Celebrate Sir Hans Sloane's 350th Birthday on April 16th

Available now here - more soon


"Welcome to Chelsea Physic Garden

Situated in the heart of London, this 'Secret Garden' is a centre of education, beauty and relaxation. Founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, it continues to research the properties, origins and conservation of over 5000 plant species.

Friends of the Garden have privileged access on weekdays throughout the year and on Sundays and Bank Holidays between April and October.
For the general public, our 2010 Opening times.

To celebrate the 350th Birthday of Sir Hans Sloane, the Garden will be not be charging admission fees on Friday 16th April 2010.
More details about Our Local Hero, Sloane."

Founded by Sir Hans Sloane - The British Museum

Recipe: Nigella's Chocolate Cake

Nigella with daughter Cosima











Recipe

Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake

Makes 8 to 10 slices

Ingredients

225g soft unsalted butter

375g dark muscovado sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100g best dark chocolate, melted

200g plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

250ml boiling water

Use one 23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5; put in a baking sheet in case of sticky drips later, and grease and line the loaf tin. The lining is important as this is a very damp cake: use parchment, Bake-O-Glide or loaf-tin shaped paper case.

2. Cream the butter and sugar, either with a wooden spoon or with an electric hand-held mixer, then add the eggs and vanilla, taking care to blend well but being careful not to overbeat. Nigella says: "You want the ingredients combined: you don't want a light airy mass."

3. Gently add the flour, to which you have added the bicarb, alternately spoon by spoon, with the boiling water until you have a smooth and fairly liquid batter.

4. Pour into the lined loaf tin, and bake for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 170C/gas mark 3, and continue to cook for another 15 minutes. Nigella says: "The cake will still be a bit squidgy inside, so an inserted cake-tester or skewer won't come out completely clean." Charles says: "Unlike King Alfred, keep an eye on the top of the cake, to avoid burning."

5. Place the loaf tin on a rack, and leave to go completely cold before turning it out. Nigella says: "I often leave it for a day or so: like gingerbread, it improves."

Nigella's serving suggestions: Eat with ice cream; or with a bowl of straw-berries and a jug of white-coloured rum custard; or cold cream cheese.

Visit Nigella's site here

Love Chocolate? Thank a Sloane.

Love Chocolate? Thank a Sloane.

A friend gave me this poster on Valentine's Day. I asked her to make it into products for this site. She graciously agreed, and soon there will be an assortment of posters, mugs, shirts, cards and more for us and our chocolate-loving friends. The prototypes are here
and here

"It was (Hans Sloane's) visit to Jamaica that proved to be foundation of his wealth and success. During his time in Jamaican he had participated in a wreck-raising adventure in Jamaica and it was there that he met Elizabeth Langley, the widow of a wealthy Jamaican planter Fulk Rose, whom he later married in 1695; both of which proved to be a useful source of funds. It was however by means of another oportunity that Hans really made his money.

Whilst he was in Jamaica Hans Sloane had observed that "Chocolate is here us'd by all Peoples, at all times". However the natives in the West Indies drank chocolate mixed with honey and pepper, a concoction quite unpalatable as far as Europeans were concerned; Hans himself recorded that he "found it in great quantities nauseous" whilst also noting that it "colours the Excrements of those feeding on it a dirty colour". Hans's great innovation was to find a way of making chocolate palatable for European tastes, which was simply to mix it with hot milk. Back in England he began the commercial production of 'Sir Hans Sloane's Milk Chocolate' which was marketed as a medicine noted 'For its Lightness on the Stomach and its great Use in all Consumptive Cases'.
Chocolate soon joined coffee as one of the fashionable drinks of the age and made Hans yet another fortune.
His basic recipe for milk chocolate survived long after his death. It was the same recipe used by John Cadbury when he began selling chocolate in 1824, and thus Cadbury's Dairy Milk is a direct descendant of Hans Sloane's original confection."
From Sir Hans Sloane