Nigella's Dense Chocolate Cake for Clandestine Cake Club

Less than two weeks after my first Clandestine Cake Club, I was getting ready for my second event. This one was themed A Fairy Tale and was set in a yurt in the middle of a big wood, Cardinham Woods to be precise, not too far from where we live.

One of my go to chocolate cakes, before I started my chocolate blogging adventures, was Nigella's dense chocolate loaf cake from How to Be a Domestic Goddess. Somehow, this seemed like the right time to make it again. It's a very simple cake to make and is so delicious it doesn't really need any adornment. However, as this was a particularly special occasion, I decided to cover it with ganache.

Clever decorating not being a particular forte of mine, I was at a bit of a loss as to how to turn this into a fairy tale. Inspiration finally struck (actually it was CT's idea) - the Fairy Godmother's Wand.

This is how I made it:

• Melted 150g 85% chocolate (G&B) in a bowl over hot water and left to cool a little.
• Creamed 500g dark muscovado sugar together with 300g unsalted butter until light in colour and texture.
• Beat in 1 goose egg (about 3 large eggs) until all incorporated.
• Beat in the melted chocolate and 3 tsp rose water.
• Folded in 300g flour (half white, half wholemeal) and 1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda alternately with 350ml boiling water.
• Poured into a 23cm cake mould and baked at 190C for 25 minutes then for a further 20 minutes at 170C until well risen but still slightly gooey inside.
• Left to cool completely before tuning out.

• Melted 150g dark 70% chocolate (G&B) in a pan over a low heat with 150ml double cream.
• Added 15g unsalted butter and 1 tsp of rose water and stirred until smooth.
• Left to cool until just firm enough to stay on the cake without running down the sides.
• Spread over the top of the cake.
• Cut the tops off two chocolate fingers and placed together on the cake to form a wand - that was the idea anyway!
• Sprayed the top with gold shimmer.
• Added stars sparking out of the wand's tip and then dusted the cake with edible gold glitter.

This was as good as I remembered it. Dense and slightly sticky like good gingerbread, it was totally delicious with a smooth mouth feel and just got better as it got older. I bet Hansel and Gretel would have loved it.

As for the other cakes there that night, I was completely wowed and slunk my pitiful effort into a corner out of sight.

Organised by the indefatigable Ellie and hosted by the Woods Cafe, the evening was great fun. There were some familiar faces from my first CCC and many new ones. I was especially delighted to meet a We Should Cocoa regular, the Hungry Hinny, who made a most spectacular castle - a chocolate and raspberry Rapunzel one to boot! My picture wasn't that great, but you can see it on her blog. We ate far too much delicious cake and got to take a plateful home with us again - what a wonderful way to spend an evening.

Little Red Riding Hood

The Three Bears

Cinderella's Pumpkin

Shed in the Woods

What a Fairy Cake

Sadly, I'm not likely to be able to make any more CCCs for a while, but I live in hope I'll get to another one at some point!

As Tea Time Treats, hosted by Karen this month, has a floral theme, I waved my magic wand and turned this plain old chocolate cake into a floral rose and chocolate delight. TTT is alternately hosted by Kate of What Kate Baked.