The Men Bake Birthday Cake
Monday, January 24, 2011 at 10:48AM 
A slice of what the men can do!! Chocolate peppermint birthday cake.
It's my birthday and husband Mark and Step son Daniel baked me a cake!! This year they baked their first full sized cake from scratch & what a fabulous result!! Mark actually came away from the experience saying "oh, that's easy!" something I didn't think I'd ever hear.
They used a Nigella Lawson recipe for 'Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake' page 166 from 'How To Be A Domestic Goddess'. Mark and Dan used a square 23 x 23cm (9 x 9in) pan instead of the loaf pan, topped the cake with peppermint whipped cream, chocolate ganache and crushed peppermint candy bars.
If you can't recall last years birthday cake it was a "do it yourself" chocolate peppermint cake ;) A bought chocolate cake with chocolate peppermint candy bars to crush as topping. Truthfully, I'd love any cake they gave me, but it was extra special this year with them baking for me!
I learnt a few lessons watching the less experienced bake, what I just take for granted everyone knows i.e. "creaming the butter and sugar" Mark didn't know and was asking "how much cream?". I will discuss it with you more fully at a later date... but for now it's my birthday and I'm off to do birthday things.
Happy Baking :)