No meal is complete without dessert. During this festive season, it is important that you bake a cake that will get family members lick their hands.
According to Nicholas Byaruhanga, it is tradition in many homes to have cake.
There are many flavours one can opt for. Byaruhanga says it is good to have a fruit cake because it can stay long.
Daniel Mwangi, a chef, says there are flavours meant for festive season cakes, such as Russian stolen and mince pies.
These are mostly associated with Christmas because some of the ingredients that form part of the cakes are readily available in December.
When should one bake their festive season cake?
Mwangi says it depends on the cake one prefers to have. If a rich fruit cake is what one prefers, then it should be baked weeks before Christmas.
This is because the dried fruits that are put in the cake are soaked in sugar and rum solution for a week or even more before embarking on the baking.
So, if you have not prepared it by now, aim for New Year’s Eve. But, if you are opting for the black forest cake, this can be done on Christmas Eve.
This is because it uses a lot of cream, which does not have a long shelf life.
When can one have cake?
Ideally, a cake does not have a set time for eating, one can have it anytime.
Two to three slices a day for one with a sweet tooth is okay. However, one ought to be careful about the size of slice, warns Mwangi. A slice is that which fills a saucer.
Byaruhanga says one can have cake in the morning if they do not have appetite.
The cake flavours are appetite boosters. They also help to break down food faster, making cake good to eat after food.
Being that cake is very sweet, avoid an accumulation of sugar in the body, one slice is enough.
Mwangi adds that cake is better eaten as dessert and last dish after meals so that it cools down the body after eating the main course.
Recipe for Chocolate Ganache
200g dark chocolate
200g butter
1 tbsp Nescafe
2 tsp baking powder
170g plain flour
1 tsp soda bicarbonate
200g brown sugar helps cake to be darker
200g sugar
25g cocoa powder
3 eggs
Quarter glass of natural/plain yoghurt
Grated chocolate, to decorate for the ganache
200g dark chocolate
284ml whipping cream
2 tbsp sugar
Process
Butter a round cake tin and line the base with grease proof paper. Preheat the oven to 160°C
Break the dark chocolate pieces into a pan. Cut the butter into pieces and mix with the chocolate, then mix the Nescafe in cold water and pour into the pan. Warm over a low heat, just until everything is melted (4-5mins)
Mix plain flour, soda bicarbonate, brown sugar, sugar and cocoa powder in a big bowl, mixing with your hands to get rid of any lumps. Beat the eggs in a bowl and stir in the yoghurt.
Pour the melted chocolate mixture and the egg mixture into the flour mixture, stirring until everything is well-blended and you have a smooth, quiet runny consistency.
Pour this into the tin and bake for 1 hour 25 mins. Leave to cool in the tin, and then turn out onto a plate to cool completely.
When the cake is cold, cut it horizontally into three. Make the ganache: chop dark chocolate into small pieces and add cream into a pan, add sugar, and heat, until it is about to boil.
Pour it over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
Sandwich the layers together with the ganache (the same way you add to bread and put on top of each other).
Pour the rest over the cake, letting it fall down the sides. Decorate with grated chocolate.
