. and the ferrero rocher layer. yummm. There were like 50 people, but I only made such a small cake. So I had to cut it so small!!!

Ryn : Eh San, the cakes good, very nice. My friends all come n tell me it's good

Ryn's mum : Wah, san u very good lah

Ryn's mum's friend : eh, the cake very nice, but a bit too sweet. U know lah, aunty cannot eat too much sweet food

Mel : mmm, the cake's really gooood. U better make a pre-birthday cake for me before u leave

Friend: waah, ferrero rocher.. yumm

YM: ya me too!! I want a cake!!!

SY : how about me ? I want also !!! but I won't be here till the 7th..

*sweesan's starting to sweat*

Obviously it's nice to hear people saying the cake u made tasted good. But I know when it comes to the real thing (being in the kitchen and stuffs) It's not going to be praises, but, alot of f-word. So, leisure-baking is always the best! But of course, I wanna take it to another level, to be not so reliant on recipes and cookbooks. That's why I'm going Le Cordon Bleu. heh, bring it on !!

*now scratches head on what to bake for the 2 friends…*