5:2 DIET - SIMPLE CHOCOLATE CAKE (VEGAN) - revised version

Here's my original recipe - but when you've made something as often as I've made this, you're bound to come up with a few tweaks. Hence the need for this recipe.

The finished article - I'm not bothered about icing, or filling, I just love it on its  own.

Ingredients:200g granulated sugar

25g cocoa powder

165g self raising flour (I use the cheapest I can find)

80g vegetable oil
250g water

Method:
Place the sugar and the cocoa powder in a mixing bowl and stir quite briskly - this prevents the cocoa powder from forming lumps, then add the flour. Stir the dry ingredients together using a whisk - once again, this should prevent the flour from forming clumps*. Now add the oil and water and stir, initially with a dessertspoon, then with the whisk. When this mix is smooth, pour into a prepared 20cm (8") silicon cake form. (all I do is place a disc of baking paper on the bottom of the cake form - just to make sure it comes away cleanly.)

After baking and before turning out

Place in a microwave (800W) for 6 minutes. This cake (most cakes, probably) rises quite a bit higher when baked in a microwave - perhaps by as much as 25%!

*All this to save using a sieve! :)
Calories:
165 flour = 355 x 1.65 = 586
200 sugar = 400 x 2 = 800
25 cocoa powder = 355 x .25 = 89
80 oil = 900 x .8 = 720

Total= 2195

The finished cake weighed 640g. 13 slices at around 50g each, say, would give 170 calories a slice.

Cost:

Last time I checked, the ingredients came to 70p – or 5.5p a slice.

A GREAT WALKING (AND BAKING) WEEKEND IN WALES

A plain, ordinary focaccia - nonetheless, a gorgeous bit of bread!

On Sunday I returned from a fantastic walking weekend in mid-Wales - with 35 other blokes, here. We do this every six months or so - basically eating, drinking and walking from Friday midday until Sunday lunchtime. 

On Saturday evening, after dinner, for a bit of light entertainment - and education - I generally do a breadmaking demo. On this occasion I'd brought along a jar of sun-dried tomatoes, so I thought we'd make a couple of focaccias - one plain, with just olive oil, and the other with s-d-tomatoes.

The recipe is simplicity itself - as with any bread you can make it as easy or as complicated as you wish. With the audience I had, who'd just had a very good meal - preceded by a goodly intake of beer, accompanied with wine and followed by a very good port - and were keen to get stuck into the card games that were always an integral part of these weekends, I went for the easy option!

I enlisted the help of one of the newcomers to the group, Charlie, who was keen to make his own bread - he made the loaf at the top of the post.

So the ingredients for each loaf were two mugs of bread flour, with a bit of salt, 2/3rds of a mug of lukewarm water and a good teaspoon of yeast, along with a glug of olive oil. 

Mixed altogether into a dough - takes about 2 minutes - kneaded for a further two minutes, pressed into a rough circle about 1.5cm thick and placed onto a prepared baking tray. 

With the plain one a few holes were simply pressed in the top of the dough with the  fingertips which were then filled with olive oil.

The second one was divided into 9 sections, a la noughts and crosses. A whole sun-dried tomato was place in each of these squares and pressed down a bit. (It would have been better to nick the surface of the dough first, to allow the tomatoes a better purchase, as several fell off the top of the loaf during baking!)

While the dough was proving, I began a game of chess - which resulted in the dough being horrifically over-proved. However, we (only just!) managed to get away with it!

Shaped and put to prove

Over proved and over baked, I'm afraid - the hazards of an unfamiliar oven

The s-d-tomato focaccia was not only over-proved, it was over-baked and the tomatoes were singed on top - but it didn't seem to make any difference to the flavour of the loaf, which was excellent!

Just goes to show the forgiving nature of breadmaking - you can get away with most things!