A hole in one

Stylish

Hurrah for pancake day and having a fantastic chef for a mother.  Retrospectively of course, since most of the 'run up' to this day of indulgence seemed to pass me by and I awoke in a state of sugary, lemony, pancake battery obliviousness. [Apologies for overly long and possibly invented words that already there seems to be a plethora of tonight - am feeling wordy.] So, due to my unforgivable ignorance, and shame on Heart FM's Sam and Amy for failing to mention pancake day during the 10 opportune minutes while I was driving to work, I had to make a desperate dash to Morrisons after work armed 5p short of the parking ticket fee and already running late for the gym. Nightmare. My mother and I thought we were home and dry as we began the pancake making process, somewhat arrogantly assuming our television cooking knowledge would put us alongside chef superlatives like Michel Roux and Raymond Blanc and that our meek and mild looking batter would somehow yield to us not just pancakes, but Crèpes, not just with lemon and sugar, but with Cointreau, and set alight. 

I will somberly admit now to you all that this time around, I was no Nigella and my mother was no fairy godmother. Perhaps Gilmore Girls has finally produced some dialogue worth noting (alright, I'm not ashamed, I think the dialogue on GG is awesome... I dare anyone to mock me.)  Perhaps Rory's advice about the infamous 'first pancake' should actually become common and relied upon knowledge:

RORY: [...] you are forgetting about the first-pancake phenomenon.
LORELAI: Eh?
RORY: Yes the first pancake – you know you always throw it out. [...]
LORELAI: Why do you throw out the first pancake?
RORY: Well the griddle's too hot. It gets burned.
LORELAI: Oh, my god. Next year, no excuses. We are making you that audition tape for "Top Chef."
RORY: This is pretty basic stuff.
LORELAI: Do you do it with hamburgers and waffles, too?
RORY: No, it's pancake-specific. 

(http://www.tvloop.com/gilmore-girls/show/quotes/rory-gilmore-rory-are-you-sure-we-got-enough-plain-165390)

Ma, moments before...

If Rory, the girl who grew up living on take-out and microwave food knows rules about pancakes that I don't know... It is certainly to the detriment of any of our endeavours.  Our first pancake was under par. In fact it was so far under par that it was practically a hole in one, and that is NOT a good thing. Slightly slimy, undercooked and a little too enthusiastic with the lemon juice makes for a pancake worthy of an Exhibit A. Round 2 showed improvement, although not a lot in the flipping department.  The pan, admittedly was on the heavier side of a cement truck (although I doubt it says that on the packaging,) and so flipping the pancake resulted in merely 'folding' it in half as the weak little thing just didn't have the energy to make the full turn.  Round 3 was almost a success as we had discovered the key lay in cooking it for longer - then it didn't stick to the pan quite so much. It tasted pretty good too. Round 4 was supposed to be our demonstration pancake; the one that we showed off now that we'd honed our skills and could whip up something that looked alright; it was the one we would take photos of and show the family. So we photographed it in the pan and it looked fab. We even photographed me flipping it and after 3 attempts got both my face and the pancake in view. Then it went to Mum for one final and memorable flip. The photo was perfect. When I looked up, the pancake was on the floor. Spreadeagled and mangled. I looked forlorn. Mum had hysterics and the cats turned their noses up at our wonderful, and now sadly ruined creation. 

The tragic accident

A Taste of Nigella

Guinness, cocoa, butter swirly patterns

The Chocolate Guinness Cake that is currently and beautifully baking in the oven is one that I can verily lay claim to, oh yes, but alas, the same cannot be said of the recipe.  That Aphrodite of a cake belongs to none other than Nigella Lawson and to her I am perpetually grateful.  As for all you anti-Guinness folks out there, and as a non-Guinness drinker myself, I must admit that the only resemblance that this cake has to it is in appearance, since it is designed to reflect the iconic ebony-ivory tipple.  

The first thing to note about this cake is the smell when it's cooking: the first stage involves melting an entire pack butter into half a can of Guinness and mixing in a bucket load of cocoa which produces a heady, rich and slightly metallic smell.  (To find a suitable word to describe the Guinness element of the scene I am sitting here making myself sip the drink like a pungent medicine or vodka shot, screwing up my nose slightly.  All in the line of duty of course.) Whilst stirring all the components into a swirly twirly helix of delight, I wondered whether I'd invented - sorry Nigella had invented - a new variety of hot chocolate: butter, Guinness, cocoa and sugar etc in a perfectly smooth twist on the classic blends. I sampled a little and was pleasantly surprised despite the quantity of Guinness that still remained in a relatively unchanged state.  

Anyway, the next best part of cooking this cake (other than licking clean all used utensils and bowls etc) is making the icing. Now it's not traditional icing solely made from icing sugar and egg whites, but a creamy melange of Philadelphia, icing sugar and double cream.  Once the chocolatey cake mix has been left to cool, the icing can be smoothed over the surface, á la Guinness 'froth'.  It is delicious if not verging on being criminally rich, but self-restraint is the key to the perfect flavour as a night (or several hours) in the fridge solidifies both cake and icing and creates a cool, moist and succulent consistency.  (This is approved by my whole family, plus the many other families we have shared this cake with...) 

The Morning After...

As per my own advice, I have nestled my prize cake on a shelf in the fridge to mature over night, only to be devoured by hungry little village goers at the fete tomorrow.  My only comfort lies in the fact that so many of them will consider me to be their fairy godmother by this time tomorrow.  Maybe I should lay tribute to the wonderful Nigella in some fashion though, as it's one thing to bake a fantastic cake, but another thing entirely to have the dream to start with...

HAPPY COOKING ALL.  check out the link for the recipe: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chocolate-guinness-cake-3086