Three Useful Secrets - Holiday Edition

Three ways to soothe the end of the year: chocolate, a body scan, and music

For this end-of-year edition of the 3 Useful Secrets, I have decided to share some comforting things with you, things that may provide some comfort and pleasure.

But before I get to the three secrets I want to share with you, I want to bring your attention to a post I did at the end of last year, which contains simple steps for doing an end-of-year review and creating a vision for the year to come. This is a simple self-paced exercise that you can do over the holidays or early in the new year.

I hope you’ll find this useful:

And now for the three secrets for this holiday season.

Secret 1: My favourite chocolate cake

If you subscribe to my other Substack, Scattered Crumbs and Tangled Tales, you will know that I am a foodie, that I love reading and writing about food, and that I also love to cook and eat. I am also a member of the Substack community called Mastermind for Food Writers, where I host a free monthly Zoom meeting for the members who are based in Europe, Africa and Asia–Pacific time zones. The lovely Rebecca Blackwell, who is the mastermind behind the Mastermind group, hosts the US time-zone meetings and writes beautifully at Let’s Get Lost Substack.

And so, for the first secret this month, I want to share my favourite chocolate cake recipe from my favourite food writer, Diana Henry. This recipe comes from her book How to Eat a Peach (which is an absolutely delightful book), and I’ve been making this cake since 2020 when I first purchased the book. During the first months of the pandemic, while I was stuck in Slovenia, I made this cake regularly and then had friends come to collect their share in a socially distanced manner.

This is what the cake looks like in Diana Henry’s book. When I make it, the cake often collapses after rising to the height in this photo, but it nevertheless tastes amazing. I am sharing Henry’s recipe in its original form with some annotations from my own experience with the cake.

Diana Henry Chocolate olive oil cake (Source: House and Garden Magazine)

Ingredients
200g plain chocolate (70% dark chocolate)
125ml strong-flavoured extra-virgin olive oil (My note: it should be strong-flavoured but not as strong as the pungent olive oil that I bring from my Croatian island holidays)
200g caster sugar
2 tablespoons ground almonds or hazelnuts (My note: I prefer hazelnuts)
5 large eggs, separated

TO SERVE
Icing sugar for dusting, and crème fraîche (My note: in the absence of crème fraîche, I found whipped cream or even vanilla ice cream worked equally well)

Preparation

METHOD
Step 1
Heat the oven to 180°C / fan 160°C, then butter and line the base of a 20cm spring-form cake tin. Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir a little to help the chocolate melt.

Step 2
Once it’s completely melted, whisk in the oil in a steady stream, then add two-thirds of the sugar, whisking to help the sugar dissolve in the heat of the chocolate. Remove from the heat. Stir in the ground nuts, a pinch of flaked sea salt, and the egg yolks (My note: if I remember correctly, eggs at room temperature worked best, not straight from the fridge).

Step 3
Put the egg whites into a scrupulously clean bowl with about one-third of the remaining sugar. Beat with an electric whisk until the whites are no longer clear, then add another third of the sugar. Continue beating until the whites have really increased in volume, then add the rest of the sugar and beat until you have medium peaks (firm with tips that droop slightly). (My note: If, like me, you’re not a professional baker, keep beating the whites — and don’t get stressed if they don’t firm up as quickly as someone as impatient as I am would want them to.)

Step 4
Using a really large metal spoon, loosen the chocolate mixture by folding in a big tablespoon of the egg whites, then fold in the rest carefully so that you don’t lose air. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes. Test by inserting a fine skewer into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, with no batter attached, the cake is ready. (My note: I have not really figured out whether the metal spoon makes a difference; a couple of times I feel like I had better results with a wooden spoon.)

Step 5
Leave it to cool in the tin — it will deflate and crack a lot, but that is fine (as she says, it will deflate/collapse, but it will still be absolutely delicious). Carefully turn it out and remove the paper. Put it on a plate and dust with icing sugar before serving. This is a chic, grown-up cake — it needs nothing more than some crème fraîche on the side.

Here are a couple of photos of my version of the cake, as I took it out of the oven.

One of my 2020 attempts (Photo: Liza Debevec)

I believe this was my best attempt in 2020 (Photo: Liza Debevec)

---

Secret 2: A Body Scan for Hard Days

During the holidays, times may be stressful, so I find that taking a ten-minute break from family and friends and checking in with ourselves/our bodies can be a great thing. Body scans are a great mindfulness exercise for anyone, but especially those who are averse to classic forms of meditation. So I am sharing a link to one of my favourite body scans available out there. It is from the On Being podcast with Krista Tippett. Krista’s guest, Christine Runyan, offered a Compassionate Body Scan that was not only super relaxing and comforting but is also inclusive in that it recognises that our bodies may differ. While I am an able-bodied person, I was utterly moved by these words when I first heard the instructions:

“And finally, I’m going to guide from my body, which I’m very grateful has two arms, two hands, two legs, two feet. I know that is not true of all bodies. So please make those adjustments as works in your body.”

Here is the link to the audio recording — I hope you’ll give it a try. Do let me know in the comments if you’ve enjoyed it.

Secret 3: Music for Quiet Evenings (During Holidays and the Rest of the Year)

Finally, what would the holidays be without some music. I am not someone who likes to put together playlists, so there isn’t one coming. But occasionally I come across a somewhat obscure album that I absolutely love. And this one comes from my across-the-street neighbour, Francisco Sassetti, whom I’ve had the privilege to hear play his compositions both in his lovely home at a couple of Secret Dinners events and also on stage at the Centro Cultural in the Belém neighbourhood of Lisbon. You could listen to this while baking your Diana Henry chocolate cake, during the end-of-year review, or while creating your vision for 2026.

A note for new readers and current free subcribers:
I’m offering an 80% discount for anyone who wants to upgrade to paid until December 31.

One practical detail: Substack charges more through the mobile app, so please upgrade via the website to get the €10 price.
Use the special code:

I hope these three not-so-secret secrets bring you some joy at the end of the year. Wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Also, as a form of requesting outer accountability from my readers, here is an announcement:

I’m taking a short break from Substack over the holidays to step back from screens and focus on rest and writing offline. I’ll be back on January 5th. Wishing you a gentle end of the year.

**********

If you enjoyed this post, please click like, restack, or share it with someone who might appreciate it too. Your reflections and support help more people find this space.

(If you’re commenting, please also do me the favor of hitting the heart button ❤️ for algorithmic purposes. Thank you.)