Ms Lawson's old fashion chocolate cake

It was brought to my attention by my sister-in-law, Aislinn, that I may have been a bit harsh on her fellow (sort of) country woman, Ms N Lawson in my early blog on Snickerdoodles.

Aislinn is a huge fan of Nigella Lawson and cooks and bakes many things from her books/website.

I decided that maybe I should try something else of Nigella's. Maybe something a little more English, if there is such a thing.

I poured over the only cookbook I have of hers "how to be a domestic goddess". To be honest I struggled. Many things in there don't look very "English". Puddings were out - I live in the harsh, Australian outback and it is HOT! Cookies seemed too American. Many of the recipes called for things Australia just doesn't have. Then I needed something that could be shared, cut up easily or came as individual pieces, I do too much baking to be able to eat everything I cook. I seemed to be stuck.

Then, in chatting with my brother via phone who is quite a cook himself, he found a solution for me. He had baked an "old fashion chocolate ,cake" from Nigella's website for Aislinn's birthday and was so impressed he went on to bake it twice more in the same week. He is a bit of a chocolate lover like me so we hunkered down on the phone and discussed the cake in detail.

The cake is made entirely in the food processor, bit of a change from my multiple mixing, multiple bowls efforts. I felt like I was cheating but at the same time it was so easy and effective. The cake itself does not have real chocolate in it, just cocoa. It is very light weight. The mix is split between two cake tins.

The icing is where the good stuff lies. It is more of a ganache than a icing. It has real dark chocolate, sour cream, golden syrup, butter and all the good stuff in it. It is spread between the two cakes and around and on top of the cake.

I made it for a lovely lady, Jan, who was leaving the Workaholic's office to go back to Adelaide for christmas, before taking on another role at another agency in Alice Springs. She is much like the cake, old fashioned (she loves wear pearls out in the dusty hot communities), classy and rich in character. Nothing like a lady in pearls and suit walking down a dry hot river bed towards you to talk about your family.

She will be missed. You don't know yourself until "you've been Janned"!!

So, Nigella, in this instance, I owe you an apology, I may have been a bit hasty...............