Sweet tooth

I had a tooth out three days ago.  This is itself may not seem much, but I’m a complete wimp when it comes to dentistry, and had never had a tooth out without general anaesthetic…but I managed it!

My new dentist’s surgery advertise themselves as ‘painless’, and ‘syringe free’.  I must say this influenced my decision.  The wife had to go there last year following some botched treatment by her previous dentist, and she was chuffed to bits with their kindness and thorough care.

So to the tooth…the damage was done about a year ago, after several months of stress and worry.  I was grinding my teeth at night, and broke a bit off a filling. I held out for months and months, as more fell away…by the time I took a deep breath and went in, they wanted to do a major filling and root thingy.  Projected time in the chair, two hours, projected damage to my bank balance close to a grand including a crown.  Er no.

I chickened out and tried to get myself to the dental hospital for a free extraction, but it just didn’t happen.  So I finally got it done this week.  I would like to shout a big HOORAH for the injectionless treatment. They use this wand thingy and it was great.  The tooth came out fine.  Not saying much more about it- I’m in a fair bit of pain NOW of course, and chowing down on the painkillers and salt water mouth washes.

Meanwhile

I need to eat soft things right?  And cake is soft.  And the wife wants cake.  So I’ve been baking again.  We had a lot of lovely strawberries in the fridge, and they needed to be used up quickly, so obviously, a fruit flan was in order.  Out came the trusty Be-Ro book, and my favourite fatless sponge recipe.  Mixture went together quickly, and baked nicely.  This cake is FAST!  Unfortunately, it suffered from the wife’s insistence on replacing all my tatty old tried-and-tested cake tins with nice shiny new ones.  WHICH ARE NOT SEASONED PROPERLY.

So this happened.

Sigh.  Fortunately, I have no intention of entering it in a beauty contest, so Iended up with this.

Bished and bashed, but it smells wonderful, and will be a treat for my sore old gums.

Wifey demanded chocolate cake, with the added injunction to make it ‘sexy’.  Be-Ro book again, my all time favourite chocolate cake.  We’ve adapted the recipe slightly over the years, mum puts more cocoa into hers but makes it ‘all in one’ in the mixer.  I do a more trad creamed method, and it comes out uber light.  We both use ordinary milk instead of evaporated.  All good!It adapts nicely into a coffee and chocolate cake, and is great with walnuts on top.

This is something of a family tradition, as my mum’s been making these chocolate cakes with the fudge icing.  Every birthday, every year.  She makes about 20 every Christmas to give as gifts, and I make them to take into work on high days and holidays.  For extra special, I make the icing with butter for added richness.

Today I decided to go for a proper ganache icing/filling.  8oz cream, heated with 8oz of very dark good chocolate, beaten until smooth and starting to cool.  I drizzled some Cointreau over the base layer, and topped the lot with raspberries.  Wifey is already well into the first slice, WITH EXTRA CREAM.  Oink is all I’m saying to that…

Fancy a slice?