Oil chocolate cake

This is probably the best chocolate cake recipe out there. It is from the south African huisgenoot winning recipes and is truly a winner every time.

Baked with oil, it is easy, quick, light and fluffy and of course delicious. Someone also gave me the advice to bake it as cupcakes and freeze for up to six months without the icing. That way you can take out as many as you need and decorate as you wish.

Oil chocolate cake

  • 250 ml boiling water
  • 125 ml cacao
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 4 large egg whites
  • 375 ml sugar
  • 5 ml vanilla extract
  • 125 ml sunflower cooking oil
  • 450 ml all purpose flour
  • 15 ml baking powder
  • 2 ml salt
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Oil 2 cake tin of 20 cm.
  2. Add the cacao powder tot the boiling water and leave aside to cool off.
  3. Beat the egg yolks and the sugar until fluffy and light and creamy.
  4. Add the sunflowr oil, vanilla extract and colled down cacao mix to the egg and sugar mixture.
  5. Sift the dry ingredients and add to the egg mixture.
  6. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the batter.
  7. Divide the batter between the two cake tine and bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees C.
  8. Leave to cool, remove and decorate with a butter icing.

My garden is in a state of drought and we aren’t allowed to water. But that is summer for you and fortunately I have planted drought resistant plants, because this happens every year.

…The iceberg roses just keep on flowering profusely…

…In the potager, the agapanthus are lush against the backdrop of washing on the drying line…

…My chickens enjoy the potager far too much…so much so that I have no crop of radishes left…

…White petunias in the white garden, such a grateful summer annual..

A bientôt

Ronell

Courgette, feta and walnut tart

Courgettes, zucchini for the Américains, are so versatile, easy to prepare and I think a vegetable eaten and enjoyed by almost everyone. It is a safe food to start introducing vegetables to babies and children generally prefer courgettes to peas. What’s not to like about courgettes. So, cheers to courgettes!

courgette filo tart-2

courgette filo tart

courgette filo tart recipe

Pincée de fleur de sel:

  • Add  some cumin grains to the courgettes
  • Spread some mustard on the base of the tart before adding the filling.
  • Use puff pastry instead of the phylo.
  • Replace the feta cheese with rounds of goats cheese and drizzle with honey.

Enjoy!

courgette filo tart-3

Just as I think all the chicks are almost grown up, a hen shows up with a little new born chick fluttering around her. The buzzards are also informed by their secret sources that a newborn is availabe and they do take their chances. Unfortunately for them, there is nothing more fierce than a mother hen.

mother and chick

hen and chick

Danger in the sky

hen and chick-2 - Copie

Just checking

hen and chick-3

Á bientôt

Ronell