Week 133 and this week I had to try and see if Mary Berry‘s Baking Bible would come up with a cracking recipe to suit the occasion. It was the Chief Tasters Golden Wedding Anniversary so I found the perfect recipe. Mary’s American Chocolate Wedding Cake.
When you read this recipe, you realise this is a MONSTER of a recipe and if followed to the letter, the three tiered cake would feed over 100 people. Now I made a decision to scale this down to a realistic level. I chose the middle tier sized cake to make and split the mix between three sized tins to create the tiers. Even making this one mix, involved melting obscene amounts of chocolate ! I followed Mary’s recipe carefully and carefully separated the eggs and beat the yolks with one whole egg and the sugar, then whisked the egg whites until thick and light then added the melted chocolate and ground almonds and a taste of coffee. the mixture did not want to fold into together and it took a little while to wrestle this mix into shape! I then poured it into my tins and waited for them to bake.
The sponges came out well and I left them to cool. I then melted yet more chocolate and butter for the covering and drenched each sponge in this, smoothed them as much as a I could with a palette knife and stacked them. I was fairly pleased with my miniature version of this enormous cake. i decorated mine with golden edible bits and gave it to the chief tasters as part of their anniversary present…as their main present is still ” in production” and yet to be dispatched. I would like to wish you both a very happy anniversary with much love x
We enjoyed an amazing meal with them to help them celebrate.
The 1 1/2 hairy hoolies seem to have settled into a relationship of sorts and he is such a character! He is certainly keeping us on our toes and we are certainly sleeping well at night…in exhaustion!
The Countdown is now at the heady heights of ….
The recipes left to go are:
Mary’s Rich Fruit Cake, Quick Boiled Fruit Cake, Chocolate Mousse Cake, New Year Tipsy Cake, Gateau Saint Honore, Gateau Moka aux Amandes, hot chocolate souffles and….the “bin-gate” of the last Great British Bake Off- the BAKED ALASKA!!!!
Lewis & Kim 
As honorary “Grandma & Grandpa” feel deeply saddened at the lost of our big boy, Bailey. A huge dog with a very gentle heart. He was much loved.
The evening of our 50th was a night to remember spent with our special people at a great venue.
Our celebratory cake took our breath away. “Pro” or what. Amazing, tasted everybit as good as it looked. What can we say about the new arrival in the family? Little Mr teeth and trousers!! Aka Jasper the absolutely gorgeous .
We have found a new place in our hearts for him. He has a tough act to follow. Only 8 more bakes to go, who is going to feed these O A P’s after the final bake!!! LOL
Hi,
Sorry to bother you, but I just baked this cake today using the recipe from the book and it didn’t come out well. Your cake looks great. I understand you had baked this years ago and I was wondering if you would help. I am in the US.
1. Is the Almond flour in UK or in this recipe fine or coarse? The one I found in the stores here was coarse – not fine like all purpose flour. I liked the texture but my friend’s didn’t like it so much.
2. I loosened my base with some egg whites and then folded in the rest.
3. The edges of my cake burnt. And it kinda of rose in the middle with a thin crusty layer on top with an air pocket underneath and then the rest of the cake. It didn’t cook in the middle all that well. I think I should put foil on top and side.
4. Mine didn’t rise. Maybe I over whipped the egg whites. Can we add baking powder?
Overall the chocolate taste was good.
Thank you
Cheers
Hi, thank you so much for your comments. The almond flour in the uk is fine ground, can you grind yours finer?
Either foil or baking parchment will help with the burning.
Sounds like the taste was good, perhaps give it another go?