Skip to main content

A Cake for Anne

I am back with this month's edition of "This Book Makes Me Cook". And this month, we are reading the charming "Anne of Green Gables". Anne comes to the green gables house as a scrawny yet lively orphan girl. The brother-sister duo adopting her are at first shocked at getting a girl instead of a boy, but Anne's charm is hard to resist. With her unruly way, Anne commits several blunders but ends up becoming a favorite of whoever she comes in contact with.

The book is chockful of food - teas they give and go to, including the one Anne fatefully makes her friend drunk at; as well as pies being baked and dinners being hosted. One of Anne's most spectatular failures was a layer cake, so I set to make a decandent chocolate layer cake for her.



The recipe for this cake was followed verbatim from Baking Bites, my favorite baking blog so I won't repeat it here. But let me tell you that the cake, with chocolate and coffee to give it a rich feel, and eggless to boot, is one of the best I've ever eaten.

I did consider cutting it into layers and frosting it, but it was already so rich that I thought Anne would be happy with just the cake.

Want to see what other members made for Anne?
Aparna made Baking Powder Biscuits.
Curry Leaf made Chocolate Pudding.
Siri made Oatmeal Cocunut Cookies.
The other members are busy with holidays and guests, but have promised to be back in January.

For 2009 starts with the sweetest of them all. In January, we are reading Roald Dahl's Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. If you would like to come join us, leave a comment here and I will get back to you with more details.

Comments

CurryLeaf said…
wow,the cake looks so rich in chocolate that I think I will be getting a chocolatey overdose.Delicious entry and way to go.I too would not frost such a cake.
Anonymous said…
looks lovely...and wud like to hear more from the books...i now understood wht u both were talking abt that day(meri tubelight thodi der se jalti hai)
And hey Happy New year ...hope u r enjoying holidays
That's two chocolate desserts from the Green Gables so far.:)
I can see the cake looks moist and lovely. I also think Nicole's site is great.
Siri said…
Anne would love to have this cake Simran and I just made some cookies for her. It was a lovely read and Happy Holidays!!

Cheers
Siri
Srivalli said…
lovely cake ...that sounds like a nice book to read!
Sunshinemom said…
Where is my comment? Lovely cake and wish you a very happy new year! Back?
Raj said…
How does it differ from ordinary cakes?
BPO work from home

Popular posts from this blog

Announcing AWED : Britain

Before I ate my first Italian wood fired pizza, before I went to that swanky Japanese sushi bar for the first time, or the neighborhood Chinese joint, the first non-Indian cuisine I encountered was British. Not real food, mind you, but the tempting, oh so delicious descriptions in my favorite novels. From Enid Blyton to Jane Austen to P.G. Wodehouse, every favorite character in every favorite novel seems to have food on their mind. Yes, British food gets ridiculed a lot. But forget their main course dishes for now, and think of the full English breakfast and the elegant afternoon teas. Then try imagining the world without cucumber sandwiches or potato chips and you will realize you can't do without British food. Which is why when I saw that DK was looking for hosts for her monthly event AWED (A Worldly Epicurean's Delight) and there has never been a British AWED, I promptly signed up. The rules are simple really: Make any vegetarian or vegan British dish (eggs are

Mystery Fruit

This only happened a few times every year, just when the rainy season kicked in. A street hawker will come by, straw basket on head. He will yell "kaul chapni" and I will run out to buy a bundle of these. Stuck together like flowers, they looked like a bouquet. Every hole contains a little fruit. You break out the package, peel the tiny fruit that pops out and eat it. Done slowly, it can take you an hour to eat an head. Or did, when I was about 12 years old. That was the last time I saw this fruit. I've never seen it again, didn't even know what it was called or where it came from. Three weeks back, Vikram Doctor wrote about a store in Khar that sells Sindhi foods. He described this fruit and I knew it came from my vivid childhood memories. And finally, I knew we were talking about lotus fruit. Now talk about coincidences. Last weekend, I was passing by a lane in Bandra and for the first time in many, many years I saw the straw basket filled with my mytery fru

Of Brun and Bun Maska

There is more to Bombay's breads than the pao that goes into pao bhaji and vada pao. There's Brun. and there's bun. We will get there. First, you have to get to know the city's Parsis. And Iranis, who are also Zoroastrians, but came to city a little later, in the late 19th or early 20th century. And when they came, they brought with them these little cafes that dot the city. I am no expert on Irani chai cafes. And I can't tell you whether Yazdani Bakery will provide you the best experience or Kyani's. But I can tell you a few things you need to ignore when you get there. Appearances don't matter; so ignore the fact that the marble/glass top tables and the wooden chairs look a bit dilapidated. Also ignore the rundown look the place sports. Instead, get yourself settled. And order a bun muska. This one's familiar to you as a first cousin of the soft hamburger bun. It's similar, but just a tad bit sweeter. Maska, of course, is the generous dollop o