A Nutty Cake for a Nutty Husband

Feb was a busy month for Mark and I. There are a lot of special days that we honor in this month! one of the important days that never goes without a bit of a celebration is Mark's birthday!! I decided that we would have a day of cakes for him. So the morning started with homemade American style blueberry pancakes: a recipe from "the Joy of Cooking" by Betty Crocker whatsapp'ed to me by my sister. I have adapted it to make it a bit more healthy (lower GI) by substituting a cup of plain flour with a 1/4 cup of soya flour and 3/4 cup of wholewheat flour. It requires a bit more milk but I add this by look and feel.

The second cake I made for him was a bit more labour intensive. Also from my memory I believe it is only the third cake that I have made from scratch! Most of my other cakes have all been made from a box as it is cheaper and easier. hehe! However, whether it is a new wife syndrome, or a factor of me getting older, OR the fact that in my time away from work I truly do enjoy taking life a little bit slower! I am getting old...OH dear!!!Anyways my first cake I remember making from scratch was when I was little. The second was only a few short months ago. One of our wedding gifts was, "Baking Made Easy" by Lorraine Pascale. I made the "I can't believe you made that" cake on page 58. It was a great success with Mark and his Uncle so I thought to myself....easy! I will just make that cake again BUT instead of following Lorriane's advice for decorating I decided to make something up on my own.

 After much thought and consideration I decided as the cake was going to be one of Mark's favorite things....chocolate. I would add in his second favorite thing....nuts! This was the finished result. It was in a weird way VERY easy but VERY fiddly at the same time. In case any of you have a nut lover in your life let me share what I did.

First between the two cake layers I put a layer of homemade chocolate butter cream (thank you Loarraine Pascale) with copped mixed nuts as well. The sides and top of the cake was covered in a simple vanilla buttercream icing (again homemade). With the exception of the top of the cake I didn't worry too much about the icing looking okay or being even as I was planning on covering my messy work with more chopped nuts. To place the chopped nuts I used the uber technical skill of... take a handful of nuts and squish them onto the sides. This was the fiddly bit and if any of you know a better way to do this I'm all ears, please leave comments. That process took the longest and judging from the speed of which the cake disappeared I will be making it again, so all suggestions are welcome! I then took half walnuts and using a knife cut them in half again and placed them as edging around the top of the cake and the same for the star in the middle. Volia! Cake finished.

It was very scrumptious. But probably not so much on the healthy side, but the pancakes were! So it evens out right? 


WARNING: This cake has been made with nuts. If you or anyone who might want a piece of this cake has an allergy to nuts PLEASE do not serve it to them!