For those of you paying attention, it's probably fairly obvious that I'm not exactly on track to complete my 100 recipes in one year. I'm 7 months in, and have less than 50. As I've tried to get back on track after a few setbacks lately, I've convinced myself that, in the autumn, when the kids are back in school and I'm gearing up for holidays, I will cook enough new things to balance it out. But now, it's looking fairly likely that I will spend a good part of that season recovering from more work on my kidney, so I'm being proactive. Being proactive is the way I have decided to spin this so I don't have to admit that I'm cheating. This post includes several recipes, which is already a bit of a cheat, although I've done multi-recipes posts before, and I don't think they were so bad. But also, the photos here are photos taken from the last time I made this cake. I have made it, more than once, from scratch, all that is on the up and up. But I'm not making it today, nor am I likely to in the immediate future. That is where my cheat- awesome proactivity comes into play. Incidentally, way back in March when I made these truffles, someone commented that she wanted to see my favourite truffles, since I pronounced cake batter truffles beneath my standards. Well, dear Just Me, here you go:

Triple Truffle Cake - hells yeah!

There will be three recipes in this post. One for the madeira cake which is made only to be sacrificed as crumbs to the greater good of the truffles, one for the truffles themselves, and then finally, one for the cake, which, while gorgeously rich, is really just a base to display the truffles on. This cake is ALL ABOUT the truffles. (Or maybe that's just me.) As a side note, these recipes are all taken from The Essential Baking Cookbook, which is published in Australia, which is I guess why the measurements are in ounces, not grams.

Recipe 46 of 100: Madeira Cake

Ingredients:
6 ounces of butter, softened
¾ cup of caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons of finely grated lemon (or orange) rind
1¼ cups of self-raising flour, sifted
1 cup of all purpose flour
2 tablespoons of milk

Preheat the oven to 315F and lightly grease a loaf pan and line it with parchment. Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, and add the beaten eggs gradually, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add the rind and beat until well combined. Using a metal spoon, fold in the flours and milk, and stir gently until smooth. Spoon into the loaf pan and smooth the surface. Bake for approximately 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before turning it out to cool on a rack.

That seemed pretty easy, right? So far, so good. And incidentally, you will not need the entire Madeira cake for your truffle recipe, so now you've made a lovely moist buttery cake to snack on while you wait for the pièce de résistance.

Recipe 47 of 100: My Favourite Truffles

Ingredients:

10 ounces of Madeira cake crumbs
2 tablespoons of jam of your choice - I like something luscious and red here - strawberry or raspberry
3 tablespoons of table cream
2 ounces of unsalted butter
10 ounces of milk or dark chocolate (use dark), melted
2 tablespoons of rum (more if you plan to sample the rum to make sure it's good)
5 ounces EACH of good quality white, milk and dark chocolate (do NOT use those cheap melting disks, you will be disappointed - this recipe ain't cheap anyway, spring for the good stuff)
1 egg white, lightly beaten
24 carat edible gold leaf (in the picture above, I used gold leaf stars, but regular gold leaf would be fine too)

Crumble the cake, and mix together with jam, cream, butter, chocolate and rum, stirring until moistened. Taste - this is already good. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm. Line a tray with parchment, and roll teaspoons of the mixture into balls and place on the tray. Refrigerate for another 15 minutes, or until firm. Tip: if the mixture is softening too much in your hands as you roll the balls, run cold water over your hands after every few truffles - cold hands will keep them from softening as quickly.

Line another tray with parchment and set aside. Melt the white, dark and milk chocolates each separately, using a double boiler or heatproof boil and a saucepan, stirring occasionally. Using a fork, dip the chilled truffles in the different chocolates, tapping gently on the edge of the bowl to drain away the excess. Be careful not to have the chocolate too hot, or the truffles will melt and discolour the chocolate. Place the truffles on the lined tray to set. Once the outer chocolate has set, dab a bit of egg white on the dark chocolate truffles and use tweezers to remove the gold leaf from the sheet and press onto the egg white. If you are making them ahead, the truffles can be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for several days.

Recipe 48 of 100: Cocoa Cake with Dark Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients:

for the cake
6 ounces of butter, softened
1⅓ cups of caster sugar
2½ teaspoons of vanilla
3 eggs
½ cup of self-raising flour
1¾ cups of all purpose flour
1½ teaspoons of baking soda
¾ cup of cocoa powder
9 ounces of buttermilk

for the glaze
8 ounces of dark chocolate, chopped
½ cup of table cream
⅔ cup of sugar

Preheat your oven to 350F, and lightly grease a 9" round cake pan and line the base with parchment. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda and cocoa powder. Using a metal spoon, fold in the combined dry ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk. Stir until just smooth. Spoon the mixture into the cake pan and smooth the surface. Bake for approximately 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.

For the glaze, combine the chocolate, sugar and cream in a saucepan and stir gently over low heat until smooth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the mixture from catching. Remove from heat and stir gently to cool.

Cut the dome off the cake (once cooled) to give the cake a flat surface. Turn the cake upside down on a rack, over a tray (to catch glaze that runs over). Pour the cooled glaze over the cake, letting it run evenly down the side. Leave to set completely.

Place the cake on a serving plate, piling the truffles on top just prior to serving. Use dabs of melted chocolate to stick truffles to the cake or each other, if necessary.