I was sitting in a cafe in Kluuvi a few months ago, on a weekday afterwork, waiting for a friend. As I was looking around to see her, a joyful, smiling girl caught my eye, she was passing by the cafe, and I immediately recognised her: Jemima! She came to my table, quickly gave me a hug saying hello to me, the “chef”, continued with “keep up the good work” and then left. I had a huge smile on my face after this quick and happy encounter.

 

I met Jemima in Vappu last year, at my friend Melis and Halil’s place, she’s a friend of theirs. We were together during much of the evening and did talk a bit, got to know each other. After that, I did not see her again for a long time, but nonetheless added her on Facebook. Our communication flourished through my blog and food related posts actually. Then came the co-baking session, as she is also very much into baking.

 

Jemima works in University of Helsinki as postdoctoral researcher but currently she resides in London for a year as associate research fellow (good for her, bad for me).

 

What I love about this bright young woman is that I can talk about anything with her, from broken hears or love interests with blond Finnish guys to views on life in general. If I pushed myself more, I could even talk about being political with her but then again, I’m sure she hears that talk too often in her life as she has a PhD in political science. Maybe we should try political baking with her!

 

As I said in many other posts, I love how this blog is connecting me to other people. Through it, I met many lovely people, made good friends. I did not initially get connected to Jemima by my blog, but the blog did help us to get to know each other more.

 

And yes, I plan to meet her in Paris while she is still in the UK!

 

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Ingredients:

 

For cake:
1 cup / 2.4 dl plain flour
1 cup / 2.4 dl sugar
1/4 cup / 0.6 dl cacao
1 tsp / 5 ml baking soda
1 tsp / 5 ml baking powder
1/2 tsp / 2.5 ml salt
1/3 cup / 0.8 dl vegetable oil
1 cup / 2.4 dl rice milk

 

For ganache:
2/3 cup / 1.6 dl coconut cream
120 gr. powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup / 1.2 dl cacao, sifted
150 gr. good quality dark chocolate, broken into smaller pieces

 

Soundtrack: If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake by Eileen Barton

 

 

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1. First, line a cake mould with baking sheet. Just follow the photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Preheat the oven to 180C.

 

3. In a mixing bowl, put the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cacao (sifted), baking powder, baking soda and salt. Put aside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. In another bowl, prepare wet ingredients: pour rice milk and vegetable oil, then whisk.

 

 

 

5. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ones. Mix them until they are incorporated to prepare the batter, using a standing or hand mixer or just by hand.

 

 

6. Pour the batter into cake mould. Put in the middle rack.

 

7. Cook about 30 minutes – the top should look set and a toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean. When it is done, put it aside to cool down a bit, then transfer it to a serving plate.

 

 

8. Now prepare the icing. Put chocolate in heat-proof bowl and melt by bain-marie style (i.e. putting on top of a pan with boiling water). When melted, put aside.

 

 

9. In another pan, put coconut cream and gently heat it to a warmer temperature – just for a few minutes. Do not boil it.

 

 

10. When coconut cream is warmer, put melted chocolate inside the cream and whisk.

 

 

11. Add powdered sugar and cacao and whisk them altogether until all ingredients are well incorporated.

 

 

 

12. Pour the icing on the cake, spread it to cover the whole cake. Let it cool down and then put it in the fridge for a few hours, maybe even overnight, when it is completely cool. It is extremely tasty also when eaten warm, as we did, but it is a bit too soft at that stage therefore is hard to slice, as seen in the photo. But it is so yummy that I go weak right now thinking of it…