chocolate cake

                                       CHOCOLATE CAKE







We celebrate my husband's 63rd birthday last week. You can see only three candles on it in the picture... because there wasn't enough room for 63 candles!! It was a small party but amusing. We had some family members and friends from Germany.
January is a very busy and expensive month in our family. It starts with my husband's birthday and continues with my sister in law's, my nephew's, my niece's, and my twin sons'. What a month!
As birthday cake I made chocolate cake which is one of my favorite. I don't know anybody who doesn't like chocolate. They say it increases serotonin which makes you happy...I'm not a sweet eater but I love chocolate.
The earliest record of chocolate was over two thousand years ago in Central America. They were making drinks with grounded cocoa beans, maize and chili.
It was brought to Europe by Cortes. The first factory opened in Spain. They changed the ingredients for more " European taste, mixing the ground roasted beans with sugar and vanilla. In few years time the cocoa drink had become popular all over the Europe.
English colonists brought cocoa beans to North America. So adventure of cocoa beans started in South America ended in North America.

Ingredients:
100g dark chocolate
250ml (1 cup) hot water
125g unsalted butter
200g (1cup) brown sugar
3 medium eggs
150g (1 cup) self-raising flour
25g (1/4 cup) cocoa powder
60g (1/2 cup) almond meal

For glaze:
200g dark chocolate
160ml (2/3 cup) whipping cream
3 tablespoon Cherry liqueur
10-12 cherries

22cm round cake pan

Preparation:

Put chopped chocolate and water in a pan. Stir over low heat until chocolate melts Let it cool.

Beat butter and sugar with hand mixer. Add eggs 1 at a time. Add flour , cocoa powder, almond meal, and last chocolate mixture.Pour mixture into well greased cake pan. Bake in oven 160C -325F about 1 1/4 hours. Leave cake in pan 15min and turn onto wire rack to cool.


Glaze

Melt the chocolate with cream in a heatproof bowl over hot, not boiling water. Remove from the heat. Leave it until warm. Brush cake with cheery liqueur or rum or brandy. Spread glaze over the cake. Decorate with cherries.