Welcome to the world little baby Jack!

Hurrah! Sharon gave birth to a healthy baby boy on Friday 6th November. Baby Jack weighed 6 lb 11 oz and she had NO pain relief! Not even any gas and air – that’s amazing since she wanted an epidural and a C section! Congratulations. Baby Jack is soooooooo lush.

I must say sorry for taking so long to update the blog. I have been busy cooking as always but I have been cooking lots of things I've already put on here so didn't want to repeat myself.

I was so excited to discover that my favourite food channel I watch when I go to America is now available here on Sky! It's called food network and it's channel 262. There's a programme called 'Throwdown with Bobby Flay' where he visits places that have a popular signature dish and challenges them to a throwdown. He challenged a baker from Charleston who makes the most amazing looking coconut cake and since then I've been itching to make a layer cake.

Sueling doesnt like coconut and I'm not a huge fan either so coconut was out. I went to one of my favourite websites, http://www.marthastewart.com/ to search for recipes. I came across a devils food cake cake recipe that looked so delicious I just had to give it a try.

Recipe for Devils Food Cake
Source: Martha Stewart

· 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
· 3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, plus more for pans
· 1/2 cup boiling water
· 3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
· 1 teaspoon baking soda
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 2 1/4 cups sugar
· 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
· 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
· 1 cup whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment; butter parchment. Dust with cocoa powder; tap out excess. Set aside. Sift cocoa powder into a medium bowl; whisk in boiling water. Set aside to cool.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl; set aside. Put butter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until creamy. Gradually mix in sugar until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs, a bit at a time, mixing well between each addition; mix until well blended. Mix in vanilla.
3. Whisk milk into reserved cocoa mixture. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture to butter mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the cocoa mixture.
4. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans; smooth tops with an offset spatula. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto racks; remove parchment and re-invert. Let cool completely.
5. Using a serrated knife, trim tops of cakes to make level. Place four strips of parchment paper around perimeter of a serving plate or lazy Susan. Place the first layer on the cake plate. Spread the top of the first layer with 1 1/2 cups of frosting. Place the second layer on top and repeat process with another 1 1/2 cups of frosting. Place the remaining layer on top of the second layer, bottom side up. Spread entire cake with remaining 3 cups frosting.

*** To make the cake extra moist, brush each cake with the simple syrup uing a pastry brush.

Recipe for Chocolate Ganache Icing
Source: Mrs Milman (Martha Stewart)

24 ounces / 4 cups Nestle semisweet chocolate morsels
4 cups whipping cream
1 teaspoon light corn syrup (you can use golden syrup although I'd leave this out next time)

1. Place chocolate morsels and cream in a heavy saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until combined and thickened, between 20 and 25 minutes. Increase the heat to medium low; cook, stirring, 3 minutes more. Remove pan from heat.

2. Stir in corn syrup. Transfer frosting to a large metal bowl. Chill until cool enough to spread, about 2 hours, checking and stirring every 15 to 20 minutes. Use immediately.

Mrs Hackneys Recipe for Simple Syrup

½ Cup of Granulated Sugar
½ Cup of Water

1. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan.
2. Boil until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.

Mrs Hackneys Notes:
To make cake flour, put 2 tablespoons of cornflour into a cup measurement and top up with plain flour. This gives you a cup of cake flour.

The icing takes about 4 hours to set so be patient. I didn’t have any corn syrup as this is only readily available in the US so I used golden syrup. Next time I’d leave it out as I later found out that Mrs Milman doesn’t even use this in her recipe – Martha Stewart needs to update the recipe on her website!

Overall, the cake is very moist and it hits the spot is your craving a sugar rush.

Enjoy :-)