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Welcome to Intermezzo from Interlochen Public Radio, where we take a few minutes to bounce some ideas around about classical music.
With some beloved librarians from the Traverse Area District Library, host Christy L'Esperance will be exploring music from classic Roald Dahl books: "James and the Giant Peach," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "The Big Friendly Giant," and "Matilda." Since this is a month of tasty treats, we'll talk about the food featured in those books and include a recipe here on the website!
"Matilda," which Roald Dahl wrote in 1988, was made into a film in 1996. A musical was written in 2010 with music composed by Tim Minchin. In 2022, we were treated to a film version of the musical. Today, we're listening to music by Tim Minchin from both the original Broadway musical soundtrack and the original film musical soundtrack.
Matilda's family is always watching TV (except for Matilda, who's always reading books), so there's a scene with the Wormwoods eating TV dinners with pineapple. Miss Honey shares toast and margarine with tea with Matilda, and Matilda makes pancakes for her. But the most famous — or infamous food scene involves the chocolate cake that Bruce Bogtrotter is forced to eat in front of the whole school. Here's part of that scene performed by the Broadway cast.
Tim Minchin - "Bruce"
Tim Minchin - "Matilda"
Bruce Bogtrotter’s School Assembly Chocolate Cake
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Chill Time: 1 hour and 30minutes
Total Time: 2 hours and 30 minutes
Ingredients
2 ½ cups Flour
1 ¾ cups Granulated sugar
2 teaspoon Baking powder
1 teaspoon Baking soda
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
½ cup Cocoa powder
⅔ cup Vegetable oil
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
3 Eggs
⅔ cup Buttermilk
1 cup Coffee hot
Chocolate fudge frosting
11.11 oz Butter unsalted
14.1 oz Dark chocolate about 60%-70%
⅓ cup Cocoa powder
1 ⅓ cups Heavy cream
1 ⅓ cups Powdered sugar
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prep two 8-inch baking pans with parchment paper.
Into a large mixing bowl, add the flour, granulated sugar, kosher salt, baking powder, and baking soda, sift the cocoa powder, and mix with a whisk.
Add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and eggs, and mix until almost combined.
Add the hot coffee and mix until just combined and there are no lumps of flour visible. The batter should be pretty runny and smooth.
Divide the mixture into two 8-inch baking pans, we suggest using cake strips for even baking. (weight the batter for better results) and bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (You can also use a 9 inch cake pan.)
Let the cake cool completely before frosting so the frosting won't melt off the cake.
Start making the chocolate fudge frosting. Into a saucepan, add the butter, heavy cream, and dark chocolate, and sift the cocoa powder and powdered sugar, and kosher salt.
Heat all the ingredients over medium-high heat mixing constantly until the mixture is smooth and melted.
Strain the mixture into a large bowl or baking pan to speed up the cooling process.
Cover the top with plastic wrap so that the plastic wrap is directly touching the top of the frosting. This will prevent skin from forming.
Let it cool at room temperature for 30 minutes, and then transfer it to the fridge to cool for another 1-2 hours. (depending on the thickness you are looking for)
Remove the frosting from the fridge and assemble the chilled cake.
Pipe a small dollop of the frosting on the surface that you will frost on. Lay the first cake layer over the frosting dot.
Top the first cake layer with about ⅓ of the frosting and spread an even layer using a spatula.
Top it with the second cake layer. Frost the cake with the remaining frosting and make a wave pattern using an offset spatula. If it seems like it's too much frosting, feel free to remove some and save it for your next chocolate-y bake.
This week's Mystery Melody
Congratulations to this week's Golden Ears who guessed the Mystery Melody correctly! Listen for the song title revealed at the end of today's podcast episode.
