It doesn’t stick around for long. 1 hour later.
I love talking about food, as you may have noticed. Tell me about a great new avocado salad dressing you’ve tried, or the way that a squeeze of lemon brought your cassoulet to life. Drone on for hours about the best harrisa paste or the lack of ancho chilis in British supermarkets. Lay it on me.
However, I draw a line somewhere. Talk of food being ‘naughty’ or something to feel guilty about is the dullest, least useful topic in the world to me. It makes me sad how much brain energy gets wasted on beating yourself up over it.
Food is food – work out what is your optimal combination to make you feel good with the amount of exercise that you do, and go for it.
And this cake feels gooood. You might be surprised to see such unapologetic ‘treat’ food on a running blog, but everything in moderation.
This cake is tweaked from a Nigella and is absolutely foolproof – I’m no baker, and I make it every couple of months at least. I’ve got the timing down to a fine art. I’ve tried to share my little quick tips with you in the recipe – I can literally go from zero-to-cake-in-the-oven in 15 minutes on a good day. There’s no creaming or folding whatsoever, just lazy stirring and whisking.
It’s not just an easy cake to make, it’s also absolutely delicious – just the right amount of moist and chocolatey, without being cloying. The dark stout adds a tannic depth of flavour, but you’d never know it was in there. I brought this in to the office for my birthday and got asked about it so much that I had to bring another one in for everyone on Valentine’s Day.
And so I give you the perfect chocolate cake recipe: Bruce Bogtrotters of the world, rejoice! Just please please don’t talk to me about how naughty you are being, as I most certainly won’t be listening.
When you do something actually naughty, can’t wait to hear about it.
Note: Make sure you find a stout that doesn’t use fish in its clarification process. Guinness is vegetarian in North America, but not Europe. A great example is Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout, which you can buy in bottles from their pubs.
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