Make Cakes - Dark Chocolate Almond Cake Recipe

There is really nothing like the warm, tempting smells of the kitchen when you make cakes, it brings you right back to when you were young and your mom was baking. Maybe she baked every week for the family, or maybe just at festive times like Christmas or on your birthday or other special occasions. Why not spend some time recreating those warm days in the kitchen helping your mom to bake, when perhaps you made a few biscuits of your own or scraped the bowls to get the last few drops of the mixture. Making home-made cakes and biscuits is fun and getting your kids to help is even better, it will be something they remember when their own kids are growing up.

To make cakes you will need a cake recipe, which you may be able to find on the internet or in recipe or cookery book. There are hundreds of cake recipes available for every conceivable type of cake you just have to find them. Books dedicated simply to cakes and cake making can be found in many bookstores, mini-cakes, chocolate cakes, banana cake, coffee cake, wedding cakes, party cakes of all kinds may all be discovered. Another excellent way to find a really good recipe is to ask a friend.

Traditional methods for getting recipes

Very often a friend will have a tried and tested favourite that is easy to make and that their kids go crazy over. That’s what you want, particularly if you are not an experienced cake maker. You need easy cakes, something that is relatively quick and easy to make, something that will turn out perfectly every time. Some of my favourite recipes have been handed down to me from my mum. My sister is a celiac so my mom had to bake cakes with gluten-free flour or no flour. One of my favourite cakes that I still use when my sister visits me is a no flour chocolate almond cake. This is a rich, dark, moist cake that should be served with whipped cream for a delicious treat.

Dark Chocolate Almond Cake

13oz dark chocolate

8oz unsalted butter

1/4 cup water

1/3 cup Grand Marnier or Cointreau

6 eggs

1 cup castor sugar

8 oz almond meal

Chocolate Ganache / glaze

8oz dark chocolate melted

1 cup thickened cream

Grease a 9” square cake tin and line base with non-stick silicone paper. Add together melted chocolate, melted butter, water and liqueur in a large bowl and stir well until smooth. Beat egg yolks and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture is pale, thick and creamy and leaves a trail on the top. Fold this into the chocolate mixture and then add the almond meal and mix in until well combined. Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then, gently fold into the rest of the mixture. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake at 180° for 75 minutes until firm. Cool the cake in the pan and then turn out onto a serving plate. Heat the thickened cream until it begins to boil, remove from the heat and add the chopped pieces of chocolate, stir until smooth and refrigerate until frosting is thick and spreadable. Spread evenly and smoothly over the cake. Decorate with white and milk chocolate curls if desired.

Another family favourite and great for using up those bananas which are gone over, is the tried and tested banana cake recipe. Mom never liked cooked bananas, so my brother and I made this recipe first when he was six and I was four. The outcome was not very successful at the time and my mom went mad at the state of her kitchen, but when we got older we tried again and it became a family favourite.

Banana cake recipe

6oz flour

1tsp baking powder

1tsp mixed spice

4oz sugar

2oz butter

1 egg

2tblsp milk

3 large bananas mashed

Grease a cake tin with a little butter.

Preparation and equipment

Sift the flour, baking powder and spices. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy add the egg and beat well. Add a little flour then some of the milk and keep repeating until it is all mixed together. Place half the mixture into the greased tin and top with the mashed bananas. Spread the remaining cake mixture over the bananas. Bake for 35 minutes at 200° C. After removing the cake from the oven but while it is still hot, spread the top of the cake with some butter and sprinkle the top with a mixture of 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and 1tsp coconut. Cake making is an art form, but anyone can do it, so next time you make cakes put your heart and soul into it and don’t forget to include the kids.