I hate myself when I cook something really good and forget to take pics of it. Yet, it seems to happen more and more these days as this blog becomes a place where I like to rant about the sour in life and I forget about the sweet. But I am going to write about this cake because it would be criminal not to, even though I haven't got a picture for it.
I am going to the yard Crimbo do tomorrow night and I have whipped out two cakes today, one is a simple coffee flourless cake (yes, I will talk about this another time!) and the other is this Grand Marnier loaf cake that really deserves its own post. I started off with the chocolate loaf cake that I posted earlier this year and modified the ingredients as follows:
225g soft unsalted butter
350g dark muscovado sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g dark chocolate, melted
200g flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
some hot water
2 tbsp orange curd
250ml double cream
90ml Grand Marnier
Loaf tin, lined
Do it like so:
Pre-heat the oven at 180C and stick the lining into your tin.
Cream the butter and sugar, then add the lightly beaten eggs and the vanilla extract. Melt the dark chocolate and set aside. Now add the bicarb of soda to the flour and incorporate into the creamed sugar a bit at a time, helping yourself with the hot water. You don't want anything too dry and crumbly and certainly nothing too watery. So proceed with caution beating well, either by hand or with an electric mixer. Now add the cooled-down melted chocolate and the Grand Marnier. Once this is done, you will be left with a batter that looks reasonably wet. Now pour it into the lined tin and bake for 45 minutes.
Take the cake out and leave it to sink until it is completely cooled. This will take at least three hours but resist overnight if you can. When you're ready to ice the cake add two tablespoons of orange curd to the double cream and whip it until it is of spreadable consistency. Do not over-whip or it will split. Spread over the cake and enjoy a very thick slice with your favourite hot drink.
How to describe this cake? It is damp inside and very moreish without being cloying or rich by any stretch of the imagination. Unlike its cousin, the chocolate loaf cake, the dampness is decidedly alcoholic, even though this is not one of those cakes whose batter is soaked in tipple. I like mine on its own, un-iced, even though I added the jaffa cream on top to add to the sense of Christmas occasion.
