More haste, less speed, is a saying my mum used often. What it means is that doing something in a rush will take you longer in the end because things go wrong and you have to re-do them. I have found it to be very true!
On a beautiful, warm and sunny autumn day I had baking to do. I thought that if I got a move on there would still be time to do some gardening or sit out in the sunshine but then things went wrong……
The first thing to go wrong was a simple chocolate cake; wrong size tin and wrong flour. (French flours do not work the same as British flours.) The sponges were flat and sad looking. Had it been just for us I would have used them but it had been requested as a birthday gift so I remade it using Mary Berry's recipe for a chocolate sandwich cake and some of my stash of Homepride flour. (The first set of sponges now resides in my freezer and will be used in future for something like a chocolate trifle.)
The second was in making some Parkin which I had also promised to someone else. With a double batch in the oven and finally sitting out in the sunshine with my mug of tea I had one of those nagging doubts and went back inside to consult the recipe. I had forgotten to put in the bicarbonate of soda. By now the Parkin had been in the oven for ten minutes and was just beginning to set.
I hesitated for a second but realised I could end up with two trays of flapjack if I didn't do something about it. So quick as a flash, between us we scraped the mixture out of the tins and into a bowl. I sprinkled two teaspoons of bicarb over the top and Nick used my biggest wooden spoon and a lot of muscle to beat like hell and mix it in. We dolloped it back into the tins and put it back in the oven for the rest of the baking time. It turned out fine! You can see the Parkin recipe here.
As we finally sat outside in the last of the afternoon sunshine with a glass of something to calm my nerves I could hear my mum whispering "more haste, less speed!" in my ear and see her cheeky smile. It’s almost twenty three years since she died and I miss her and her little sayings every day!
The cake went down well with the birthday girl. Having made one before I knew it would be a lovely soft sponge and I decorated it with my standard chocolate buttercream recipe and a few girly sprinkles.
Curiously, when I looked for the recipe online I stumbled across a peculiar page on the Silver Spoon (sugar manufacturers) website comparing Mary Berry's recipe with Nigella's. They reckon Nigella's was best! You can see it here. What a very odd thing to have on a product website. I wonder what Mary would make of that!
Ingredients
For the cake
2 tblsp cocoa powder
3 tblsp boiling water
225g each of
self raising flour
caster sugar
baking spread
1 level tsp baking powder
4 large eggs
For the icing
50g butter
150g icing sugar
1 tblsp cocoa powder
1 tblsp warm water
Method
To make the cake, grease and line the base of two deep 20cm sandwich tins. Preheat the oven to 180c / 160 fan / gas mk4.
Blend the cocoa powder with the water in a large bowl and allow to cool slightly. Add all the other cake ingredients and beat well with an electric whisk until nice and smooth.
Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins and bake for 25 minutes until done. Leave in the tins for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the icing, beat the butter until soft then sift in the icing sugar a spoonful at a time and beat until smooth. Mix the cocoa powder to a smooth paste with the water and beat into the mixture.
Use half of the icing to sandwich the sponges together and swirl the other half over the top.
Decorate with your favourite sprinkles.
Cuts into 10-12 slices.
