nothing but the best
Use the best-quality ingredients and it’ll improve the cake’s flavour beyond your wildest dreams BUTTER Use a good unsalted butter. We always use Australian and New Zealand butters. It’s painful paying for expensive butter, but worth it. EGGS Buy free-range at the very minimum. Using high-quality, large eggs can make the world of difference and all of the recipes in my book have been made with large 70g eggs. Also, make sure eggs are at room temperature when you use them. If you keep them in the fridge, take them out the night before cooking. This is particularly important when adding them to butter and also when making meringues. Given that the egg is the binding ingredient in the cake, a fresh egg will produce a fluffier cake that doesn’t dip in the middle. Check the ‘best before’ dates on the eggs; if they haven’t got two weeks left on them, they aren’t fresh enough.
CHOCOLATE
We use Sicao dark chocolate for most of our baking. We’ve used other, more expensive brands and they definitely have their place, but just use what you can afford. Don’t substitute for cocoa though – this is like adding flour, so your thrifty decision will result in a dry cake.