“”There you are, cook,” the Trunchbull cried. “Bogtrotter likes your cake. He adores your cake. Do you have any more of your cake you could give him?”
“I do indeed,” the cook sayd. She seemed to have learnt her lines by heart.
“Then go and get it. And bring back a knife to cut it with.”
The cook disappeared. Almost at once she was back again staggering under the weight of an enormous round chocolate cake on a china platter. The cake was fully eighteen inches in diameter and it was covered with dark-brown chocolate icing. “Put it on the table,” the Trunchbull said.”
-Matilda, Roald Dahl
The episode of Bruce Bogtrotter and the Cake is a pivotal moment in Matilda the book, and an unforgettable scene in Matilda the movie (1996).
Matilda follows young heroine Matilda, a little girl with telekinetic powers, during her first year at school.
There she does battle with the headmistress, known as the Trunchbull, who torments students with absurd and terrible punishments.
When a boy named Bruce Bogtrotter steals a piece of her special chocolate cake, she forces him to eat an entire cake in front of the whole school.
The Bake:
I chose this All-In-One Chocolate Cake recipe by Nigella Lawson, which was published in the New York Times and is accessible online with a library card.
It’s an all-in-one cake, which means that all the ingredients are mixed together at once rather than separately as wet and dry.
It didn’t require any difficult ingredients and came together just fine with a hand mixer rather than a food processor.
My cake is a little bit smaller than Bruce Bogtrotter’s, and I’ll be eating it over multiple sittings, but it’s still very tasty.
Feel free to bake the recipe linked above or use your own!
Have a secret family recipe? Make that, and don’t tell us the secret!
Want to use a mix? Go right ahead!
Don’t have cake tins? Make cupcakes or mug cakes!
Don’t forget to tag us with #DPPLBakes on Facebook and Instagram!
Baker’s Notes:
This Bake-Along was brought to you by DPPL Baker Lydia.
Did you (like me) misread the quantity of sour cream in the recipe and only buy one cup? Greek yogurt makes a great substitute.
Did you (like me) wait to check the size of your cake pans until after you had gone shopping? If yours are also 9” in diameter, just reduce the baking time slightly.
Instead of just buttering your cake pans, try buttering and sugaring them. It works just like buttering and flouring, but if you use too much sugar it will taste good instead of weird.
We hope you enjoyed this first edition of the Great DPPL Bake-Along. Check back in two weeks for another delicious installment!
