Happy Birthday Algie!

It's hubby's birthday today, so I thought I would attempt to make him a cake.

I've been meaning to try out some recipes from the 'Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache' book by Harry Eastwood .. and this seemed like the perfect time.

The concept behind the recipes in this book is that eating cake shouldn't make you feel guilty or regretful, they can be natural and healthy and still delicious.

I didn't write this book because I'm obsessed with healthy food. I wrote it because I adore cake.

So Harry uses grated vegetables in a lot of her cakes to replace butter, ground almonds to provide good crumb and less sugar than would ordinarily be called for. There is butter in the icing of some of the cakes ....

Butter is king of the castle in the flavour department, and many delicious icings in this book are made from it. I'm all for butter when you can taste it.

Anyhow, the front cover cake looked perfect for my chocaholic husband so this was the one I chose. It calls for 200g of grated Butternut Squash, and by the time I had finished grating it (by hand .. it seemed more virtuous and organic that way) I had it everywhere ... up the walls, on the cupboards and in my hair and ears.! I must admit to feeling a bit dubious that this mixture was ever going to turn into a luscious chocolate cake but thankfully I was wrong.

I didn't go mad and opt for the bunch of rosebuds to decorate the top, but I did sugar some rose petals.

It's fantastically light and extremely squidgy, which is exactly how a good chocolate cake should be and you're probably getting one of your five a day with every slice .. perfect.

The 'Red Heartache' cake has beetroot in it, I can't wait to try that.