January 30th, 2010
Heads We Dance Blog – Five of my favourite things
Heads We Dance asked me to do a remix and also a blog of my five favourite things. Here it is. Right Here. Just there underneath.
Pitch Twit’s Five Favourite (Random) things
My favourite chocolate cake
This cake is the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten. Whenever I make it, anyone who tries it always can’t actually believe how good it is. When I do it I use Green & Blacks chocolate and instead of using all dark, I use half 70% and half milk. It is a ridiculous cake. It might even make you giggle whilst you’re eating it.
Ingrediants
For the cake:
200g good quality dark chocolate , about 60% cocoa solids
200g butter , cut in pieces
1 tbsp instant coffee granules
85g self-raising flour
85g plain flour
1⁄4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
200g light muscovado sugar
200g golden caster sugar
25g cocoa powder
3 medium eggs
75ml buttermilk (5 tbsp)
grated chocolate or curls, to decorate
Ganache:-
200g good-quality dark chocolate , as above
284ml carton double cream (pouring type)
2 tbsp golden caster sugar
Method
Butter a 20cm round cake tin (7.5cm deep) and line the base. Preheat the oven to fan 140C/conventional 160C/ gas 3. Break the chocolate in pieces into a medium, heavy-based pan. Tip in the butter, then mix the coffee granules into 125ml/4fl oz cold water and pour into the pan. Warm through over a low heat just until everything is melted – don’t overheat. Or melt in the microwave on Medium for about 5 minutes, stirring half way through.
While the chocolate is melting, mix the two flours, bicarbonate of soda, sugars and cocoa in a big bowl, mixing with your hands to get rid of any lumps. Beat the eggs in a bowl and stir in the buttermilk.
Now pour the melted chocolate mixture and the egg mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just until everything is well blended and you have a smooth, quite runny consistency. Pour this into the tin and bake for 1 hour 25- 1 hour 30 minutes – if you push a skewer in the centre it should come out clean and the top should feel firm (don’t worry if it cracks a bit). Leave to cool in the tin (don’t worry if it dips slightly), then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
When the cake is cold, cut it horizontally into three. Make the ganache: chop the chocolate into small pieces and tip into a bowl. Pour the cream into a pan, add the sugar, and heat until it is about to boil. Take off the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
Sandwich the layers together with just a little of the ganache. Pour the rest over the cake letting it fall down the sides and smoothing to cover with a palette knife. Decorate with grated chocolate or a pile of chocolate curls. The cake keeps moist and gooey for 3-4 days.
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My favourite African guitarist – D’Gary
I saw this guitarist at the Canmore Folk Festival back in 2004 and was instantly blown away by the technicality of his playing and of the rhythms that were being used by him and his band. I got an album (Akato Meso) and have listened to it loads – as opposed to other times at festivals when you really love a live performance by an artist you’ve never heard of – rush off and buy the CD only to get it home and find that its actually rubbish. Beautiful amazing music.
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Favourite Cheap Retreat – Leh, India
I went to Leh while I was travelling round northern India a few years ago with my girlfriend. The dry looking part in the top right of the pic is the old town and the green bit everywhere else is the nicer bit though. We stayed there for about two weeks and really chilled out. Rooms are about 50p a night – less if you want a long term stay. If you eat at the right places you can get a meal for about 30p. If I ever wanted to write a book, or do a concept album or something like that, I’d just spend six months in Leh over a summer just doing exactly what I wanted and nothing more.
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Favourite Intimate Gig – Wayne Krantz @ 55 Bar, New York
Ages ago I was in New York with two good mates, and one of them (Chris Sharkey) knew where to go for some really in your face contemporary hard funk from some of New York’s finest jazz musicians. If you go to New York you HAVE to go and see the Wayne Krantz Trio. This little gig goes down as my favourite intimate gig of all time (and the other times I went there). The level of musicianship is beyond the level you could previously comprehend (especially the drumming) and the grooves are just so sick!
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Favourite Dangerous Ride – Metal Bob Sleigh, China
I was in some place in China with a band I was with at the time and we came across this crazy and rather dangerous ride. Apparently there’s one at one of the Great Wall sites in Beijing, so if you ever go to see the Great Wall of China, go to the section where that ride is – its well well good! I made a video whilst I went down it………
