Chocolate Gateau with Rum and Hazelnuts - Happy Birthday Mr Soup!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Mr Soup's birthday, and in celebration we are having a slap up meal (in true Soup Tuesday style we're making it ourselves). Mr Soup is in charge of the meat as he'll make a much better job of it than me, but I am making pudding.


Now, everyone knows Mr Wallace is a big fan of the pudding, and when I saw his 'Favourite Puddings' book, I knew there would be some fantastic puddings in it, so onto my Amazon wishlist it went. Shortly after it landed in my Christmas stocking, and it's now our go-to for special occasions (the Soup Parents had rum-and-raisin ice-cream (p150) when they came round for dinner to much admiration!)

So when choosing a dessert for this evening, I handed the book to Mr Soup, and told him to pick whatever he wanted, and to my surprise (I was expecting something like a sticky spongey warm pudding), he went for a chocolate gateau with run and hazelnuts p84) (supposed to be walnuts, but I'm not a fan!).

Cheesy 80's sci-fi movie in the background.

The recipe was quite straightforward and in true Wallace style was absolutely delicious! The only thing I wasn't sure about is that the cake didn't have any cocoa in it, so came out quite a bit lighter than I expected. The icing more than made up for it in chocolateyness.

Soupy Birthday!

There's a birthday in the Soup household, and so we are off the the countryside for a few days, weather permitting!  So if this blog is never updated again, it's because we are frozen in a cottage somewhere (Malton, to be precise) and even the warming power of the soup couldn't revive us.

I bet there's more snow and less chickens when we get there

Next week there will be new recipes - Haggis Soup! and another entry into the Weekly Bakeoff and, if you are lucky, some pictures of snow, because I'm sure you will all need reminding of what it looks like!

Also, because we cook, eat and then at least one of Team Soup does the washing up (me - yes, my hands are red-raw with Fairy Liquid poisoning!)  most of the birthday gifts were food related, including...

** A Jam Funnel ** Because otherwise your jam will go everywhere

** Perfect Pies ** Because we love pies, and The Hairy Bikers - about the only TV cooks that seem to enjoy the food they cook, and also they come across as really nice guys.  And did I mention we love pies!

** A Kitchen Blow-torch ** A weapon of mass destruction in my hands probably!

So have a nice weekend and keep souping! (And if you have any ideas for soups you would like to see us do on the blog, or any suggestions, like 'stop blabbering and start cooking' then feel free to drop us  a line in the comments section)

Cheers!