Ugly and trashy = delicious
When things start to spin around you faster and faster, you need your homely rituals to keep you grounded and sane. For me it involves watching DVDs and eating greasy food with The Captain, grocery shopping together (yes, really!) or just going for a drive. Then there's cake.
Sometimes you just need to get trashy with cake.
It's certainly doesn't win any prizes for looks (but look at that cascading silk of chocolate!). This gave me a way to use up what was lying around, thanks to a inspiration hit by a recipe that was oh so simple. I love that cake can be like a delicious trash bin, happy to take anything you want to throw at it; in this case, choc chips, pears and pistachios. Just because.
And when the day leaves me extra dazed and bruised, only one therapy in Candy Land will do (well, other than a hard drink and a foot massage!). And that is chocolate. Forget about icing it nicely, there's only one way to do this - cake, cut, ganache... POUR BABY POUR! Not even a pour, more like a chocolate dumping of tasty proportions! It sure looks ugly don't you think? But then again, I was feeling ugly on this day and I'm in no mood to pretty it up. I couldn't even be bothered with the photos because all I wanted to do was bash my fork into it. Yep, it was that kind of day. Now if you excuse me, I believe there is more cake for me to pillage.
Ingredients
200g dark chocolate - pulsed in a food processor until coarse crumbs
70g ground pistachios* (if using whole nuts, process with chocolate into coarse crumbs)
150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
3 eggs
150g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbl milk
1 firm pear (like beurre bosc or 2 small corellas) - cored and diced into 1cm cubes
*Hazelnuts can also be used
Method
Preheat oven to 160°C and grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin.
Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gently stir in the flour, chocolate, ground nuts and milk until just combined. Gently fold through the pear until mixed through.
Bake for 40-50 minutes (check at 40) or until the skewer comes out clean. Rest in tin for 10 minutes before turning out and cooling on wire rack.
For ganache, place 150g dark chocolate (broken up into pieces) in a bowl. In a pan, heat up 150ml of cream until it just comes into a boil. Pour over chocolate and let it stand for a minute. Stir through until chocolate has completely melted and mixed.
Slice cooled cake, dump as much ganache as you need it then proceed to attack with fork while grumbling at the world (sometimes I like to microwave it for a bit to make an even more gooey mess).
Print recipe here!
Recipe adapted from
Tartine Gourmet Foods and Catering
1035 High St
Armadale VIC 3143
(03) 98228849
