Lazy Girl Chocolate Cake

Loneliness, longing, regret and shattered dreams

A Lazy Baker I am

I just found a fellow food blogger*, who loves literature like me.  In fact, she takes a book and extracts a recipe from it.  In her recent post, she considers what kind of cake to make from Nani Power’s  Crawling at Night.  She notes the ingredients are “loneliness, longing, regret and shattered dreams.”  She’s wondering what to do with that.  My suggestion:  Buy a dark chocolate cake mix and fiddle with it.

I have made cakes from scratch, and they have always have a gritty or a gummy texture.  The mixes are usually better, with few exceptions.

Crawling at Night Lazy Girl Chocolate Cake

The cake

lashings of loneliness, longing, regret and shattered dreams (hallucinate and project into the batter)
1 dark chocolate cake mix
1 teaspoon rosewater
1 tablespoon amaretto liqueur
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

The custard frosting

6 squares unsweetened chocolate

4tablespoons Birds custard powder

3 tablespoons brown sugar cane crystals

1 tablespoon butter

2 1/2 cups milk

2 tablespoons amaretto liqueur

½ teaspoon rosewater

1 cup pitted cherries (frozen okay)

1 banana, sliced

Follow package directions for making two layers, but add the pepper before the liquid.  Measure the liqueur and rosewater into the liquid to ensure the batter won’t be too wet.

On medium heat, melt butter in saucepan, and add the custard powder.  Stir gently, cooking the powder in the butter for a couple of minutes.  Add milk, chocolate squares, sugar and cherries and bring it up to a boil.  This will take at least ten minutes, and stirring needs to occur at least every two minutes.  Once the chocolate is fully melted and incorporated, and the custard is boiling, stir continuously for about a minute, then remove from heat and add the next lashings of liqueur, rosewater and emotions.  

When both the cakes and custard are cool, spread 1/3 of the custard onto the top of the first layer.  Add banana slices now.  You don’t need to be too symmetrical, because we need to keep the element of regret in here.  Place the top layer down.  Frost the cake with the remainder of the custard.  Refrigerate.  If you really want to add some regret, use your best platter, and drop the whole thing moments before serving to your guests.  Be sure to stand over a tile floor so shattering is ensured.

*By the way, take a look at Nani Power’s Ginger and Ganesh, which is a wonderful narrative cookbook that includes great recipes and a scandalous plot!  The food and literature blogger I mentioned can be found at ingestedread.blogspot.com