The staff at my favourite kitchenware and cooking store, The Essential Ingredient in Rozelle, know me by my first name. That’s because I spend so much time (and money) replenishing my cake decorating supplies. With birthday parties for my own six children, plus various school fetes, fundraisers, baked gifts and treats prepared for family and friends I am in there A LOT! Some people prefer to peruse the displays of designer handbags, or the latest techno gadgets, but I head instead for a well stocked kitchen goods shop offering reputable advice and friendly service. I picked up a sachet of aromatic dried raspberry powder at The Essential Ingredient. A fabulously versatile product that adds instant “va va voom” to desserts. I sprinkled this over my home baked meringues as a finishing touch for my daughter Sofia’s 8th birthday cake, served up this afternoon.

Sofia is 8 already! Little brother Luka absolutely adores her,
as we all do! 


My gorgeous Sofia adores flowers, sweets, Springtime, dolls, ballet, music, stories, sport and social events, amongst other things. I tried to wrap up her favourites in a pretty pink and pastel coloured afternoon tea type of theme for her birthday. Fragrant flowers – roses, sweet peas, hyacinths – from the very creative Sarah at The Village Florist in Hunters Hill adorned the central table. These were surrounded by platters of finger food. Freshly made sushi ( no, I didn’t make that!) crispy sausage rolls from Locantro Fine Foods (an excellent option when time is of the essence), bite sized home baked lamingtons (coconut everywhere!), hand rolled and decorated vanilla fancy biscuits and the meringue topped chocolate fudge birthday cake mentioned above …it was wonderful watching Sofia, and her friends and siblings sample and enjoy all the goodies.


Since I’ve seriously restricted my intake of wheat gluten and sugar, I have never actually eaten an entire one of my fancy biscuits…until this evening. There was a lone blush-pink bikkie left on the serving stand and I broke off a tiny petal to try. Oh my, it was sublime. Smooth, buttery but without being heavy, vanilla scented…yum! I ate another petal and another and another until the entire biscuit was gone. My tastebuds went into overdrive! I guess that happens after a period of avoiding or restricting sweet treats. I now completely understand why the pretty fancy biscuits of mine disappeared so quickly.

Here is the recipe for the chocolate fudge cake that formed the base of Sofia’s birthday cake. It is from David Herbert’s cookbook, Best Ever Baking Recipes. You MUST buy a copy, fantastic! 

Chocolate Fudge Cake to serve 12-16 people

Ingredients
100 g very soft unsalted butter
100 g dark chocolate, melted
250 g caster sugar
2 large eggs
280 g self raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (this aerates the cake resulting in a lighter texture)
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons cocoa
250 ml milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees on a conventional setting. Grease and line a 22 or 23 cm springform cake tin. 

Place all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl (I used my reliable KitchenAid mixer) and beat on a medium speed for 2 minutes, until combined and smooth.

Scrape into your prepared tin and bake for 50 – 60 minutes.The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out cleanly. 

Cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool down completely if you are intending to ice the cake. An excellent icing is the Chocolate Ganache as suggested in the aforementioned cookbook. Simply melt 100 g unsalted butter with 250 g dark chocolate  in a heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of gently simmering hot water. Cool down for about 20 minutes or until the icing has thickened and then spread over your cake. 

For Sofia’s cake I smothered a subtle raspberry cream icing over the entire cake and also used it as a filling. Since the cake was topped with sweet meringues, I wanted to avoid another sweet flavoured icing, so the recipe for this one was ideal. Simply combine 250 grams mascarpone with 300 mls thickened cream, half a teaspoon of vanilla essence and a scant amount of pink food colouring in a mixing bowl. Using electric beaters, whip until thick and silky but take care not to churn the mixture into butter!  Add a punnet of fresh washed raspberries in the last couple of seconds of whipping the mix. Split the cake in half and use a pallet knife to smooth over evenly. 

I halved Cadbury Flake chocolate bars and pressed them around the side of the cake to form a basket-like effect. A pretty ribbon was then tied around the outside of the cake and the meringues piled and pressed gently on top. This cake cuts surprisingly easily and holds its form well. As you can see it is quite striking inside with the contrast between the dark, chocolatey layers and the fresh, pinky hued filling.