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So, what went wrong with my cake?

Hey out there all you baking bloggers, can you tell me what went wrong with this brownie cake?



As you can see it's all cracked, the cake is very crumbly in texture and nothing like the picture in the recipe book! I very rarely bake.

Here's the recipe I followed:

200g plain chocolate
200g butter
3 eggs
175g sugar
200g plain flour

Oven temp: 180 C

Break up chocolate and cube butter, put into bowl set over a pan of simmering water to melt gently (stir frequently).

Whisk the eggs until frothy. Add sugar and whisk until mixture thickens like mousse. Whisk in melted chocolate.

Sift in flour and stir well.

Transfer mixture to a tin lined with greased baking paper.

Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.


So what did I do wrong? The cake has cracked and is crumbly, instead of moist and all in one piece.

I've never made brownies before - not with melted chocolate anyway (last time I made brownies I used cocoa, but that was years ago). I wondered if I should have let the chocolate cool before mixing in, whether the eggs weren't whisked enough? What makes a cake too crumbly???

Thanks in advance for your advice.

xxxx

PORK CHOP RISOTTO - serves 4

Click on the image above to take you to the current cooking feature on Sandra's blog

This is a favourite recipe of mine. So yummy. I've posted it before on an old blog long since deleted. I thought I'd add it again to join in with Sandra's 'Cooking Thursday.


1 medium onion - chopped
2oz streaky bacon - cut off rind and cut into strips
1 clove garlic - crushed
2oz mushrooms - sliced
1 chicken stock cube dissolved in 1 1/4pt boiling water
1oz margarine or butter
6oz long grain rice
pepper
4 loin of pork chops
1 small (7oz) can sweetcorn with red and green peppers (or 1/4 each red and green peppers and frozen sweetcorn)
1 rounded teaspoon chopped fresh parsley - if desired
2 tomatoes - cut into quarters

Method

1. Fry onion, bacon and garlic (red and green peppers, if using) for 3-4 mins in melted marg.

2. Add rice and fry until fat is absorbed.

3. Add mushrooms, stock, and seasoning to taste. Bring to boil and cook until stock absorbed.

4. While rice is cooking, grill chops. When chops are cooked, place on top of rice mixture. (If you are using frozen sweetcorn, add to rice mixture when most, but not all, of water has been absorbed)

5. Drain sweetcorn, add to rice mixture. Stir over a low heat for a few mins., taste and add more seasoning, if necessary.

6. Just before serving add parsley and tomatoes, to allow tomatoes to warm through.

7. Place rice mixture on a warm serving dish and arrange chops on top.

8. Serve with a green salad - if desired.

You can use fresh peppers and frozen sweetcorn, if preferred. Finely chop 1/4 red and 1/4 green pepper and fry at the beginning with the onion, garlic and bacon. Add a handful, or what you prefer, of sweetcorn after rice has been simmering for about 15 mins.

A quick post

Hedgehog babies - Flickr

On Sunday night, the children came to church with us. During the preaching Squidge turned to me and asked me, "Mummy, when we die do we turn into hedgehogs?".

She looked very confused when I started to laugh.

Later on, when I remembered it, I said to hubs, "I couldn't help but laugh when [Squidge] asked me if we turn into hedgehogs when we die."

To which hubs looked at me as if I were mad and said, "She said 'angels' not 'hedgehogs'!"

Lol. Little treasure.

Kitty vs. candle

"What in the wide world?"

"Interesting..."

"Not edible"

[Long pause for kitty-thinks - #background music#]

"Ok...I'm intrigued...Wonder what it feels like?"

"Just a little bat with the paw"

"Gently...gently..."

"Yep, definitely hot"

Please note no cats were harmed in the taking of these pictures!

You may be wondering why I've still got a Christmas decoration out? Yes my hubs was wondering that too. :)

It's going away today, I just love the spinney-candleness of it and have been resisting its return to the loft.

Hubs will of course have to do his manly duty and return all the decorations to the loft, I would do this myself, but as Michael McIntyre explains - the loft is a man's domain.




Plans for the day:

Take kids to school
Prayers
2 loads of washing - almost complete
[pause for a quick interwebbing]
Clean fridge* - *didn't do yesterday
Clean kitchen and dining area
Clean hall floor
Wash bedding
Lie on floor in heap
Pull self together
Pick kids up from school

So just how much is that?

flickr

Her Majesty keeping an eye on the numbers

Here's an interesting British English/American English difference that if you are a high powered banker could get you into trouble.

British English: Billion = a million million (in US trillion)
American English: Billion = a thousand million
British English: Trillion = a billion billion
American English: Trillion = a thousand billion

So I will be putting my trillion into a British bank, because otherwise it might end up less than it ought to be. ;)