FAMILY · LONDON

Doreen, a birthday cake and the London Blackout.

In Kris’s family it was never called “London Blackout”. It was simply the birthday cake. The recipe came from Doreen, his paternal grandmother: fiercely energetic, central to his childhood and to many summers in England.

London Blackout and Doreen’s family story at The Gay Baker

THE STORY

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The recipe that kept travelling

The structure of the cake has barely changed. The chocolate has. In Lima we use 70% Quillabamba chocolate for the depth and cocoa character it brings to a recipe that at home was made with the British chocolate available at the time. Doreen did add rum — because Doreen thought rum was usually a good answer — but the London Blackout we sell today contains no rum.

Kris as a child with Doreen, his paternal grandmother, in England — Kris with Doreen, his paternal grandmother, in England — a family story from long before The Gay Baker existed.

Why “London Blackout”?

Doreen lived in London during the Second World War. In the story she told Kris herself, a doodlebug (a bomb) landed beside the house and her bedroom ceiling collapsed on her. Her father opened the door, asked whether she was alive and, when she said yes, replied: “Good. Make tea.” That family memory — London, blackout and an absurdly British response to a very serious moment — eventually gave our cake its name.

A family recipe, made here

We are not trying to turn a family recipe into a museum piece. We still make it because it is a bloody good cake: dark, moist, intense and made with a Peruvian chocolate we are particularly proud of.

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See the whole London Blackout