Nigella Lawson’s Feast - Tropical Chocolate Cake

This weekend I found myself with some free time. I was working during the day, so Mrs Chef had taken Junior to stay with her parents. I can’t stand cooking for one, so what to do? How to update this page? Traffic isn’t going to improve unless I can update more.

The answer was obvious – bake a cake! I can’t remember the last time I baked. I’ve finished off cupcakes, as already mentioned, but not done any of the actual baking myself for so long. I looked through the books on Thursday evening and settled on Tropical Chocolate Cake from the feast book – mainly because I had a bottle of Malibu in the cupboard that had been untouched for over a year, some cream cheese that certainly would have gone off if it hadn’t been used, and desiccated coconut that had been hanging around for a while. I made the list of other ingredients that I needed, and used my lunch break on Friday to go shopping. This is where I first got stuck – the recipe calls for coconut essence – and not a single supermarket in town had any (well, not Waitrose or Sainsbury’s – and if they didn’t, there was no way Morrison’s would have. Tesco was too far, especially after already visiting two supermarkets during lunch). A colleague at work suggested using flavoured coffee syrup, but it was too late. It turns out Jane Asher sells coconut essence but paying £6.95 isn’t realistic – and it was obviously too late – but if you were desperate, and more organised, this is what I’d suggest. Instead, I plumped for malibu and vanilla essence.

So, I got home and made a start. First, I put all dry ingredients in a bowl. Problem one – we had no light brown sugar. I could’ve swore I saw it earlier but now it wasn't there. Of course, I’m a bloke – it didn’t matter, I’d use… Demerara! Nagging doubts were in my mind but I ploughed on. Until problem two reared its head. We had a tin of bicarbonate of soda, but it had less than a quarter of a teaspoon left in it. I was about to plough on and manage with the little powder remaining, but then I looked in the cupboard and saw it – light brown sugar. With a heavy heart, I binned the dry ingredients and went to Sainsbury’s for the bicarbonate of soda.

I got back and started again. Luckily this time all was well, and I made rapid progress on the two halves.

While the cakes were cooling, I decided to make my own dinner. While in Waitrose, I noticed a pack of diced Tuna steak that had been reduced. Brilliant, I’ll have that! Of course later I realised… what do you make with diced tuna steak. I always eat fresh tuna as a steak. After a while I went for burgers. I put:

- A small bunch of coriander

- A red chilli

- A teaspoon full of Ginger

- A couple of drops of Nam Pla

- The juice of a lime

- 2 cloves of Garlic

- And an egg yolk that I had left over from the icing (I prepared the ingredients in advance) in the blender, liquidized, then added the roughly chopped tuna and blitzed a while longer. I divided the mix into six balls and squashed into burgers, then griddled. These were pretty good, but I think the lime was a touch overpowering. Maybe I’ll just add half the juice next time.

Anyhow, by this time it was getting late, and the cakes were cooled. I followed the directions for the icing and whisked the ingrednients together over a saucepan of simmering water, then spread some of the resulting icing over the bottom half of the cake. In hindsight I should have been more generous here. Then I put the top half on top of the bottom – and watched in horror as the top split. No matter, I thought, the topping will cover it.

The topping was a like bright white sloppy marshmallow, that promptly fell into the crack, leaving a chasm that looked like a treacherous mountain pass after a snow storm. I disappointedly looked at the cake and compared it to Nigella’s work of art. Nigella, I let you down. I’m so sorry. I carried on attempting to ice, and then finished by scattering the coconut on top.

I was disappointed. I’d managed to make an ugly cake, that looked so beautiful in the book. However, I’m not Nigella, I don’t have a food photographer – and it turned out to be delicious! The cream cheese and pineapple made the sponge really moist, the topping tasted like the marshmallow it resembled, and the coconut gave an interesting texture. The cake itself wasn’t overly coconutty, despite the Malibu, but the pineapple was definitely there. For the first cake I can remember cooking since school, I was pretty happy!

Feast really is a great book. Its filled with recipes designed to satisfy large parties and gatherings and is beautifully written - Nigella lovingly devotes a large paragraph to each of the many recipes contained in the book. Definitely one I will be consulting again.

Nigella Lawson's Feast @ Amazon.co.uk