" iT'S RUBY WAX !..." - & Edith's Cinnamon Chocolate Cake

‘COOKINGWITHMAVIS’ #37       “…RuBy Wax“

‘ Travelling over the mountain…Of an Anglicized  Austro-Anglo-American comedienne ’

Television does not play a mega part in my day-to-day existence.

Me , the maker-of-‘COOKINGWITHMAVIS’  somehow  am ALWAYS BUSY: …busy  cooking…busy  writing…busy thinking of what next to entertain You, the reader, with….busy  working… busy  with daily life…busy with family…busy  worrying… busy  fixating on nonsense… busy  writing letters to “Top Management” of  BloodyPack’nPiysupermarket  about  their standards gone, and letters to LG  Appliances South Africa because they do not import spare parts for household appliances over 5 years old! … busy , just BUSY!  

And when I have a short moment, I might revert to watching some TV …No! never the  *! *agro-aggressive $$$ *!**   violence which our TV channels  adore, but I shall not bore you with all that I do enjoy… just to say I can’t resist *ANYTHING **  with RuBy Wax!

RuBy Wax ?     Welllllll , just ‘google’ her…and Wikipedia does a marvelous profile of ‘Miss Wax’! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Wax  

Naughty-‘n-nice!  – ‘Miss Wax’!   ... an “Anglosized”-by-choice, Anglicized-accented,  of Austro-American descent (whew! What a mouthful!) …comedienne, with a wicked ‘butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth’ smile  and off-the-wall humour .  

We  know her most of all for that BBC series “Ab Fab” …(you know! - with Eddie and Patsy and Saffie…)

I  recently  glimpsed an advert, local, that RuBy Wax! was due to perform a one-woman show at our local Camps Bay’s Theatre  On The  Bay  – what better birthday gift for ‘My M ‘ (and Me ), than for us to schlep from the depths and protection of Cape Town’s sedate Suburbia, over 2 mountains, all the way to the Other-Side-Of-The-Peninsula  , to that Atlantic  Seaboard  suburb… Camps Bay!

And so we did!  For one evening, we escaped our fairly quiet suburban bliss.   We traversed the boulevards of Suburbia, wending our way along the slopes of the backside of Devil’s Peak  Mountain, past the University, and around that winding highway, along that mountain pass De Waal Drive, skirting high above the periphery of Cape Town’s City Centre, climbing the steep streets through the cosmopolitan sought-after suburbs surrounding the City Centre, them lying in the sloping shadow of Table Mountain, up, up over the saddle between Table Mountain and Signal Hill , and over, down into the abyss of the Atlantic  Seaboard  and the never-still nightlife of Camps Bay …

And there We  were! ……We’d arrived !

And not a familiar face amongst them! …just 20 minutes from home.

Truly the other side of the world!

Sshhhh… the lights have dimmed ….there she is!

It’s..oh-my-goodness! …. It’s R-R-RuBy WAX , on stage…live, real…ALMOST in touching distance!

AND SO TO RECIPES…

Edith Wax’s Cinnamon Chocolate Cake …

So! Who, in goodness name, was Edith Wax?...I discovered her on a very worn page of my very, very, very favourite  cookbook published around 1960 and handed down from ‘Generations Other’, to find itself comfortably on my shelves…..

…..and have had a love relationship with her name for longer than I might want to remember! Edith Wax donated her delicious chocolate cake recipe….which always caught ‘Mavis’s  eye, and remains a staple in My repertoire !

The aromas wafting from my oven, of butter and cocoa and cinnamon, sets the salivary glands into mass-action!  Not to even mention Edith’s delumptious whipped cream filling , flavoured with finely ground almonds, cocoa and coffee, and icing sugar, then scattered with a sprinkling of ground cinnamon and lightly pan-toasted slivered almonds!

This is a smallish cake, baked in 2x 20cm round  baking tins.

THE PREP!

Remember to do your mise en place!...

I make sure first that my “mise en place” (pronounced “ miz ɑ̃ plas”), is done!  - it’s a French phrase - literally means:  "putting in place" -  ….I suppose it’s the ‘pre-preparation’

Have all your ingredients ready, on the kitchen counter, and all your utensils too.  By measuring your ingredients before you start, makes baking so much easier!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup sugar

115g (¼ lb) butter

3 ‘extra large’ size eggs (I use “jumbo” size)

1¼ cups cake flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

½ standard measure cup cocoa

A pinch of salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

½ cup water

Ingredients for Cream filling:

1 cup whipping cream

4 Tablespoons icing sugar

3 Tablespoons finely ground almonds

1 Tablespoon cocoa

½ teaspoon cold strong coffee

To decorate : Onto the top of the cake, scatter: 

   2 Tablespoons lightly pan-toasted slivered almonds

METHOD:

1)    Line the bottom and sides of your baking pans with greased and floured baking paper.

2)    Preheat the oven to 190˚C (375˚F)

3)    Sift all the dry ingredients into a separate bowl.

4)    With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar for at least 10 minutes till light, and pale in colour.

5)    Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition.

6)    Then reduce the speed of you mixer, and add some flour mixture, alternating with some water, add the vanilla, ending with the flour mixture last, until well blended.

7)    This is a thick batter;  scoop into the 2x prepared baking tins.

8)    Bake at 190˚C in the middle of the oven for just 20 minutes.(it might only need 18 minutes)

9)     Remove, and leave to cool for 10 minutes before gently turning the pans over to cool on a wire cake rack…this will help to flatten them too if they have risen in the middle!

10)          When completely cold, in a clean dry bowl, whip the cream, and fold in the rest of the filling ingredients into the whipped cream.

11)          Spread this between the layers, to sandwich the 2 layers together.

12)          Then, on the top, either spread the rest of the cream filling , and scatter with the toasted slivered almonds …

EDITH WAX's  CINNAMON CHOCOLATE CAKE

OR:

If you prefer a dry top,rather sift 1 tablespoon icing sugar, then a sprinkle of ground cinnamon and scatter a generous amount of lightly pan-toasted slivered almonds instead of the cream filling on the top.

CINNAMON CHOCOLATE CAKE

 MMMmmmmmmmmm!

     Enjoy….I KNOW  you will !

                      ‘COOKINGWITHMAVIS’

PS

To view ‘ COOKINGWITHMAVIS’ s ‘ previous blogs:

Just scroll up to the top right, and click on any month to see hilarious earlier blogs:

……...” Crisp Creamcheese”, 

-        “ ‘Mavis’s Breasts”,

-        “ To Eat an Artichoke”,

-        “Jewish Chicken Soup”……

-        “Preserved Goose” 

-        “MUIZENBERG -Teatime on the beach!”

-        and more!...

-                   I love December’s “Fanny Cradock”!

Join her Facebook ….she likes friends

….or send her a mail…a favourite recipe too @

cookingwithmavis@gmail.com

 ‘til next time…

   ‘COOKINGWITHMAVIS’