My late maternal grandmother, Bella, was something of an idiot savant in the kitchen. On the one hand, she could take a piece of raw tongue and transform it into a luscious appetiser, so delicious that all recollection of the sight of it in its raw form - pale and cadaverous, heaped on the benchtop like a prop out of a Cannibal Corpse video clip - vanished. And yet she never failed to burn a cholent, a traditional Jewish peasant food whose very raison d'être is that it is a slow-cooked stew left to simmer for 12 hours. The consistently scorched potatoes never compelled her to turn the oven down (I suppose such stubbornness becomes useful when you're warding off thousands of years of persecution).
Her cakes however were consistently superb. Testament to this fact is that when my mother brought my father over to meet the family, he cemented a lasting impression by sitting down and eating my grandmother's marbled vanilla chocolate sponge in its entirety. He then proposed that he could make a better cake and returned a week later with his own rendition of a chocolate sponge. Bafflingly, he would not let anyone have a piece; I put this down to a blend of greed and breathtaking disinterest in social etiquette (which has persisted in my father forever more).
He did not attempt to upstage her when it came to her mighty poppy seed cake, though. The beautiful blue-black seeds are enmeshed with grated apple, juice, sugar and eggs for a cake with delicate flavour and a moist, grainy texture. The finishing touch is a glossy coating of dark chocolate, which functions as more than just a velvety counterpoint to the nutty poppy seed. The cake can be a little tricky to demould sometimes and small segments may become stuck to the pan; the chocolate coating will effectively hide the fallout on the surface of the cake.
Ingredients:
6 eggs, separated
210g caster sugar
250g poppy seed
60g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 green apple, peeled and grated (juice reserved)
1/2 a lemon, juice only
200g dark chocolate (minimum 60% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
Spray oil
Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C and spray the innards of a kugelhopf pan [a what?].
2) In a large metal bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer at high speed and gradually add the caster sugar until stiff peaks form.
3) Using a spatula, combine yolks in another large bowl with remaining ingredients.
4) Gently fold egg white mixture into yolk and poppyseed mixture until combined and pour into kugelhopf pan.
5) Bake for 35 minutes (this varies depending on your oven; at the 35 minute mark, stick a metal skewer into the cake and if it comes out clean, the cake may be removed).
6) Allow cake to cool and turn out on to a plate.
7) Over a double boiler, gradually melt the chocolate until smooth and glossy. For extra shine, you can add a little bit of corn syrup while cooking. Using a spatula, coat the cake in chocolate sauce.
Variations:
* Orange complements poppy seed very well; consider adding a little orange juice to the mix or decorating the finished cake with orange zest.
* My grandmother wasn't much for spirits, but I am. Sully your chocolate sauce with your liqueur of choice: rum, Grand Marnier, Frangelico, etc.
* American recipes frequently include slivered almonds and are finished with cream cheese frosting.
* For a creamier mouthfeel, consider including ricotta cheese in the cake mix.
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