I enjoyed a slice of my Bishop’s cake with a glass of milk, how will you enjoy yours?

Today is a special day, and I’ve made a special cake to celebrate. It’s the launch day of a new book by my author friend, Lorinda J Taylor – The Man Who Found Birds Among the Stars, Part One: Eagle Ascendant: A Biographical Fiction. There’s a launch event on Facebook today (8am-4pm Mountain Standard Time, 11am to 6pm Eastern Time zone, 3pm to 11pm UK time), so do join in the fun there later to read excerpts, play some caption games, and win free books!

https://www.facebook.com/events/381790522213347/

To celebrate this launch, I’ve made one of Lorinda’s favourite cakes; Bishop’s cake, using the recipe that Lorinda used to use herself. I have to say, this is definitely now one of my favourite cakes too, it’s crammed full of yummy stuff. I’ll come to the recipe in a minute, but first let’s take a little look at the book.

Robbin Haysus Nikalishin was born on 31 October of the year 2729 and ultimately became the first starship Captain to make contact with extraterrestrials. This fictionalized biography, composed 50 years after Nikalishin’s death, recounts the first 31 years of the life of a man who is hailed as one of Earth’s greatest heroes. During this portion of his life he enjoyed many triumphs, joys, and loves, but he was not immune to failure and tragedy. In 2761 a major space disaster completely changes the course of his life. Whether it will be for better or worse is left for the reader to decide. All heroes are human beings and all human beings are flawed, and the man the Earth came to know as “Capt. Robbie” was a very human man.

Buying links:

Amazon (US): http://amzn.to/2iTNuUd
Amazon (UK): http://amzn.to/2ie0X9N
Amazon.ca: http://amzn.to/2jfdvKo
Smashwords: http://bit.ly/2j2rGDf

This book is extra special because Lorinda dedicated it to my other half, Neil Aplin…

How sweet is that? He was thrilled to bits, he’s never had a book dedicated to him before.

Anyway, now for the recipe.

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 3 large eggs, well beaten
• 1 cup sugar (Lorinda specified granulated sugar, but in the UK granulated sugar crystals are a bit too big for baking, so I used caster sugar)
• ½ cup melted butter (this wasn’t in Lorinda’s recipe, but I couldn’t resist adding a little fat, sorry Lorinda!)
• ⅔ cup semi-sweet/dark chocolate chips
• 2 cups chopped walnuts (I bought halves and chopped them myself as I think they taste fresher that way)
• 1 cup candied/glace cherries, left whole
• 1 cup chopped dates (I bought whole and chopped them myself; the ready-chopped can be a bit dry)
• 1 ½ cups sifted all-purpose/plain flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Extra walnut halves and candied/glace cherries for decorating

WHAT YOU DO:

1. Preheat oven to 325F/160C.
2. Line a pan with wax/baking paper. Lorinda recommends a loaf pan, but I used a square pan instead (for a boring reason that I won’t explain). The square pan I have is larger than a standard loaf pan, so the cake isn’t as deep as it would be in a loaf pan, which you can probably tell from my picture at the top. Your choice!
3. Beat the eggs, sugar, and melted butter well together.
4. Add in the chocolate, chopped walnuts, cherries, and chopped dates. Mix well
5. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over it and mix well in.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, decorate with walnut halves and cherries.
7. Bake until firm. Lorinda said 1½ hours, which it probably is in a loaf pan, but in my larger square pan, it only took just over an hour as it’s shallower, so do check it after an hour.
8. Remove from pan, peel paper off, and leave to cool completely on a rack.

This cake really is soooooo good, I definitely recommend trying it.

Remember to join us later at Lorinda’s Facebook launch event!