Jamie Oliver's Party Cake

When I met Mr Boo the only reason for him to enter a kitchen was in order for someone else to hand him a lovingly cooked meal. Now I love to cook and deem great pleasure from cooking for those that I love but didn’t exactly want to spend everyday for the rest of my life cooking for someone who would not be able to return the favour every now and then. Mr Boo occasionally made murmurings along the lines that he wouldn’t mind possessing the skills to enable him to knock together a tasty dish from time to time. Then Jamie Oliver broke onto the scene and all of my prayers were answered. This little Cockney sparrow with all of his ‘pukka’ food only served to heighten Mr Boos eagerness to learn.

I could have kissed him, but there was a plane journey involved and I was spoken for, as was he so I didn’t. Anyhoo, when Mr Boo’s birthday rolled around I decided to get him Mr Oliver’s book as one of his little presents. He was delighted and wasted no time in getting himself into the kitchen and knocking out some very tasty dishes. Now, we didn’t have instant success, not by any means. I do remember one very bad night when I took a forkful of something WAY to salty but politely smiled and continued eating so as not to offend his efforts. Approximately 4 forkfuls later I had to make a mad dash for the loo where I was violently ill. I apologised, he apologised. “It was just a little to salty”, says I. “That’ll most probably be the anchovies”, says he. “How many did you put in”, I enquired. “Just the one jar” he replied. Yep that’ll do it I thought to myself before suggesting next time he trust the recipe and just put in the two fillets as specified.

Once we got that initial teething period out of the way we were flying and it became quite the tradition that of a Friday if his mam and dad popped out in the evening that he would cook a lovely romantic 3-course meal for me, complete with candles and soppy music. I loved those evenings. Something else he would do regularly but has not done in the last few years was to make me Jamie Oliver’s Party Cake and arrive at my door with it. It didn’t have to be a special occasion, just any random Friday or Saturday he might turn up outside my house in his bottle green Punto and produce this delicious chocolate concoction from his backseat all for me, because he loved me and because I love chocolate. That remains for me one of my favourite things he has ever done for me. All of that time, and love baked into a cake for me to eat and carry inside me. I don’t think a chocolate cake ever tasted so good.

As I have said he hasn’t made that cake for me for as long as I can remember. We are married and live together now so he shows his love in different ways. He might occasionally clean the kitchen, he buys pretty plants and plants them in the back garden for me to find when I have time to stop and smell the roses, he paints that room that I have been hinting about decorating and when I come home and decide I don’t like the colour he paints it a second time and only complains a little, when I hear a noise in the middle of the night he gets up from his sleep to investigate and returns with the news that all is well with the world and I can return to slumber. He does these ordinary mundane things and many more that show me he loves me every day, but he doesn’t bake me chocolate cakes that ooze cream and strawberries as you bite into them anymore. So, I have decided that I will bake him a chocolate cake that oozes cream and strawberries as you bite into it, because you know, I love him to, and I want to bake that into a cake for him to eat and carry around inside of him.

Party Cake

I have made a couple of alterations to the original recipe.  I omitted some flaked almonds and doubled the quantity of strawberries in favour of half strawberries and half raspberries, well it is National Strawberry Week after all.

3-rounded tbsp Cocoa Powder
200g/7oz Caster Sugar
200g/7oz Butter
3 Large Eggs, preferably free-range
200g/7oz Self-Raising Flour, sifted
1 rounded tsp Baking Powder
200ml/7floz Double Cream
2 large handfuls Strawberries, hulled and chopped

Chocolate Topping:
100g/3 ¾ oz Butter
100g/3 ¾ oz best quality Plain Chocolate
100g/3 ¾ oz Icing Sugar
3tbsp Milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4.

2. Line the bases of 2 x 20cm/8” cake tins with greased greaseproof paper.

3. Mix the cocoa powder with 4tbsp of boiling water until smooth.

4. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and butter until fluffy, add the cocoa mixture, eggs, flour and baking powder.

5. Mix well and divide between the baking tins.

6. Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 25 minutes (a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean when cooked).

7. Allow to cool then remove from the tins.

8. Melt the chocolate topping ingredients in a bowl over some lightly simmering water. Stir until blended well and allow to cool.

9. Whip the double cream to soft peaks and sweeten with a little sugar to taste.

10. To assemble the cake, remove the greaseproof paper from both sponges.

11. Spread the cream over one of the sponges, and then sprinkle the strawberries on top.

12. Sandwich the second sponge on top and press down.

13. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to smooth if off and drizzle over your chocolate topping.

14. Allow the chocolate topping to firm up slightly before getting stuck in.