Shop Boy's Journey of Culinary Expansion: Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake / Wedding Cake Trial #1

Rounding out my trilogy of food I’ve cooked from Nigella Cookbooks in the last fortnight is her delightful Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake from the book Feast. The selection of this recipe however, quite shockingly, was not my own…it was my sister and her fiancés.

You see, I am making the cake for their upcoming wedding and this is what they suggested that they would like to have. I had never made it before but trusted in the fact that the recipe was Nigella’s.

I was paranoid that being a spongy cake, it would be difficult for me to tier the cake so had suggested instead the use of Nigella’s (of course) Chocolate Guinness Cake as it was rich, dense and moist…perfect for tiering. My sister was fine with the suggestion but we agreed that I would trial both cakes and see which was better for the occasion.

I decided that I would make both cakes to coincide with my brother and sister’s birthday (yes they are twins, no they are not identical). I might add that my sister lives in New York (and has a fantastic blog call It Started in New York…check it out), so she was not able to participate in the cake testing so I instead used the eating skills of my partner, parents, brother, sister-in-law and unborn niece or nephew.

I made the Chocolate Guinness Cake in the morning before I had to go to work…it is so simple, so delicious and you are left with just enough Guinness in the can for you to Irish up your coffee. After an hour of baking I pulled it out of the oven to see a beautifully blackened, damp cake. Success!

That night when I arrived home I decided to try my hand at the Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake…it was not so easy. In Nigella’s defence, the lack of ease was my own fault. Her recipe calls for all ingredients to be placed in a food processor and blitzed to a pulp; I refuse to buy a mixer, food processor or blender until I can afford to get Kitchenaid. Therefore the mixing process was far more time consuming.

To make the cake you are required to cook two thin sponges that you then sandwich together with a chocolate buttercream; in this trial however I used the Vanilla Buttercream recipe my sister sent me for her wedding cake. I pulled the cakes out of the oven after half and hour and was pleasantly surprised to see two light, fluffy chocolate cakes sitting in front of me.

I let the cakes cool and went to bed ready to ice them the next day.

As Rebecca Black sung, it was 7AM when I awoke the next morning and feeling fresh, I was ready to ice some cakes. I bashed out the cream cheese icing followed by the buttercream. Sandwiched the Old Fashioned Cake and iced the Guinness in what seems like less than an hour…I had the power of Becky on my side. With the cakes sitting in the fridge ready for the trial, I went to work…grudgingly.

Saturday came and with it my sibling’s birthday…the time had come to have my cakes do battle. After dinner I unveiled the cakes, served everyone a piece of each and decreed, “let them eat cake.” And boy did we eat cake. Nervously we all cut into the cakes like we were on Masterfchef, dissecting and analysing the pros and cons of each.

After careful deliberation we unanimously reached a verdict of what my sister and her fiancé should have as their wedding cake. Chocolate Guinness Cake reigned supreme with all six votes and I’m sure a kick from the almost baby. While the Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake was also delicious, the Guinness just had the feeling of being a wedding cake.

While that is our opinion of the perfect cake, Kate, if you don’t want it, I can make another…I’m not going to be a cake Nazi.