A little while ago I recieved an e-mail from a co-worker. She stated that another co-worker had presented her with a chocolate cake and she wanted to share it with the rest of the office. Being the nice person that I am, I was obviously willing to help her eat it.

When I saw the cake, I thought it was actually a brownie. I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn’t. Not that I have anything against brownies – not at all. But this cake had a completely different, but very appealing structure. It was light and airy, slightly sticky, like the inside of an almost-baked meringue and it had a little bit of a grainy structure in it, which obviously came from nuts. It was delicious!

I walked up to the co-worker who had baked the cake to let her know how much I liked it and to see if I could convince her to give me the recipe. My co-worker informed me that it was an old family recipe and that if she’d give it to me, she’d have to kill me. the fact that I’m still alive, typing this up means that either she wasn’t serious, or my pleading eyes work better than I ever imagined.

I will not give you her exact recipe. I told her I wouldn’t. I will give you my adaptation of her recipe though. I made it into little cupcakes to take on a picnic. I altered the recipe to accomodate what I had in my pantry, and what I thought would be tasty. The result was a very very airy and light, but oh so delicious cake. They were very different from the cake I ate at the office -or any other cake I’ve ever baked –  but a nice addition to my repertoire.