Bread and Cakes

What has everyone got against bread? Since God said in Deuteronomy in the Bible that: "man shall not live by bread alone", some diet pedlers have taken it to mean that carbs are bad and have therefore, banned the eating of bread. It is not just the diet people who have got the knives out for bread, it seems that the market is also against us eating bread. Not content with higher potato prices thus increasing the price of fish and chips, we now have to contend with the rising price of wheat. This means that the price of bread will rise for the second time in six months (in the UK anyway). Be very afraid, because it is not just the price of bread that will increase; pizzas, biscuits and cookies will all become more expensive. This is to add to the increase in the cost of coffee, chocolate and dried milk.

One nice thing to come out of all these price rises is that more and more poeple are going for fair trade cocoa and coffee. For too long, the people who grew these sought after commodoties did not get the price that they deserved. Now companies have been forced by western consumers (hurrah for the consumer!) to make sure these people receive a fair wage for their work. So what do we do when prices around us are rising? We bake of course. That is what any sane person must do. I know for a fact that there are very few things which a cup of coffee and a slice of chocolate cake cannot fix.

In honour of fair trade products, I ask that you use at least one fair trade ingredient in the recipe. If you would like to know more about fair trade, try www.fairtrade.net.

Chocolate Cake
This recipe is an adaptation of one given to me by a Swedish friend.

You will need:
For the cake
50g butter
150ml evaporated milk
2 eggs
150g granulated sugar
200g flour, sifted
3 tablespoon fairtrade cocoa powder
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
For the icing
100g butter
200ml double cream
4 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoon flour
2 tablespoon fairtrade cocoa powder
50g desiccated coconut, roasted

What to do
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas Mark 5. Grease a 26cm springform cake tin.
2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a gentle heat. Turn off the heat and stir in the milk.
3. Place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk together until well combined. 4. Stir the butter mixture into egg yolk mixture.
5. Mix in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and vanilla essence.
6. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, to make the icing, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the cream, sugar, flour and cocoa. Cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.
8. When the cake has cooled enough for you to touch it, spread the icing over the cake and sprinkle the desiccated coconut all over the cake.
9. Have a slice or two of cake with freshly brewed fairtrade coffee.

Do you not feel better already? "Price rises? What price rises?" I hear you ask.