Stardew Valley #26: Chocolate Cake

Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Sugar, Egg

Item Description: Rich and moist with a thick fudge icing.

My confidence in baking and sweets is a lil' low these days so im gonna not screw around too much and follow a recipe from the cake queen Nigella , except im gonna get some store bought icing to save a bit of effort. Click my handy link for proper instructions, or live vicariously through my journey.

So this cake has 3 tiers just kinda jammed together, which seems alright if i actually have enough baking dishes. I'm gonna try and make do with a scrunkly reused pie tin for the middle layer because i think its the best size.

So first we measure out the dries, sifting the flour and cocoa, and adding 2 types of sugar and various raising agents.

Then we've gotta melt the butter and the oil and mix them...

We can pop that in the mixer and add the chilled water. This is already a lot! and we're not done yet!

beating together "3 large eggs" (im using 4 medium) and some sour cream! Interesting... im not sure how i feel about this, as i dont dig the sound of a vague cheesecakey sourness but let's trust our queen and see. Also a splash of vanilla essence.

Finally its all together, maxing out my mixer bowl size here. It looks amazing, its all light and moussey... smells great... hell yea

Now its time for some.. creative crafts... I want to line my pans with a bit of baking paper to make pan-sticking related disasters a little less likely. I just ended up cutting circles out. In the case of the big pan i can tuck them under the base which is cool, but for the others we just have to use advanced cake pouring skills.

Lets not forget to lube the base and sides up as well!

Looks like we made just the right amount, magic! Now they can bake.

Now they're baked! Party. I will leave them to cool overnight before I attempt to ice.

This icing looks kinda firm if im honest... Wonder how this is gonna work..

So the first tier was going alright until I hit the soft part of the cake... and the second tier, that wasnt going at all! The icing just wants to tear this cake apart. I did a quick googling though for tips, and I tried the following: heating up a little bit of icing with some milk to thin it, applying a layer of that, and then cooling it off in the fridge.

That seems to be working about well enough to finish the job. Here's the ugliest side of the cake... so yeah uh its looking pretty rugged, but you can't deny it looks thick and fudgey.

And let's not forget the finishing touch! I couldn't find any glace cherries so i grabbed a couple fruits from a frozen red berry mix in my freezer and let them defrost while I was making everything else. Looks like the cherry will do nicely.

*****

Here's the cakes least ugly side. I think its as perfectly rugged as the sprite. And it tastes great! Nice one nigella, the cake is super moist but not soggy, dense yet soft, rich and chocolatey.

bonus slice shot

Splatoon 2: Crust Bucket #3: Triple-Fried Galactic Shwaffle

 Shwaffles part 3! The FINAL FORM!

Deceptively (though to the relief of my arteries) this one is still two waffles large. I'm also re-frying all the remaining prawns because we dont want them getting old (and yes its only been 3 days in the fridge not 6)

there, all fried up, but where did that other waffle go? well its already being prepped

the hot chocolate sauce, the iced cream, then we'll add the second layer...

and on the side i'm going to enjoy the remaining prawns in a more normal way, as a treat.

I don't have any squid shaped candies so im just opting for some rainbow sugar, as i think it will look nice.

***

This time I tried eating the toppings off and then eating the waffles and ice cream like a sandwich. A good method, I suppose... but still its just so excessively sweet and oily! I wanted to stay true to the spirit of the recipe, but i highly recommend you just dry-toast the waffles. tomorrow im having vegetables for dinner.

#1 tower stopper

Splatoon 2: Crust Bucket #2: Double-Fried Super Shwaffle

 Time for the second round of schwaffles, this one is an escalation of the previous recipe.

We've got more of the waffles and some of the prawn tempura, we'll fry these waffles and refresh the tempura again in the hot fryer, as it goes soft and soggy overnight in the fridge.

hot and oily!

now we reheat that chocolate sauce as well.

Now for the extra added component! as there appears to be an extra layer of something creamy and chocolate-speckled in the middle, ive opted for a scoop of cookies & cream ice cream to join the layers.

***

While the tempura prawn is absolutely bangin, and the chocolate sauce isnt even that bad with it... these are starting to get a little sickly, these waffles really arent meant to be deep fried, they're becoming like oil-filled sponges. 5 more sanity points lost. Also hows my balancing food on melting ice cream skills eh? Pretty vertical eh?

#1 ink consumer

Splatoon 2: Crust Bucket #1: Deep-Fried Shwaffle

 Deep fried shwaffle is already straight in the deep end, as it appears to be... a large tempura prawn riding a fried waffle covered in some sort of brown sauce.

I guess the first question is: sweet or savoury? I guess it could do either way, but the presence of copious amounts of cream on the later dishes suggests that maybe ill just have to suck it up and make tempura with chocolate sauce and cream. Plus when I looked it up online, that seemed to be the most popular interpretation of the dish.

I was hoping to find some pre-made tempura/panko prawns when shopping, but instead i settled for the biggest fuckin prawns i could find, and ive already got some tempura batter so thats alright. These don't have the tails on but eh, hopefully its close enough. .

Battered them up and deep fried them, damn these are looking GOOOOOOD. I'll be able to use these for the next few recipes as well. If i cook the waffle next will it taste kinda shrimpy?? I guess it wont matter at this point.

Now i've opted for home made chocolate sauce, as it looks kinda thick in the game so i wasnt going to settle for a squeezy bottle of vaguely chocolatey vegetable oil. Butter, milk, cocoa and sugar, just guessing with the proportions really tbh, i can always add more of anything.

nah this is looking good.

I went for pre-made waffles since we're doing plenty of cooking already and... OK so the pre-made waffles I bought are... a little funky and unnatural. When i put it in the fryer is immediately flopped like a blanket and i had to scoop it out. Maybe it will harden back up when it dries?

***

Surprisingly I didn't gag, it was pretty palatable. But I feel like I lost sanity points as I was eating.

#1 damage taker

Super Paper Mario: Saffron & Dyllis Super Show #68: Love Noodle Dish

 Love Noodle Dish is made from LOVELY CHOCOLATE and FRESH PASTA BUNCH

I think we have already done enough chocolate with pasta, so instead i'm going to focus on the gimmick of having a heart shaped bowl I nicked from my mum, and since it says "noodles" in the title use it as an excuse to do some cheeky instant noodles instead. I'm going to lean in to this pad thai flavoured one and add some spring onion, red chilli and a sprinkle of crushed up roasted peanuts at the end. And maybe a LOVELY CHOCOLATE on the side.

*****

Now this is how you make a romantic lunch! I'm pleased with my own presentation as well as the flavour of the noodles. And the chocolates a lovely treat at the end! Thanks mum for letting me borrow your heart dish <3

Super Paper Mario: Saffron & Dyllis Super Show #67: Choco Pasta Dish

 Choco Pasta Dish is made from MILD COCOA BEAN and FRESH PASTA BUNCH

Looks like its time to get weird again. We've got pasta, we've got chocolate. No need to overcomplicate this, I'll just make spaghetti and melt some chocolate and butter in it??

I'm just going to do a small batch/single portion because I only want to regret this once.

Once its drained (and reasonably dry so we dont seize the melted chocolate?) just gonna add this in on the hob and melt it in

You know what, this doesnt seem so bad. Its just gonna taste like buttery chocolate carbs its gonna be nice probably.

****

Yknow what I was dreading this one for no good reason, this is nice. Tastes like pain au chocolat. Kinda heavy for a dessert though.

Super Paper Mario: Saffron & Dyllis Super Show #39: Warm Cocoa

 Warm Cocoa is made with a MILD COCOA BEAN (wait is there a non-mild cocoa bean?)

Good news I drink hot choccy on the reg so we've got cocoa and cocoa accessories! (BTW dont mind the tea ring, im just reusing a mug from earlier today)

I like to add a little splash of milk to my hot chocolate to make it creamier, and then fill the rest with hot water because this mix has some sort of low-cal milk powder included.

*****

LOVE ME THAT HOT CHOCCY