Little chocolate cakes

Hello everyone, this is going to be my last posting on this blog. I have been writing it since January 2008 and today's recipe is number 150, which seems a good number at which to conclude. It's funny to look at the list of recipes I have shared - it is a compendium of all the things I love to eat! I could quite happily just rotate through all the recipes here for the rest of my life. Of course I won't, there are always new cookbooks calling me with something different.

I decided to conclude with what would really have to be my most favourite food in the world, chocolate pudding. The recipe comes from Jill Dupleix's Simple Food, a book from which I have cooked nearly every single thing. She calls the dish cakes, but she suggests pulling them out of the oven a little bit early so that you can enjoy the luscious squidgy texture. That's how I cook these cakes and I serve them as puddings with cream, ice-cream and chocolate sauce.

Thank you to everyone who has read my blog and provided me with comments and feedback. It made me really happy whenever anyone told me that they had cooked something from the blog, or their family had a favourite recipe from the blog, as that was the original intention. I hope you keep returning to it and find it a useful source of delicious inspiration!

Love from Jane

Little Chocolate Cakes

Makes 12

What you need:

• 200g dark, bitter, top quality chocolate, chopped
• 100g caster sugar
• 120g butter
• 100g ground almonds
• 4 eggs, separated
• Icing sugar for dusting

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. In a bowl sitting above a simmering pan of water on the stove, combine the chocolate, sugar and butter and stir as they melt into a smooth, glossy sauce.
3. Remove from the heat and cool for five minutes.
4. Add the ground almonds to the chocolate sauce and stir well.
5. Beat in the egg yolks, one by one, until well mixed.
6. Place the egg whites into a large, dry bowl and beat until stiff and peaky.
7. Stir a large spoonful of egg white into the chocolate mix to lighten it, then gently fold in the remaining egg white.
8. Spoon the mix into lightly buttered large muffin moulds, or a 12 hole muffin tray lined with doubled muffin paper cases.
9. Bake: if you want a pudding texture check at 15 minutes; if you prefer a cake effect, check at 25 minutes.
10. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing the puddings from their moulds, and serve as you prefer.

Double chocolate muffins

Hello everyone, this week I heard someone say that the Melbourne Cup is only a few weeks away. Well, that is probably stretching reality somewhat, but it did give my heart a lift and the thought that tomorrow heralds the beginning of the last month of winter for another year is a very good thing. I have tried so hard to not complain about the cold weather this year as I usually do (and have realised how many others do, I must have been drowning out their voices previously) but I will be so glad to welcome back longer, brighter, warmer days.

Having said that, I do love winter cooking and have just popped some fennel with a lovely crunchy topping into the oven to bake for my dinner. It is a recipe in the August edition of delicious and as I love fennel, I was very keen to try out both the baked fennel and a fennel soup from the same article. Another lovely thing to have baking on a cold winter morning, as I did last Sunday, is a batch of muffins for morning tea. Now I have baked my fair share of muffins over the years and I have to say, I think these are the best yet. They are so chocolately (as the name suggests) and very moist. Do make sure you use very good quality chocolate - I have been buying the chocolate buttons from Adora chocolate (in the plaza outside the Sofitel Wentworth in the city) and they are excellent. I'm sure you'll think these muffins are great too when you whip up a batch yourself!

Have a happy week! Love from Jane xxx

Double chocolate muffins

What you need:

• 150g dark chocolate, either buttons or chopped
• 125g unsalted butter, chopped
• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 150g white chocolate, either buttons or chopped

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.
3. Place the chocolate and the butter in a saucepan over a very low heat and stir until melted and combined. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.
5. Add the sugar and stir to combine.
6. Whisk together the eggs and buttermilk.
7. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients.
8. Stir in the cooled chocolate and the white chocolate bits, and stir everything together just until combined. DON'T over mix - muffins need a very light hand.
9. Divide the mixture between the prepared cases and bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the muffins shows they are cooked. You might want to leave them slightly under-done in the middle to get a nice fudgy texture.
10. Serve as is or drizzled with a little melted dark chocolate if you wish.

You can also serve these muffins as a pudding for dessert, by warming gently and serving with cream and/or ice-cream and chocolate sauce. In that case you might want to make six larger muffins.

Crunchy breakfast pear muffins

Hello everyone, well, Easter is upon us and I have been so good, resisting all egg and hot cross bun temptation so far. Unfortunately I think I have actually missed the hot cross bun thing for the year, but I'm sure there'll be some chocolate eggs or bunnies to enjoy between now and the end of the weekend. I am planning to call by Accoutrement in Mosman later today to pick up some treats as I have been ogling their gorgeous Easter display for a few weeks now.

This week's recipe is a quick and easy muffin which I whipped up yesterday afternoon, then sampled while losing myself in the DVD of The Time Traveller's Wife (definitely not up to the book standard). They are lovely and moist with the pear and easy to freeze, ready to be freshened up in the microwave. I found the recipe in Good Living some time ago. Regular readers will be surprised to learn that on finding some chocolate in my cupboard I threw that in too - chocolate works so well with pear and is a lovely surprise in a muffin!

Have a wonderful Easter.

Love from Jane xx

Crunchy breakfast pear muffins

Makes 6 large muffins

What you need:

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup wholemeal plain flour (you can use regular white if you don't have wholemeal to hand)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup plain low fat yoghurt
• 1/2 cup vegetable or light olive oil
• 1 cup peeled, diced pear
• 100-150g chocolate, optional
• 1/3 cup pecan nuts, finely chopped

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Using a 6 cup capacity muffin tin, either spray the holes with olive oil spray, or line with paper cases.
3. Sift together into a large bowl the flours, baking powder and cinnamon.
4. Add the oats and half a cup of the brown sugar and the chocolate if using, and stir to combine.
5. Whisk together the eggs, yoghurt and oil.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Muffin mixes do not like to be overmixed and will give you lumps of concrete if you stir too many times!
7. Gently fold through the pear.
8. Divide the batter between the muffin holes or paper cases.
9. Mix together the remaining brown sugar with the pecan nuts and sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.
10. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Nutmeg cake

Hello everyone, I have been on quite a mission this year to actually get to lots of different cafes and restaurants that are reviewed and make me think "Hmmm, that sounds like a good place to try" (but often don't do anything further about it). During the week I had dinner with my friend Maria at Finola's in the Balmain Bowling Club http://www.balmainbowls.com/finolasrestaurant.html , as I have heard lots of great things about the food there. It's an interesting setting, as you are right there in the bowling club with the greens to one side and a crowd playing poker in the bar (good for cheap drinks!). The menu is quite Irish influenced and I enjoyed my fish pie. Then today I am going to Revolver at Annandale, lured by a review that mentioned they do very good hot chocolate there. Yes, I know that most of you think it's way too hot and humid for hot chocolate, but in the interests of research I am prepared to go there!

This week's recipe is for a really, really good cake that I must have made a thousand times over the years. I remember discovering it in a Vogue Wine And Food Cookbook from 1991 when I was first living out of home and it seemed quite sophisticated to me (probably because it wasn't the usual chocolate). It's very easy and has a great texture. I think you'll like it.

Have a lovely week, love from Jane xx

Nutmeg cake

What you need:

• 2 cups of brown sugar
• 2 teaspooons of baking powder
• 2 cups of plain flour, sifted
• 125g butter
• 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Grease a 20cm round cake tin and line with baking powder.
3. Combine the brown sugar, baking powder and flour in a large bowl.
4. Rub in the butter until the mix looks like breadcrumbs.
5. Spread half of the mix over the base of the prepared cake tin.
6. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk.
7. Add the beaten egg and nutmeg to the milk.
8. Pour the milk into the remaining sugar and flour mixture and stir together well.
9. Pour this mix into the cake tin on top of the first lot of crumbs.
10. Bake for an hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake shows it's cooked.

This cake is delicious served with thick cream or Greek yoghurt, or icecream of course.

Orange semolina cake

Hello everyone, I missed posting a recipe last week as I was in Melbourne for the weekend. I travelled there with my sisters and we spent most of the time packing up the house of my aunt, who is sadly nearing the end of her life. As you can imagine, despite the circumstances, it was interesting going through all her things, as we found lots of familiar items but also things that were a surprise. Perhaps best for me was going through my aunt's collection of cook books. I have souvenired a number of them, so my collection continues to grow!

While we were there I had the opportunity to visit the famous Richmond Hill Larder and Cafe, a place I have been yearning to visit for years. I couldn't believe it, it's a cafe (albeit a very good one) and I had to put my name down at the door and wait for twenty minutes for a table to become vacant! My sisters were smart enough to use the time shopping elsewhere, but I hovered, fearful that a table would come up and go again just as quickly if we weren't there to snap it up immediately. Finally we were seated and with great anticipation I commented to the waiter that I thought I'd try the freshly baked scones that were advertised on their chalkboard at the door. Too late - they only make one batch and they all went while I was hovering for my table!

By this time I was quite cross and thinking I didn't like this place at all, however my humour was restored with a quite good hot chocolate and a very delicious chocolate pudding. I even bought some of their goods to bring home with me.

This week's recipe is for a very moist and tasty cake that takes little time to throw together. The syrup seems like a huge quantity to pour over one cake, but do it slowly and gradually and the cake will take it. I think I may have cut out this recipe from The Sydney Magazine, from one of those "What I Cook When..." columns. I wonder whose it was originally?

Have a lovely week. Love from Jane xx

Orange semolina cake

What you need:

• 200g butter
• 300g caster sugar
• Finely grated zest of 3 oranges (I zested then chopped in the bamix)
• 6 eggs
• 260g fine semolina
• 150g almond meal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Syrup

• 200g caster sugar
• 500ml orange juice

What you do:

1. Beat the butter, sugar and orange zest until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in all of the eggs.
3. Add the sifted semolina, almond meal and baking powder and mix well.
4. Pour into a 20cm cake tin lined with baking paper.
5. Bake at 180C for 40 to 50 minutes or maybe longer, depending on your oven. Remember that it is a very moist cake but when you insert a toothpick it should be cooked all the way through.
6. While the cake is baking, combine the sugar and orange juice in a saucepan and simmer for 3 minutes.
7. Cool the syrup and pour over the warm cake.
8. Serve with cream, strawberries and raspberries.

Black-bottom cupcakes

Hello everyone, last night I was very lucky to be invited to dinner at the home of my friends Kirsten and Frank. They are both excellent cooks and they created this beautiful feast for me. While Frank was busy in the kitchen Kirsten and I had a drink at one of their fabulous local Balmain pubs, which was a nice way to start the evening. We then came home to Frank's fabulous rolled roasted pork, stuffed with apricots and ginger, with some beautiful glazed baby carrots and (they know the way to my heart), a lush dish of sliced potato with chopped bacon and brie cheese melted through it. Then this was followed up by a stunning orange tart that Kirsten made. It was all so good and I felt really special having this luscious dinner cooked for me.

This week's recipe is (literally) a really good party trick. I was looking for a cake recipe that I could do ahead and freeze as I wasn't going to be able to bake something fresh. I perused my Belinda Jeffery Mix And Bake and found this cupcake recipe, which I had actually seen Belinda demonstrate at a class some time ago. The cupcakes froze well and in serving them I went one better. I warmed them through in the microwave so that the chocolate melted, and served them with cream, announcing that I had made chocolate puddings. They were very pudding like and a great success for morning tea on a cold and frosty morning, so if you want to go one step beyond cupcakes, this is the recipe for you.

Have a lovely week. Love from Jane xx

Black-bottom cupcakes

Makes 10-12 medium sized cupcakes, or 6 larger ones if you use a 6 hole muffin tin

What you need:

• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup Dutch processed cocoa (the better quality cocoa you use, the richer and more velvety your cupcakes will be)
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup light olive oil
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar

Topping

• 250g cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 200g good quality chocolate buttons or chocolate chopped into chunks

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Line either a large 6 or regular 12 hole muffin tin with paper cupcake cases (I didn't, and had some difficulty getting out the cupcakes, hence the whole pudding inspiration to hide their battered appearance).
3. To make the topping, using electric beaters beat together the cream cheese and sugar for two minutes or until light and fluffy.
4. Add the egg and beat until thoroughly mixed in.
5. Stir in the chocolate and set aside the bowl.
6. To make the cupcakes, combine the flour, bicarb soda and salt in a bowl.
7. Sift in the cocoa and whisk using a balloon whisk for a minute.
8. In another bowl, whisk together the warm water, vanilla extract, oil and vinegar.
9. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the wet mix and stir together thoroughly but only until just mixed. If you over stir your cupcakes will be very chewy.
10. Spoon the batter into the cupcake cases so they are about two thirds full.
11. Scoop spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture on top of each cake.
12. Bake the cupcakes for 30-35 minutes (longer if you have done six large ones), or until a skewer inserted into the dark part comes out clean.
13. Cool the muffins in the tin before removing and leave on a cake rack to cool completely.

Flourless peach cake

Hello everyone, this was one of those weeks when once again I was reflecting on sandwiches and puzzling yet again over why it's so hard to get good ones. This was prompted by the fact that for three days in a row I happened to have lunch provided in an office in the city (different ones each day) and the sandwiches varied in quality (and none were to die for). I guess the fact that they are done in bulk doesn't help, plus they are probably made some time in advance of being served so inevitably start to sag. I'm also intrigued at some of the combinations of fillings you see. Not all of which I find appealing! Happily today I can go and have the perfect sandwich made up freshly for me at my favourite cafe, accompanied by a beautiful cup of hot chocolate. Thank goodness there are some places that know how to get the basics right!

Today's recipe is for a wonderful cake that I baked recently and brought into the office to share. It is so moist you won't believe it and it went down really, really well, in fact I'd say it's the most popular one so far - the boys in particular really went for it. It's yet another from my favourite Epicure Chocolate book. It doesn't have an icing so I just served it with some thick cream.

Have a happy week. Love from Jane xx

Flourless peach cake

What you need:

• 225g ground almonds
• 225g brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons really good quality Dutched cocoa
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• 1/2 cup milk soured with the juice of one lemon
• 2 eggs
• One handful of chopped dried peach

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 175C.
2. Grease and line a 20cm round baking tin with baking paper.
3. Mix the dry ingredients together.
4. Add the milk and eggs to the dry ingredients and mix well to combine.
5. Stir in the chopped peach.
   
6. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 45 minutes.
7. Cool in the tin and turn out very, very carefully, then use a second cake rack to flip over so it's the right way around. Because this cake is so moist it's liable to break very easily so be as gentle and careful as you can!

Jam cake

Hello everyone, I was inspired to make this cake because I had a big jar of jam sitting in the pantry and I knew it would take some very dedicated toast eating to get through it otherwise. I made this cake when I got home quite late one night. It's so easy as you just throw everything into the food processor and then whack it into the oven. I tried out the cake on the boys in the office the next day (always willing to be my guinea pigs!) and they loved it. It doesn't have an icing, but I'm sure served with a big dollop of thick cream it would only be enhanced. The recipe comes from a very handy book called "3 Ways With Stale Bread" by Ross Dobson. It's a really handy book, I do recommend it.

Have a fabulous week. Love from Jane xx

Jam cake

Serves 10 very generously

What you need:

• 185g softened butter
• 185g brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 250g sour cream or creme fraiche
• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1 cup any jam you like

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180.
2. Butter or oil spray a bundt tin (they are the ones that have fluted sides and a kind of column in the middle so you get a doughnut shaped cake).
3. Place the butter and brown sugar in the food processor and blend till smooth.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, and blend for a few seconds between each addition.
5. Add the sour cream or creme fraiche and the flour to the food processor and blend until you have a thick batter.
6. Transfer the batter to a big bowl (it makes a big quantity) and stir through the jam.
7. Spoon the batter into the cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes. Do watch it - all the sugar in the batter makes it cook quickly so keep an eye on it from 30 minutes onwards.
8. Serve warm or at room temperature with cream, icecream, custard or all three.

Nat's Best Ever Brownies

Hello everyone, I went to Sculpture By The Sea yesterday and as usual it was fantastic. Splendid even, particularly as it was a gorgeous sunny day and there was a whale frolicking just off the coast. Unlike other years, there wasn't one sculpture that I thought particularly outstanding and which will stay with me for years, but lots of really good pieces, particularly ones that sculpted single pieces of silver or glass.

On the way over there, with no relevance to the conversation at the time, my niece piped up "Jane, we really like chocolate brownies" which reminded me of this recipe I have made countless times now and for which people always ask. It is so easy as you throw everything into a mixing bowl (not all at the same time) and just keep mixing. As a result, you get a great, smooth texture. This is yet another recipe from my Epicure Chocolate book, and the recipe was contributed by someone called Natalie who is herself a baker.

Enjoy. Love from Jane xxx

Nat’s Best Ever Brownies

What you need:
· 4 large eggs
· 360g castor sugar
· 320g salted butter
· 130g chocolate
· 120g plain flour
· 80g Dutch cocoa
· 160g cream cheese, chilled
· 180g raw walnuts or pecans, chopped roughly (about halves)
· Optional flavours: 2 tablespoons strong espresso or grated zest of one orange

What you do:
1. Preheat oven to 160°.
2. Line an 18cm x 28cm lamington tin with baking paper.
3. Using a hand held electric beater, beat the eggs and sugar for two minutes on a low speed.
4. While it is mixing, melt the butter and pour over the chocolate and stir to melt.
5. If you are using the coffee or orange, add to the chocolate butter mix at this point.
6. Scrape the chocolate butter mix into the egg mix and continue to beat on a low speed for two minutes.
7. Sift together the flour and cocoa.
8. Add the flour mix to the mixer bowl and mix for two minutes. At this point the batter should begin to look matte and creamy – if it is still dark and glossy, mix it for longer.
9. Drop marble sized pieces of the cream cheese into the mix and continue to mix. Beating in all of the cream cheese makes a rich, gooey brownie; gently folding in larger pieces gives a slightly different texture but it will still be moist.
10. Stir in the nuts.
11. Pour the mixture into the lamington tin.
12. Bake for about 30 minutes or until fine cracks begin to appear on the surface and the edges are starting to puff a little.

One pan chocolate cake

Hello everyone, I am baking a cake tomorrow to take to work on Monday for the birthday of someone in the office. I thought it would be a good one to share with you as you can never have too many chocolate cake recipes and this one is so easy, plus its yummy. I think of it as my stand by chocolate cake as it's so reliable. Every time I have made it people ask for the recipe. I think its because it's so chocolatey and very moist. It comes from one of my favourite cook book writers, Belinda Jeffery, from her first book called Belinda Jeffery’s Tried-And-True Recipes. I really recommend this book, I have cooked nearly every recipe in it and never been disappointed.

I hope you have the opportunity for a yummy morning tea some time this week too!

Love from Jane xx

One pan chocolate cake

Serves 8-10

What you need:

· 1/3 cup cocoa powder (preferably Dutch processed)
· 75g cultured unsalted butter
· 1/3 cup light olive or vegetable oil
· 2/3 cup cool water
· 90g good quality chocolate (dark or milk), finely chopped
· 250g castor sugar
· 1 large egg
· 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
· 1 ¼ cups plain flour
· 2 teaspoons baking powder
· 1/3 cup buttermilk (or you could substitute yoghurt or sour cream)

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C.
2. Butter a 24cm round cake tin. Line the base with buttered baking paper then dust the tin with flour. Shake out the excess flour and put it aside.
3. Put the cocoa, butter, oil and water into a fairly large saucepan.
4. Bring the mixture to the boil over a medium heat, stirring regularly until it’s smooth, then take it off the heat.
5. Add the chocolate and sugar and whisk them in until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Leave it to cool.
6. Once it has cooled, add the egg and vanilla and whisk them in thoroughly.
7. Now sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and stir them in until they’re just combined.
8. Whisk in the buttermilk.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and give it a gentle shake to even it out.
10. Bake the cake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the tin on a rack for 5 minutes. Then invert the cake onto the rack, remove the paper and leave it to cool completely.

When you’re ready to serve the cake, transfer it to a serving dish. You can ice it with chocolate ganache, or fresh cream and grated chocolate or berries or crushed praline.

Carrot cake

Hello everyone, I've had some interesting chats with people during the week about restaurants. Yesterday over afternoon tea with my friend Simon he told me about a restaurant that he had been to last year (which had been very well reviewed) and at which he had an absolutely appalling experience. I was very interested to hear this, as I had been to the same restaurant and similarly, was very unimpressed with the food and the service. Unlike me, Simon did something about it, firing off a letter to the manager of the restaurant the next day setting out his complaints. In return, he received a very apologetic letter from the manager with a voucher to spend on his next visit and encouragement to give them another go. He did, used the voucher, and found the experience the second time round much improved. Just goes to show that it pays to complain!

When I have a bad experience in a restaurant, I go the other way - I badmouth it to everyone I know and then never go back. Of course, if it's somewhere I like (like Catalonia at Kirribilli, where the food and wine are incredibly delicious, the service is outstanding and the fit out beautiful), I tell everyone and go back repeatedly. Which led to another conversation last night in which I suggested to another friend that we have dinner at a place in the city where I have been about ten times. He asked if I'm not sick of it, but the food is so good there that I don't think I'll ever tire of it! If you can find somewhere you love, it's great to be able to keep going back and enjoying it.

I made this cake just the other day for a birthday. It's one I have been making for years and years - I was given the recipe originally by my friend Clare, in 1989! It has stood the test of time. One of its best features is that the pineapple in it keeps it really moist, so you can make it the night before it is eaten.

Have a great week, love from Jane xx

Carrot cake

Grate young fresh carrots to give one full cup. (I throw the carrots into the food processor and process until very finely chopped).
Strain the juice from a 200g can of crushed pineapple.
In a bowl, mix one cup of plain flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¾ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon each of cinnamon and salt and ¾ cup of caster sugar.
Add two eggs and 5 tablespoons of a light tasting oil.
Mix very well.
Stir in the grated carrot, crushed pineapple and ¼ cup chopped walnuts.
Bake the cake in a moderate oven (180) for 35-40 minutes or until cooked right through (it is a very moist cake, so depending on your oven, might take quite a while to cook).
Cool before covering with topping.

To make the cream cheese topping, place in a bowl 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons cream cheese, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract and 250g icing sugar and beat well. If it is too thick, add a small amount of milk to give a smooth consistency.

When I made the cake just recently I did think you could probably cut down the amount of icing sugar used as it is quite sweet and you end up with more icing than you can possibly get on the cake. So you might want to experiment with the quantity - just remember to write down the quantity you use so you know for next time!

Pear, pistachio and chocolate cake

Hello everyone, I'm very excited as I have just booked a bundle of tickets for the Sydney Writers Festival which takes place next month. I attended the launch of the program on Thursday night and was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of the program, so have now been through it and picked out about ten events I plan to attend. Many are free, some you have to buy tickets, but they are not expensive at all and it's such a great way to enjoy books, writers and reading!

Apologies to those of you who have asked me to sign you up for automatic delivery of my postings where this isn't working. I am obviously doing something wrong and need to find some time to work out the problem.

In the meantime, here is a recipe for a delicious cake that would be perfect for morning or afternoon tea. I do find it takes quite a long time to cook whenever I bake it, I guess because it's so dense with the fruit and the nuts and the chocolate. But well worth it and delicious served with thick cream! It is inspired by the beautiful home grown pears given to me yesterday by my darling friend Gianni.

Have a wonderful week, love from Jane xx

Pear, pistachio and chocolate cake

Makes one loaf

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and flour a 22cm x 11.5cm x 7cm loaf tin. Put 150g plain flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 150g caster sugar, a pinch of salt, 150g softened unsalted butter and 3 eggs in the bowl of a food processor and process until just combined (about 1 minute – do not over-process). Transfer the batter to a mixing bowl and stir in 200g good quality chopped milk chocolate, 1 peeled, cored and diced pear, ¾ cup pistachio nuts and the finely chopped zest of 1 orange until evenly distributed. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean (I found it took quite a bit longer in my oven). Allow to cool for a few minutes in the tin and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate coconut cake

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a great week. I was out every night last week, including two evenings at the Night Noodle Markets which are on as part of Good Food Month, so I didn’t do any cooking at all! But I did promise you that great chocolate cake recipe so here it is. I made it a couple of weeks ago and it was a hit. It is so easy, as you will see when you read the recipe, that I think I will be whipping up this one fairly regularly. It comes from a book I absolutely love, called Epicure Chocolate. If you like cooking, or if you know someone who does, you should definitely snap up this book if you see it. It is quite difficult to get so I now buy a copy whenever I do see it to give to friends. I have cooked heaps of things from it and every one has been a winner. I’m sure you are going to love this cake.

Have a good week!

Love from Jane x

Chocolate coconut cake

(from Epicure Chocolate, edited by Kylie Walker)

What you need:
· 250g butter, melted
· ½ cup Dutch cocoa powder
· 1 1/3 cups castor sugar
· 3 eggs
· 1 ½ cups desiccated coconut
· 1 ½ cups self raising flour
· ¾ cup milk

What you do:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Place all the ingredients into a bowl and mix well until smooth. You can mix by hand, you don’t need to use beaters. Don’t panic when you add the milk and the mix seems too runny, as you stir the ingredients together it will be alright.
3. Pour the mixture into a lined 24cm round cake tin and bake for 50 minutes or until cooked through. I must have a really, really slow oven because I ended up cooking it for probably another 30 minutes on top of this – so keep testing it and keep baking till you are sure it is cooked through. (It will be lovely and moist from the coconut).
4. Cool on a wire rack.
5. To serve the cake you can spread it with chocolate icing, serve it with thick cream and a dusting of cocoa powder, or even serve it with lovely thick Greek yoghurt and raspberries.