Agatha Christie: A Cake to die for

In Agatha Chistie's 'A Murder Is Announced' (1950), slightly batty Dora Bunner receives a lavish birthday cake baked by Mitzi, Miss Blacklock’s Eastern European housekeeper and cook, a young refugee from Europe. Nicknamed 'Delicious Death' for its unusual richness, the chocolate cake was especially extravagant in postwar Britain, when ingredients were still rationed, and Miss Blacklock had to spend most of her coupons to be able make it.

Mitzi is delighted. "It will be rich, rich, of a melting richness! And on top I will put the icing – chocolate icing – I make him so nice – and write on it Good Wishes. These English people with their cakes that tastes of sand, never never, will they have tasted such a cake. Delicious, they will say – delicious". Her face clouded again. "Mr. Patrick. He called it Delicious Death. My cake! I will not have my cake called that!"

Mitzi called the cake 'Schwitzebzr' and that could well be her variant of a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest gateau). Tragically, the cake is the Dora Bunner's last supper before she is found poisoned.

In 2010, the 'Delicious Death' cake was recreated to mark the 120th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s birth (1890). Actress Jane Asher loosely based the recipe on ingredients mentioned in the novel: American butter, saved Christmas raisins, chocolate, and a pound of sugar.

The official recipe was created for the first time then, with Asher describing it as featuring “an intense, forbidding dark Belgian chocolate centre” balanced by “the sharp zing of its brandy-soaked cherry and ginger filling.”

Ingredients (for the cake):
- 175 gram dark chocolate drops (50-55% cocoa solids)
- 100 gram softened or spreadable butter
- 100 gram golden caster sugar
- 5 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 100 gram ground almonds
- ½ teaspoon baking powder

Ingredients (for the filling):
- 150 millilitres brandy
- 150 gram raisins
- 55 gram soft dark brown sugar
- 6-8 glace cherries
- 4-6 pieces crystallized ginger
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Ingredients (for the decoration):
- 175 gram dark chocolate drops (50-55% cocoa solids)
- 150 millilitres double cream
- 2 tablespoons apricot jam

Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to 150ºC (135ºC fan assisted). Grease an 8" deep cake tin and line the bottom with baking parchment or silicone.
- Prepare the filling in a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients and stir over heat until the mixture is bubbling.
- Allow to simmer gently, while stirring, for at least two minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is thickened. Allow to cool.
- In a small heatproof bowl, melt the chocolate drops over simmering water or in a microwave, being careful not to let it overheat. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
- Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until very pale and fluffy. Separate the eggs, setting aside the whites in a large mixing bowl, and, one by one, add four of the yolks to the butter/sugar mix, beating well between each one.
- Add the melted chocolate and fold in carefully, then stir in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, mix together the ground almonds and baking powder, then stir them into the cake mix. Whisk the egg whites until peaked and stiff, then fold gently into the chocolate cake mix.
- Spoon the mix into the prepared cake tin, levelling the top, and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 55-65 minutes, or until firm and well risen. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning it out on to a rack to cool completely.
- Using a serrated knife, slice the cake in half horizontally. Spread the cooled fruit filling onto one half and sandwich the two halves back together.
- To decorate: put the chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl and melt them together over simmering water or in a microwave.
- Spread the cake all over with warmed apricot jam and place on a rack over a baking tray.
- Keep back a couple of tablespoonfuls, pour the icing over the whole cake, making sure it covers the top and the sides completely, scooping up the excess from the tray with a palette knife as necessary. Add any surplus to the kept back icing. Carefully transfer the cake to a 10" cake board or pretty plate.
- Once the reserved icing is firm enough to pipe, place it in a piping bag with no. 8 star nozzle and pipe a scrolling line around the top and bottom edges of the cake. Leave for two-three hours to set.

[Remark: I removed the crystallized violet petals, crystallized rose petals, and gold leaf from the recipe. These were certainly not in the original cake]

Source.