Not only am I a chilli fiend, but also definitely a chocolate fiend. So, I spent a good while looking for a nice cake to bake for Easter. I considered trying my Mum’s recipe for a beetroot chocolate cake – she promises that it tastes far better than it sounds – or a carrot cake. Instead I went with what I really wanted: a big, fat chocolate cake. After all, it is Easter – a time for indulgence after 40 days of giving things up for Lent (I gave up giving things up).

Anyway, I found a recipe for an Ultimate Chocolate Cake by Angela Nilsen but reduced the amount of sugar and butter because after weighing up the ingredients, I decided that I didn’t want this cake to be the single reason for giving myself and my housemates heart attacks and diabetes. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

The Cake
200g dark chocolate (I used Lindt’s 85% cocoa bar)
150g unsalted butter
85g self raising flour
85g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
100g muscovado sugar
150g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
75ml buttermilk

The Icing
200g dark chocolate (I used Lindt’s dark cherry chocolate but any will do)
260ml double cream
1 tablespoon of caster sugar

I used two round cake tins, 7 inches diameter.

Method

Butter the cake tins and pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3 or 160 degrees.

Melt 200g of the chocolate. You could do this by boiling a saucepan of water, then placing a heatproof bowl over the saucepan and put the broken up chocolate squares into the bowl. When the chocolate is melting, add the butter and stir until it’s all melted together.

Put the self raising and plain flour into a mixing bowl, along with the bicarb of soda and the sugars. Mix these ingredients together with your hands, removing any lumps that you feel.

Beat the eggs in a bowl and add the buttermilk to them. Add the egg mixture and the melted chocolate to the flour and sugar. Stir the mixture until smooth. It won’t be very runny, but nor should it be too tough so add a drop more of buttermilk if you think it needs it.

Pour into your tin or tins, whack it in the oven and bake for about 1 hour 25 minutes. When cooked, you should be able to stab a skewer through the cake without it leaving any cake mixture on it. If it does, just cook it for a few more minutes and check again.

Let the cake cool down completely before you add any icing to it, otherwise the chocolate in the icing will melt while you try to get it to stay on the cake.

If you made the cake in one tin, you might want to cut it into two pieces, or not – it’s your choice! I made two sections so that I could add some of the icing in the middle.

To make the icing – warm up the cream in a saucepan but don’t boil or burn it! When it’s very warm add the sugar then break up the chocolate and stir it in until melted and smooth.

Let the icing cool a little then spread a bit on the top of the bottom layer. Sandwich the layers together. Pour the rest of the icing over the top of the cake and spread it around the sides.

As you can see from the photos, I’m terrible at icing cakes but the mess doesn’t bother me – it’s the taste that matters! I added some Mini Eggs, as it’s Easter, and some chocolate sprinkles.

When the seasons change and the cold, wet weather starts coming in there’s only one thing for it: comfort food!

My other half, James, suggested an apple pie. I’m a crumble fan myself so I compromised and set out to make a crumble pie!

Ingredients

350g shortcrust pastry – recipe
crumble topping (200g plain flour, 150g butter, 100g brown sugar)
4 bramley apples
2 handfuls of blackberries
a spinkle of ground cinnamon
a few tablespoons of caster sugar

Method

To make the crumble topping combine the flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add cubes of the butter and mix the ingredients with your hands until it forms a sort of breadcrumb consistency. Add more flour and butter if you need more crumble topping.

To make the filling, peel and core the apples. Chop them into medium sized cubes, then place in a large pan and gently heat them for a few minutes or until they go soft. Add the blackberries and stir for 2 minutes.

Roll out the shortcrust pastry so that it will line your pie dish / cake tin / whatever you’re using to cook it in. Pour the apple and blackberry mixture into the pastry-lined dish, sprinkle with some caster sugar and cinnamon.

Cover the fruit mix with the crumble topping and bake in the oven for 30-50 minutes at 200 degrees (gas mark 6). It’s ready when the crumble topping is crispy and golden.

Serve with some yummy custard or just sprinkle some caster sugar on top.

(More spicy recipes coming soon, I promise!)

Welsh cakes – yummy. Not to be confused with scones! I suppose they’re a kind of mixture between a scone and pancake and they’re so, so easy to make.

Welsh cakes remind me of my favourite teacher from Primary school, Mrs Hill. I’m sure we did the odd bit of learning from time to time but the only thing I remember about her was constantly being in the classroom kitchen, making Welsh cakes. Oh to be six again…

A good Welsh cake will have a touch of mixed spice added to give it a good old Welsh kick! Mixed spice usually contains nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, caraway and cloves.

Ingredients

230g self-raising flour
125g butter (unsalted)
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
75g caster sugar
75g raisins and/or currants
1 egg

Makes around 15 Welsh cakes

Method

Combine the flour, sugar and spice in a mixing bowl and add the butter. Using your hands, mush the butter into the mixture. It’ll eventually end up as a crumbly mess and should be quite dry to the touch. Then mix in the currants.

Beat the egg and add it into the mixture. Again, using your hands, mush it all together until you get a doughy consistency.

Sprinkle some flour on a flat surface and use it to roll out your dough to less than 1cm in thickness. If like me you’re lacking a rolling pin, try wrapping cling film around a baseball bat or bottle of something – it works a treat!

Use a cutter (or the open end of an empty jam jar) to cut the dough into circle shapes.

Alternatively you could roll bits of dough into balls and use your hands to flatten them out.

Grease a non-stick frying pan with a bit of butter and warm it up to a medium heat. Cook each Welsh cake for around 3 or 4 minutes each side.

Serve warm with a sprinkle of sugar and a smidge of cream or butter.

The perfect snack for during tomorrow’s Welsh rugby game! Blasus iawn (very tasty)!