Chocolate Malibu and Coconut Cake

I'd like to start with an apology today. Sorry. Sincerely I'm sorry for having been so horiffically slack with my posts of late. I would like to be able to say I've been FLAT OUT, or that my grandma has been ill. Fact is that I'm still on holidays and all of my grandparents are dead and the reason for my dissapearance relates directly back to a canoeing incident involving my camera.

To give you all a quick breif, I'm back in France, and start school again in 2 days. And what's more I have lots of recipes I'll be sharing with you in an unusually short space of time, because despite the lack of posts, I have been really domestic goddess-ing myself mad.

Todays effort started with the lack of school for me, and the fact that everybody else actually DOES have school/work. And thus, as we all know, being left to my own devices I generally end up somewhere along this line of thought- food:cake:chocolate:alcohol:boys:lack of boys:MTV

SO I improvised a cake: a chocolate cake: a chocolate malibu cake: a chocolate malibu cake for a boy: a chocolate malibu cake because the boy can't come to see me: a chocolate malibu cake for me while watching MTV. Exhale.

Ingredients-

1 1/2 cups of regular flour

1 cup of castor sugar

1/4 cup of cocoa powder (I would definitly add more next time around- at least 1/2-3/4 cup)

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/3 cup of butter, melted

100 ml of Malibu

140 ml of water

2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

2 egg whites, beaten until soft peaks form

3/4 cup of dessicated coconut

200g of milk chocolate (for icing)

60g of butter, extra (for icing)

Method-

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees C° and grease/line a regular 20cm cake tin.

In a large bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients, then form a well in the center.

Pour in the melted butter and vanilla extract, then gradually add the water and Malibu, combining with a whisk.

Add the beaten egg whites, gently stirring with a soup spoon until its well combined.

Pour into the cake tin and bake for around 35 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean.

When the cake is cooled, melt the chocolate and extra butter in a meduim dish in the microwave (or of course you can go old-fashioned and do the whole hot water in saucepan + another bowl in saucepan shenanigans if you so please) and stir frequently until all is melted and well combined.

TOP YOUR CAKE and then eat it with your sister in fronts of MTV's '16 and mother' program comme moi...

Plum Crumble Cake

..... I have to admit it's been a while since I actually made this cake. So to summon up a witty anecdote about the tiny seed of an idea that this cake once was to me from the depths of my memory has proved itself to be difficult. In fact- Impossible. But I will write about what I actually DO remember. I LOVED IT. I love plums. I love crumble. I love almonds. And I love cake with tea.

And I did eat this cake with tea. I remember that. And I remember eating it with a maths tutor that was helping my sister. I remember not understanding anything but telling myself it didn't matter because the maths tutor couldn't make that cake. And I was right, she couldn't, and I could, and I prefer cake to equations. Thus self-esteem crisis solved. And so I give you my very, VERY good plum crumble cake-

PS. Don't worry, said maths tutor may have been able to make this cake if she had the recipe BUT always one step ahead, I write in English and not French, and as such cake will stay out of her arithmatic-stained hands.

Ingredients-

2 1/4 cups of regular flour (I used a bit more, as my dough was sticky- see how you go)

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

1 large lemon, zested then juiced

1 cup of castor sugar

3/4 cup of butter, cubed

3 eggs

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups of plums, sliced

1-2 tablespoons of castor sugar, extra

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Method-

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

One at a time, add the eggs then vanilla and ensure that all is well combined.

Add the flour, salt, baking powder and lemon zest and stir with a metal spoon, then combine with you hands until it comes together and can be pulled into a ball (it's here that I needed to add a little more flour to make it 'pull-together-able'). Freeze for 30 minutes.

In another medium bowl, throw together the plums, lemon juice, and extra sugar.

Line or butter a 25cm spring form pan and preheat your oven to 180°C.

Take your dough from the freezer and slice it in 2 pieces, and pat one half into the bottom of the pan.

Place the fruit on top of the dough, then seperate the remaining dough into 2.5cm 'blobs' and place them (strategically) on top of the fruit.

Bake for 30-40 minutes by which time the top should be golden and the fruit is boiling and bubbling away.

Enjoy for afternoon tea, with a nice cup of earl grey.