About 2 years ago, there was a great series of radio 4 plays about baking. The very first play was about making a chocolate cake with mayonnaise. How weird I thought, then forgot all about it. A few days ago, I again heard mention of mayonnaise used in cakes. So maybe it wasn’t just a few crackpots in a play! In need of a cake for a camping trip, I fished out the recipe and set to.
This is how I did it:
- Melted 200g 85% dark chocolate together with 120ml strong coffee.
- Combined 100g of sieved wholemeal spelt, 25g buckwheat flour, 1 tbsp cocoa powder, 100g ground almonds, 1 tsp baking powder and 200g caster sugar.
- Made a well in the centre and put in a guestimated 200g of mayonnaise and 1 egg (latter was not in the original recipe, but I had one that needed using up).
- Mixed this together along with the melted chocolate.
- Spooned mixture into a 22cm cake thingy and baked at 180°C for 30 mins.
- Melted 100g 85% dark chocolate with 150ml of single cream.
- Stirred until combined then left to cool.
- Spread onto cooled cake.
The “bitter” in the title refers to the bitterness in the play, but I suspect with all that chocolate as well as coffee, it will be a cake for the discerning palate. As we won’t be tucking into this until we are safely ensconced in our holiday retreat, I’ll have to report back at a later date on the cake’s edibility!
13 September 2009
Back from our break and have to report that the cake was delicious. Bitter was an apt name, as I thought it might be – all that dark chocolate and coffee played its part. Moist, rich and not too sweet, a little went a long way and lasted us most of the week. What about the mayonnaise? Well, if truth be told, we could taste it occasionally – presumably where it wasn’t as well mixed as it might have been! It was fun to try, but next time I make the cake I think I’ll just use eggs and butter.
Janice, the picture did not do this cake justice – it was one of the best I’ve made. Still feel a bit dubious about the mayonnaise though.
mmm sounds gorgeous, I love a little bitterness in my chocolate. I have heard of using mayonnaise in chocolate cake before, but I’m not sure where from.