Deviled Chicken at Oxford

University College (Building dates from 1634)

As I spend my first hours in England, I am really channeling Constance Spry as I walk the hallowed streets of Oxford. University College, founded by King Alfred in AD 872, should qualify as hallowed.

It is England, with a noble, lavender scented beauty everywhere. If only stone could speak, what a tale it could tell!

In “Garden Notebook” in 1940, Constance Spry wrote “Perfection in living seems to me to consist not in the spending of large sums of money but in the exercise of a selective and discerning taste in the use of what we may possess, and flowers and plants can in their judicious use contribute in a high degree to the elegance and graciousness of life.”

I just love that sentiment, don’t you? It’s not about the money, but about using what is around us (and what we have) to fill our lives with graciousness (a word that is not used often enough these days). This is a sublime spirit to cultivate and you feel it everywhere here in the great wild gardens and time-softened stone architecture of Oxford.

My first snack was at The Grand Café on High Street. It proudly announces it was the first coffee house in England (the first coffee was drunk in England at Balliol College just a few years earlier) that uses house-made cage-free egg mayonnaise for its wonderful little sandwiches. All the sandwiches on the menu, like smoked salmon, cucumber and watercress reminded me of many of of Spry’s efforts in THE CONSTANCE SPRY COOKERY BOOK. Her savory Éclairs with Deviled Chicken, bacon and watercress are bite-sized lovelies that go down far too easily (I can attest to this because my household did a lot of sampling with these babies) not unlike the sandwiches at The Grand.

I did use a different recipe for the pate a choux than Spry used after the first batch came out a little flat. I went to Michael Ruhlman who has the same recipe I’ve used for years but with simple instructions (and even a video) as well as a love song to the pastry. They really are fabulous. This makes enough for a few leftovers that I stuffed with chocolate ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce and had instant profiteroles. You can make them and freeze them and then heat them up in minutes. I pop them in the toaster oven and they are good as new. That way they are always ready for a savory or sweet filling for last minute guests and quick desserts.

Devilled Chicken

2 poached chicken breasts (you could use the equivalent amount of left-over chicken)

2 T butter

Devil Sauce 2*** (around ½ of the recipe)

½ C cream (a little more if you like it moister)

1 T curry paste (powder?)

1 t. Dijon Mustard

2 t dry English mustard

seasoning (S&P)

Take chicken and chop into bite size pieces then toss with melted butter and run under broiler for a few minutes then toss with Devil sauce 2. Allow chicken to rest overnight. Combine other ingredients and heat gently and toss with chicken

Serve in choux puffs with chopped bacon and watercress.

Devil Sauce 2 ***

3 T worchestershire

2 T mushroom Ketchup (if you don’t have it… toss in a few mushrooms and a T of soy sauce with a pinch of allspice and mace)

1 T tarragon vinegar

1 T chopped onion

2-3 slices lemon

1 clove garlic

1 c strong stock

1 cup chopped tomatoes

1 bay leaf

Combine and simmer 10 minutes. Remove the lemon slices and the bay leaf and blend.

Choux paste

1/2 c water

4 T butter

½ c flour, sifted

2 eggs

½ t salt

Heat oven to 425º. Boil water and butter, add flour all at once and beat until smooth then allow to cool. Put into a bowl and using a standing or hand beater, add the eggs by degrees to the flour, waiting till one is incorporated before adding the next. The paste should be smooth and shiny.

Put on baking sheet either golf-ball size or pipe as éclair shapes (Savory éclairs were called Carolines during the Edwardian age). Then bake 10 minutes at 425º and lower heat to 350º and bake 20 more minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and pierce with knife to release steam.

Thanks to Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday!

Madeira & Madeira Cake

I know when I talk Madeira, I usually speak about cooking with it, not drinking it. That probably won’t change anytime soon since I am no great expert but thanks to Mannie Berk at The Rare Wine Company (who invited me) and to the people at IVBAM (Madeira’s institute for wine and crafts), I got to taste 40, count ‘em, 40 madeiras at the snazzy Astor Center at Astor Wine in NYC.

Let me tell you -- for the uninitiated, wine tasting is not for sissies. I still can’t bring myself to spit (that’s what the ominous black bucket on the right is for) but even with small sips… after that many wines I was exhausted. Probably concentrating that closely played a part as well. It was all for a good cause…this is one great wine, I know I’ve told you this before.

I tasted young, old, dry and sweet with the differing personalities of the 7 houses that make the wine on the Portuguese island of Madeira off the coast of Africa. The micro-climate and basaltic soil make for an ideal grape haven. There are many grapes used to make the different varieties of wine (Malvasia, Bual, Verdelho, Sercial & Tinta Negra being the best known) and these are planted strategically on the various parts of the island. Five centuries of experience have told them which location is best for which grape.

I got to speak with representatives of many of the 7 producers. I asked a representative from Henriques e Henriques about what they eat with Madeira and they said Bolo de Mel, a classic sweet cake that is much like gingerbread. It is made around Christmas and is meant to be eaten by hand (never to be cut with a knife). And they make a lot of it…enough to last all year long.

Since it is summer, I decided I would hold off on making this dark spicy recipe and instead make the English version of Madeira Cake that has been popular for a few hundred years.

Lighter and lemony, I found a spectacular recipe from Chef Michael Caines at the beautiful Gidleigh Park in Devon, England (a little more research for my England trip). He makes his mum’s recipe for the cake (that she found in an old Good Housekeeping book). It is a stunner, like a light pound cake soaked in madeira scented apricot and tangy lemon, oh my! Best of all I get to sneak a little Madeira into it (which is not traditional -- the English version, and Caines' version is wine-free) because of the beautiful apricot glaze that I found. Let me tell you it is great with the wine or with tea… a little Earl Gray, mmm. Heaven.

Lemon Madeira Cake based on Michael Caines’s Recipe

Serves 8

Zest and juice of a lemon

5 eggs *

350g caster sugar (1 ¾ C)

Pinch of salt

150ml double cream (5 oz)

275g plain flour (almost 2 c at 140g a cup)

5 g baking powder (1 t)

100g butter, melted (a little less than ½ c)

A little apricot glaze ****

100g icing sugar (7/8c)

A little extra butter and flour for the tin

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 160C/gas3 (320º). Grease a cake tin with butter and dust with flour (the recipe called for a 12”x 4”x3.5” pan but I made 2, one smaller one in a 6" x 5" decorative mold and the other in a 5" x 9" loaf pan). Put the lemon zest, eggs, sugar and salt into a mixer and whizz at top speed for about 10 minutes until the mixture thickens and turns a lovely pale yellow.

2 Fold in the cream. Sieve the flour and baking powder together and fold into the mixture, then add the melted butter, again folding it in carefully.

3 Spoon into the cake tin and put into the oven for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (the smaller mold was 45 minutes).

4 Turn out and cool on a rack, but leave the oven on. When cold, brush the cake all over with apricot jam.

5 To make the glaze, put the icing sugar and lemon juice in a pan on the stove until the sugar melts and the mixture turns syrupy, then brush this all over the top and sides of the cake and return it to the oven for 30seconds.

*the eggs from Grazin Angus Acres in Union Square make everything the best color...they are so yellow~

****Apricot Glaze

As for the glaze, it comes from a century-old recipe from La Cuisine Française. The author, François Tanty, was trained under Careme, the most famous 19th century French Chef. Tanty then served as Chef de Cuisine to Emperor Napoleon III and Chef to the Czar of Russia; he also was proprietor of the Grand Hotel and the Restaurant Dussaux at St. Petersburg, and Purveyor to the French and Russian Armies says the indispensable resource, Feeding America . How’s that for a CV! This world-class toast and jam is about as good as it gets. If you don’t have apricots at hand, just use 2 parts apricot jam to one part Madeira. You will be astounded how good this is for breakfast or tea or an incredibly quick dessert for last minute guests.

I did a guest blog for the generous and amazing Lazaro. Do stop by and have a look. If you have never seen his blog, Lazaro Cooks scan back and enjoy!!!

Thanks to Gollum for hosting another Foodie Friday

My next post will come from England!!! Thanks to all of you who clicked on the ads!!!

Constance Spry’s Supremes de Poisson Parisienne

Constance Spry

I am going to England in July. To Oxford for the Food Symposium and then driving around the Cotswolds and Cornwall soaking up history and all that gorgeous English countryside and FOOD! Planning my trip got me to thinking about all things English and my mind wandered toward that British institution, Constance Spry (1886-1960), whose cookbook had come to my attention a few months ago thanks to the wonderful blog The Aesthete Cooks . Through the wonders of world commerce, I got a copy through Amazon UK in no time at all (the book was £2. It is available in the US for a few dollars more, just click the link!). I discovered that THE CONSTANCE SPRY COOKERY BOOK is considered the bible of English cookbooks (not unlike Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in America). Large (1200 pages) and thorough (2000 recipes), it was written in the 50s when Spry reached the height of her success with her floral work on Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, and with her Coronation Chicken (a creamy curried salad) made for luncheon for the visiting dignitaries and devised with Rosemary Hume, her partner in a home sciences and finishing school, Winkfield Place. Although Hume was the more accomplished cook, Spry supplied the star power for the school. She was the Martha Stewart of England for generations.

Flowers of Fennel and Orange Lilies, 1951
© Constance Spry Ltd

Soft Pink Colourings, 1951
© Constance Spry Ltd

Rose Felicité et Perpetue, 1951
© Constance Spry Ltd

Spry was most famous for her flowers and entertaining advice and not as much for food and The Aesthete Cooks does a great job telling the story of her work (as does The Design Museum ) and her influence on flower arranging as she moved arrangements from stodgy to interesting (with clever containers) inspired by 17^th c Dutch still lifes. This is how I knew of Spry… as a society florist to clients like The Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Constance Spry

Spry once said “I do feel strongly that flowers should be a means of self-expression for everyone.” Starting with her first, Flower Decoration in 1934, most of Spry’s books were on flower arranging and all were written clearly and concisely advocating the use of common plants (like Kale!!) in designs and full of sensible information like how to make flowers last as well as professional florist’s secrets.

During WWII she advocated growing and eating your own food in Come Into the Garden, Cook. Other later books like Hostess gave tips for everything from preparing food to running a household to entertaining weekend guests but in my mind Spry had always been about flowers.

David Austin's Constance Spry Rose

She was to English flowers what Gertrude Jekyll was to English gardens. She had a rose named after her! That she was connected to a cookbook was a delightful surprise.

With so many recipes to choose from, it was difficult to know where to begin (I will be sharing more of these recipes with you!) but I decided on a lovely fish mousse called Supremes de Poisson Parisienne. It is a delightful first course or luncheon dish with a spectacular sauce somewhere between a veloute and a hollandaise that is all languorous velvet and luxury in the mouth. They can be made in a mold or simply in quenelles (tablespoon shaped dumplings). They are light and elegant and a fitting introduction to Spry’s mid-century world. It is a perfect dish for all those table-scapers out there…pull out the luncheon china, fine napery, polish that fish set and arrange those flowers!

Honestly, although it seems fancy, it can be made in less than an hour! I made the quenelles too and then reheated them with some capellini tossed in the sauce for a lovely leftover.

Supremes de Poisson Parisienne

Serves 4

Fish Creams

½ lb. boneless, skinless white fish (haddock or sole)

2 small egg whites

½ c cream

S + P

Sauce: Supreme

¾ oz butter (1 ¾ T)

½ oz. flour (2 ½ T)

¾ c fish fumet (fish stock with wine*)

¾ c cream

1-2 T lemon juice to taste

Tarragon sprig, optional

2 egg yolks *

1/3 c cream

Garnish

12 shrimp, sliced in half

4 shitake mushrooms, sliced thinly

1 T butter

1 T lemon juice

Put fish in processor and process until paste, add eggs then cream and salt and pepper.

Put into 4 small molds and drop into slow boiling water to cover about 7- 10 minutes OR make into Quenelles with 2 tablespoons (it makes 8-10). Put into slow boiling water and poach for 5-7 minutes, turning once.

For the sauce: Melt butter and add flour and cook for a few moments. Slowly add the fumet until a sauce is formed. Add the cream and lemon juice to taste. You can leave a sprig of tarragon in the sauce while it sits for flavor or chop the tarragon and sprinkle on top as you serve. Just before serving, warm, add the beaten egg yolk and cream and warm a few moments for a silky yellow sauce (my pasture-raised eggs have insanely yellow yolks).

For the Garnish: Saute the shrimp and mushroom slices in butter, toss with lemon juice and sprinkle on the plates. Pour sauce over all.

* I always save fish bones (white fish like cod, trout etc) and shrimp & lobster shells in the freezer till I get enough to make a pot of fish fumet. That way it’s nearly free. Saute a little onion, garlic, carrot and celery in butter and add the bones and shells, bay leaf and peppercorns then toss in 2 c white wine to around 8 cups of water (the liquid should just cover the bones) and cook for 90 minutes at a slow simmer (if you have a hot plate you can make it outside if you don’t like that fish smell in the kitchen) then strain, pushing on the solids. Let it sit for a while and the solids will settle to the bottom, then package. Put it in 1 c bags and store in the freezer and then you can make lovely fish sauces in a flash!

*the eggs from Grazin Angus Acres in Union Square make the sauce this color... they are fabulous eggs

Thanks to Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday!!!

The San Francisco Earthquake, John Barrymore & Louie!

John Barrymore as Hamlet. Autographed photo, 1922. Folger Shakespeare Library

John Barrymore was 24 in 1906, and at that point, a relatively obscure member of a famous American theatrical family who had little interest in the family business, even though his breathtaking good looks dropped him squarely on that path. His grandmother, mother and father had all been stars of the American stage in the 19^th century.

His sister Ethel was currently the toast of Broadway

His uncle John Drew was knocking them dead on the Great White Way as he had been doing for a quarter century (In case you are wondering, yes, John Barrymore—who was born in 1882, is the grandfather of Drew Barrymore!!). John was supposed to have been staying at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco when the earthquake struck. Instead, he was hiding out in an attempt to elude his cast-mates who were shipping off to Australia to perform a forgettable but successful play that he was starring in.

John Barrymore, 1906

Dressed in evening clothes, he spent the next few days playing at being a reporter, getting cashiered by the militia and nearly being shot for trying to break into a friend’s house to retrieve things before it was bombed for fire break (so many beautiful undamaged houses were destroyed to stop the progress of the fire). He wrote to his sister Ethel telling her of his adventures, hoping to sell the letter for $100 to a NY press hungry for first hand news from the disaster. When his sister read John’s letter to John Drew, she asked if he believed any of it. Drew replied “I believe every word of it. It took a convulsion of nature to get him up and the US Army to make him go to work!” He admitted years later he had indeed made up most of his stories from the quake, but by the time of the admission he was very famous and his embellishment of the truth was thought to be charming... he was a rogue after all!

St Francis Hotel before Earthquake

The St Francis was the place to be during the quake. It survived the shocks and was not seriously damaged till fires came through.

St Francis Hotel after the earthquake

Until then it stayed open and served what it could to anyone who came through its doors for free until the food ran out (including Enrico Caruso with a fur coat over his pajamas, smoking a cigarette and muttering, " 'Ell of a place! 'Ell of a place!" and reported survivor and famous photographer, Arnold Genthe). No wonder, the kitchen was run by the indomitable chef, Victor Hirtsler, who served food himself during a labor strike in 1901 so his guests wouldn’t be disappointed. Surely an earthquake wouldn’t stop him… it took a conflagration for that.

Call me crazy, but for some reason I always conflate Crab Louie with the 1906 SF earthquake (did Jeanette McDonald have it in the movie, San Francisco?). It seems I am not too far off with the notion since turn of the century San Francisco was one the first places to make a Louie or Louis. Hirtsler’s ’The 1910 Hotel St. Francis Cookbook has a recipe for it within its pages. It would be the earliest written recipe for it. The 1919 version of the book has a much spicier version than I was used to:

What's Cooking in America tells us also in the running were San Francisco’s Solari’s Restaurant and the Olympic Club in Seattle . James Beard said the best one he ever had was in Portland at The Bohemian Restaurant before WWI. Solari’s recipe was published in Clarence Edword’s 1914 “Bohemian San Francisco and ran like this:

Solari's Crab Louis

Take meat of crab in large pieces and dress with the following: One-third mayonnaise, two-thirds chili sauce, small quantity chopped English chow-chow [spicy vegetable pickles], a little Worcestershire sauce and minced tarragon, shallots and sweet parsley. Season with salt and pepper and keep on ice.

I was going to make the louis with crab but got shrimp at the last minute. It is all about the sauce, after all, which is sort of a thousand island dressing. It is so good when made with Miss Jennie’s silken mayonnaise. Make it the new way or with all that lovely chili sauce. I just couldn't help myself and made the Solari version with crab.... delicious and sweet!

Shrimp Louie adapted from Epicurious

1 cup mayonnaise (store-bought or Jennie's amazing version below!!!)

1/4 cup chili sauce or ¼ cup ketchup + 1T chili powder

1 T lemon juice

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 T grated fresh horseradish, or 1 teaspoon bottled horseradish

Salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 lb jumbo lump crabmeat or cooked, shelled shrimp

1/4 cup thinly sliced scallion

1 small shallot, thinly sliced

Lettuce

Capers

Tomato

Hard-boiled egg

Whisk together mayonnaise, chili sauce and chili pepper. Add the lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, and salt and pepper to taste.

Pick over crabmeat (or shrimp) then toss with dressing. Divide among 4 plates lined with lettuce. Garnish with capers, tomato, hard-boiled egg, scallions and shallots.

Jennie Benedict’s Mayonnaise

Yolk of 1 hard-boiled egg

Salt and pepper to taste

½ cup olive oil

1 t. mustard

yolk of raw egg, well beaten

1 T vinegar

1-2 T lemon juice to taste

white of one egg beaten stiffly

Rub yolk through a sieve. Using a food processor, add mustard salt and pepper and raw yolk. Add the vinegar and then the oil slowly until a thick mayonnaise is formed and then fold in the egg white. Add lemon juice to taste.

Come and visit my article on Blog Critics about bloggers and with a great chocolate cake! Thanks to Lazaro for telling all his readers about it!

Punch Romaine on the Titanic

"Orders had been issued Sunday to make the dinner the finest ever served on a ship, regardless of expense, and the orders were carried out. I believe it was soon after 6:30 when the passengers strolled in. Mr. Ismay sat alone at a table a few feet away from that of Mr. and Mrs. Astor. He was in a corner. The Astor table was to the right and the captain's table was in the center. At Mr. Astor's table Dr. O'Loughlin, the ship's surgeon, was seated … At one time Dr. O'Loughlin stood up, and, raising a glass of champagne, cried, "Let us drink to the mighty Titanic.” So reported Thomas Whitely, asst. steward, Sunday, April 21 1912 from his hospital bed in NYC according to the Encyclopedia Titanica

Titanic

Sends chills, doesn’t it? They ate like locusts (that consume their own weight daily) on the Titanic if the provisions list is any indicator. David Smith says the quantity of provisions on the Titanic were, well, Titanic! There were 75,000 pounds of fresh meat and 11,000 pounds of fish and 40 tons of potatoes. There was a ton of coffee, and enough flour for 60,000 loaves of bread! How about 16,000 lemons, 35,000 fresh eggs and 10,000 pounds of sugar (although with only 1500 bottles of wine… I think they were short in that department!)? All of this for only 3500 passengers and crew for a 5 day trip!

First Class Dining

Did you ever wonder what they ate that last night (completely unaware of a really big iceberg looming ahead with an ocean liner on its dance card and 2 left feet?)? A great book Last Dinner On the Titanic: Menus and Recipes from the Great Liner, by Rich Archbold gives some wonderful details of the ship and menus.

Although I’ve discovered that dishes from the 19^th century are often like another language that needs translation, the 1912 Titanic menu with its 10 courses is pretty recognizable to anyone with a passing knowledge of classic cuisine (I write more about that HERE).

The one thing that caught my eye was Punch Romaine. The wonderful blogger, Hobson’s Choice had mentioned this punch a few months ago and piqued my interest. I was curious that it sat in the middle of the menu as the 6th course. It seems no less than Escoffier worked with this class of punches as alcoholic palate cleansers with citrus, rum and champagne topped with a meringue froth. They are amazingly good and so refreshing. I can see that you might want to have something like this after salmon mousse, Filet Mignon, Lamb, Duck, and Sirloin of beef. You might want a break before the Squab and Pate de Foie Gras!!

There are a million recipes for it. Hobson’s Choice gave a few sources starting with the legendary THE BARTENDER'S GUIDE by Jerry Thomas published in 1862.

I found a wonderful book by William Terrington called Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks
from 1869.

There I hit the Comstock Lode of “Ponche a la Romaine”. So many versions! I got some insight into things like lemon water ice thanks to my old friend Charles Ranhofer’s Epicurean (but had to work to find what the h-ll a syrup gage was—as it turns out, a saccharometer) and made some changes including a larger sparkling wine to lemon water ice ratio (big surprise!), taking my cue from Hobson’s Choice and Jerry Thomas and noting that quite a few recipes said that it was to be drinkable and not spoonable. I thought that the ginger addition was genius and happened to have some of Aftelier’s Ginger essential oil which is absolutely brilliant stuff. I decided to go with the Italian meringue that many recipes used only because it is more stable and being cooked, safer on a hot day than meringue. I also decided to do single servings so things stayed fresh and the meringue didn’t break down in the punch and the drink kept its layers. As for the sparkling wine, I discovered this fabulous wine called Donati Malvasia (that I got from the charming Appellation in NYC after tasting it at Gramercy Tavern). It is dry and made from the ancient malvasia grape used in Madeira. It can stand up to the sweetness of the lemon water ice and meringue. I give you the authentic 1869 recipe below if you want to make it old school—more a melty sorbet than a boozy cocktail.


My friends at 12 Bottle Bar have given a great history of this drink and an alternate recipe.... stop on by to see what they have done.

My recipe based on Brunning’s version of the drink in Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks

You can make this in 15 minutes if you buy lemon sorbet!

Punch a la Romaine (enough to use 2 bottles of champagne easily for 12- 16)

1 recipe for lemon water ice (or, if you are in a hurry, buy a good lemon sorbet and add the rum and ginger to it)

1 recipe for meringue (Italian or plain)

2 bottles Sparkling wine (I recommend Donati Malvasia 2008—otherwise a very dry sparkling wine)

Lemon Water Ice

2 1/2 c sugar (organic is best)

2 cups water

juice of 6 lemons (at least ½ c)

peel of 2 lemons.

¼ to 1/3 c dark rum (or to taste)

6 drops Aftelier ginger essential oil (if you must, you could use a quarter-sized piece of ginger grated with the lemon peel and then strain it out but it wouldn’t be as good)

Make a simple syrup… heat the sugar and water and add lemon and peel (and ginger if you are doing it that way). Let cool for 2 hours, strain and add ginger essential oil and freeze. Add the rum and stir just before serving.

Charles Ranhofer’s The Epicurean, 1894

Italian Meringue

3 egg whites, beaten

2/3 + ¼ c sugar

¼ c water

1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

Bring sugar and water slowly to the boil… stop cooking when it reaches 237º

Beat the egg whites to firm with cream of tartar added at the end. Add this syrup slowly with the mixer running and then beat a few minutes longer till cooled, refrigerate till cold.

Just before serving, add some of the sparkling wine, lemon ice mixture (at a proportion of 1 lemon ice/wine (that is 1 lemon-6 wine) to 3 meringue—enough to give it the texture of soft whipped cream. I would say 3 T meringue is enough per glass

Or

Uncooked Meringue

4 egg whites

½c + 2 T sifted powdered sugar

¼ t. cream of tartar

Whip the whites and add the sifted sugar slowly until a good stiff meringue is formed. Add a little of the wine mixture to flavor it but it will not take as much… less than 1-4.

To Make the Drink

Add a 1 Tb of the lemon ice in the bottom of the glass. Pour sparkling wine over it (around 1/3 c), then top with a dollop of meringue. This way there are 3 layers of flavor.

OR, mix it all together in a punch bowl and serve!

Just for the heck of it… here is some of the first class china on the Titanic, lovely, isn’t it? The glass and plate that I used are of the same vintage, around 1910.

Photos from Marconiograph

Dishes from the Titanic on the ocean floor

Thanks for hosting Foodie Friday Gollum!

And thanks to everyone for doing the Google ad click... less than a month to go!

Come see my article on blog critics about blogging and a great chocolate cake!!!