Death by Chocolate
By Chele Crawley
Chocolate cake is an old reliable when it comes to home baking. It’s Kate’s go-to when she needs to make an ‘extra’ effort. This week’s ‘Death by Chocolate’ creation is in honour of her beloved – Declan. His birthday is today; hers is tomorrow.
Kate heats the oven and begins greasing the base and sides of my well-used cake tin. As Kate beats the sugar, butter, eggs, flour and cocoa powder, she begins to reminisce about how they met almost 10 years previous. There were happy times. His eyes were only for Kate back then.
Still, one must redirect those eyes now and then, and what better way than reminding a man of what a perfect wife he has at home. Kate unscrews the lid of a bottle labelled vanilla extract. She usually drops a half a teaspoon into the mixture but given the day that is in it, she’s in a generous mood and fills the whole teaspoon. She finds delight in watching the off-colour liquid slide off her teaspoon, pooling in the hollow of the ceramic bowl.
Kate pours the mixture into the cake tin, satisfied that none of his others would gift him such a meaningful gift. The oven, now hot, Kate places the tin on the top shelf and leaves to bake for 20 minutes. Just enough time for her to slip on her killer heels and fashion her hair into a bouffant – a beehive fit for a queen bee!
She returns to the kitchen and removes the cake from the oven. She whips out two bowls. One for mashing the icing with butter and the other to melt a handful of squares of cooking chocolate. Kate pops the chocolate squares in the microwave and set for 30 seconds.
Declan’s passport is on his writing bureau. Kate whips up a smooth paste and imagines herself at leisure on a sun lounger, somewhere exotic. He’d promised to take her to Italy but Turin, Westmeath was the closest she’d come!
The ping from the microwave draws Kate back to the present. She removes the bowl, pours in a drop of milk, and sprinkles a dusting of cocoa powder, before adding it to the paste, careful to blend it in – it’s good to be exact. It must hit the spot!
She thoroughly cleans down the counter. Declan has this saying ‘leave no trace’. He was anal about these matters but she too had become fastidious about cleaning up. After the floors are washed and the bin put out for collection in the morning, she returns inside and pats the cake. It’s cool. A smile spreads across her face. She can smear the icing over it. She plans to lay it on thick!
Kate affixes the cake on her favourite stand – she’d bought it for herself last year when Declan had forgotten her birthday.
Kate looks upon that cake with pride. An airy, light sponge, rich buttercream filling and a mouth-watering chocolate delight – amuse bouche if you will.
Her best yet.
Kate hears the key in the door. She whips off the apron and puts on a gargantuan smile. ‘Happy Birthday,’ she announces, as Declan breezes in through the kitchen door. She gesticulates towards the cake. Her lips curl as Declan cuts into her gift. ‘Death by Chocolate’. An everlasting delight. Could there be a better way to go? Something tells Kate that she’ll have quite the birthday gift for herself tomorrow.
Chele Crawley is a member of Inklings Writing Group, who meet on Tuesdays at 11am in the Annebrook House Hotel.