#KellsWritingChallenge Chocolate Cake!

Day 3 - chocolate cake 

 

There is so much I could say about chocolate cake. I could try and describe the taste, texture or aroma. I could describe the feeling of expectation when you order it or make one, or the slightly ill feeling you get when you have eaten what you thought was just a small slice.

But you know when I think about chocolate cake I remember when chocolate cake was not really chocolate cake. When I was young a chocolate cake was basically a plain cake with cocoa added to it. It was a chocolate flavoured cake. It kinda looked like chocolate but it wasn't really. Then one day someone somewhere introduced the concept of mud cake where you actually put real chocolate in and my life changed! 

It may seem strange to some of you but I didn't much like cake as a child. Birthday parties were tough going. I didn't like icing and I didn't like that fake cream they put in cakes back then. Plus it didn't even really help if it was called 'chocolate' as that usually implied it was a chocolate sponge and that did nothing for me. For me it was like the difference between KFC and a packet of chicken flavoured chips. Some may like both but in no way does one taste like the other. So chocolate sponge cake is simply in my opinion, chocolate flavoured cake. In order for it to be an acceptable cake to me it has to have actual real chocolate in it. 

I bet you never even thought about the distinction before did you? Well it's an important one. These days there are probably so many different varieties of chocolate cake so that most people never ponder what is a chocolate cake and what is simply pretending to be one. But to me cocoa is no substitute for actual chocolate. That's just me. You may disagree. You may be one of those people that stuffed themselves silly with birthday cake at parties when they were young. I remember you. I equally envied you and thought you were crazy.

In fact I was probably the odd kid at most birthday parties. I wouldn't eat the cake and often had to explain at great length that it wasn't because I wasn't allowed, it was simply that I didn't want any because I didn't like it. Then there was the jelly which I also hated. I still do actually.. I would eat custard or cream ( if it was real!) and some very easy going mothers would happily give me a bowl of custard or cream without comment or asking questions.

These days my birthday is pretty simple. I get a chocolate mud cake. Maybe totally hand made, maybe made from a cake mix or maybe bought from a cake shop. I don't mind really, so long as it does what it claims and actually tastes like real chocolate!