Day 129: an anniversary cake

I have long admired this one. LONG admired. It has essentially spent six years in the making after first seeing it in Simply Nigella (and on the accompanying TV show). And I haven’t really stopped thinking about it since.

Let me explain. For years, when I remembered, I always tried to source either fresh or frozen blackcurrants, but the supermarkets and farm shops - near the numerous different places we’ve lived during that time - never seemed to stock them. My lack of patience (and stubbornness), FYI, does not permit me to forage through a bag of frozen fruit and pick out just the blackcurrants - so I’m afraid that was not an option.

When we bought our first home a couple of years ago, I decided to forget about hunting them down and just grow my own. And this year we got our first crop: 170g of fresh, garden-grown, organic blackcurrants. And how much is needed for Nigella’s Liquorice and Blackcurrant Chocolate Cake? 125g. Yes, they are optional, but it’s clear they offer so much more than just decoration. And, they look stunning; their dark purple shimmering skin nestled beautifully in mahogany chocolate icing. It also works out perfectly that our crop should fall right in time for 4th wedding anniversary. So this also becomes an anniversary cake.

The smell of blackcurrants and their leaves is so evocative for both of us (husband and me). It reminds me of my childhood and time living in Norway. And for my husband, it reminds him of spending holidays at his grandparents; where he’d spend long summer days, making memories and picking clusters of the little deep-purple orbs, on their blackcurrant farm.

Nigella’s Liquorice and Blackcurrant Chocolate Cake

It really is a case of introducing wet ingredients to dry ingredients. I was slightly disappointed by the liquorice powder I bought: it seemed bland with very little flavour, and even though I added an extra two spoons we couldn’t really taste it. To compensate I melted a spoonful of liquorice pellets into the icing instead of using more powder.

Flavour musings

So worth the wait. And even better knowing that our blackcurrant bush spent two years tirelessly growing just for this. I’m not a fan of chocolate and fruit, but blackcurrants are wonderfully earthy, raw and tart, which I think is just fab with the dark, bitter chocolate. This is a beautifully damp cake too.

You can find the recipe for this in Simply Nigella.

I’ll not go on any longer, I'm taking a day off today and don’t want to spend it at the computer! Have a fabulous weekend!