Bumpy cake

Possibly the best name for a cake ever – recipe by Anna Ansari

I love a cake with a good name: angel, butterfly, chiffon, caterpillar (hello Colin, Cuthbert, Clyde and Connie), fondant fancy, hummingbird, Lady Baltimore, lardy, blackout… You get the picture. If a little more thought had gone into the titles of cakes that come from the ‘is what it says on the tin’ naming convention, then cherry cake could have been ‘spotty cake’, and pound cake could have been ‘avoirdupois’. You can see why I’m not in marketing.

Alison Roman published an interesting read on recipe titles last week. Perhaps she’ll invent the ‘brothy’ cake (would lashings of custard or cream count as broth?).

Finding out there’s such a thing as bumpy cake was a joyous moment, and asking the Substack hive mind if anyone knew about it brought Anna Ansari to me. So here’s Anna’s recipe (below), a corker of a chocolate cake that she likes to eat on her birthday.

By the way, this recipe is uploaded using the new Substack recipe card format, which is quite restrictive as it doesn’t allow you to add resting/freezing/chilling time or add step pictures. I’m not sure if I like it… how about you?

A couple of testing notes. I think the weather has an effect on the frosting, my kitchen is very cold, so my very shiny frosting (when hot) set into fudge by the morning (scroll down for pictures). Anna tells me that she tested lots of different frostings and that this is based on ‘a mid-century Better Homes and Gardens + Betty crocker + American Woman’s cookbook rabbit hole re old fashioned fudge frosting made with water and granulated/caster sugar.’ And it works. Forgive me Anna, if my frosting

is not as shiny as it should be!

Bumpy cake stages

In other news

It’s Pancake Day on 17 February, and this is our top-performing recipe by Cassie Best. Although crêpes are the way to go, in my opinion! With lemon and sugar.

Samuel Goldsmith has been working on a new and exciting podcast, Table for Four with Joanna Page and Mathew Horne. Launching on 19 February.

Barney Desmazery has a fabulous new book out in May.

Finally, Ramadan Mubarak to everyone who is observing.