Bruce Bogtrotter's Cake

“The cake was fully eighteen inches in diameter and it was covered with dark-brown chocolate icing” (118).

Roald Dahl’s books are filled with enticing yet also disgusting descriptions of weird and fantastical food from Glumptious Globgobblers to Boiled Slobbages. There is even a  Roald Dahl cookery book, Roald Dahl’s Completely Revolting Recipes, which is filled with instructions on how to make the interesting and sometimes disgusting sounding foods from Dahl’s books and actually make them taste yummy! It is a fun cookery book for kids with many simple and straight forward recipes that they can help along with in the kitchen. Much of the food would be perfect for kids’ parties and you could even have a party on the theme of one of Dahl’s books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The book recommends a great menu for a kid’s party on page 112. I decided to make the suggested birthday cake using the recipe for Bruce Bogtrotter’s Cake from Matilda.

Ingredients

• 225g good quality plain chocolate (although I did use milk chocolate, it was cooking chocolate and worked fine!)
• 175g unsalted butter, softened
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 tbsp (60 ml) plain flour
• 6 eggs, separated

 Coating:

• 225g good quality plain chocolate 
• 225g double cream 

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
2. Grease and line the cake tin with greaseproof paper.
3. Melt the chocolate in a pyrex bowl, over saucepan of a simmering water or on a low heat in a microwave.
4. Mix in the butter and stir until melted.
5. Add the flour, sugar and lightly beaten egg yolks.
6. Whisk the egg whites until stiff.
7. Gently fold half of the whites into the chocolate mixture, mixing thoroughly.
8. Then carefully fold in the remaining whites.
9. Cook for approx. 35 minutes. There will be a thin crust on top of the cake, and if tested with a skewer the inside will appear insufficiently cooked but don’t worry as this is the character of the cake and it gets firmer as it cools. This cake is deliciously moist and light.
10. Leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack.
11. When cool enough to handle remove from the cake tin and discard the greaseproof paper.
12. In a pyrex bowl over a saucepan of simmering water melt together the chocolate and cream, stirring occasionally until the chocolate is fully melted and blended with the cream.
13. Allow to cool slightly.
14. The cake is prone to sinking slightly in the middle so place upside down for coating. (My cake definitely sunk in the middle!)
15. With a palette knife spread the chocolate coating all over the cake.
16. Allow to set in a cool place before serving.

Recipe from: Dahl, Felicity, Josie Fison and Ann Newman. Roald Dahl’s Completely Revolting Recipes. London: Jonathan Cape, 2011.

Here’s my results

Why not add some smarties to make it more colourful for a birthday cake and don't forget the candles!

This cake is a mouth-watering piece of party food and I’m sure anyone can see how Bruce Bogtrotter in Matilda cannot resist eating Miss Trunchbull’s private cake from the kitchen which is described as being “rich and delicious,” (116) and made from “real butter and real cream” (115). Miss Trunchbull decides to punish him for stealing her special chocolate cake at an assembly in front of the whole school. She gets her shrivelled looking cook to produce an eighteen inches in diameter version of the cake and gives Bruce the challenge of eating all of the giant cake as punishment for his gluttony. Here food is used as a punishment. Amazingly, Bruce manages to eat all of the cake and triumphs in the “battle between him and the mighty Trunchbull” (124). Thus, using food as a punishment backfires on Trunchbull and only angers her more! Instead Bruce’s triumph over Trunchbull deems him a hero to his fellow students who cheer him on, “Well done Brucie! Good for you, Brucie! You’ve won a gold medal, Brucie!” (125).

From: Dahl, Roald. Matilda. London: Puffin, 2007.

As a recipe for a birthday cake Bruce’s cake can be used for further celebrations but hopefully at parties instead of as a form a punishment used by Headmistresses who put little children in the chokey!!