Athens is the city where Socrates was put to death by the citizens for teaching,  something he’d been doing all his life. The Athens of Socrates’ time has always been the place where democracy and the freedom of speech were practised, yet Athens put Socrates, its most famous philosopher, to death. It’s doubtful that it was the citizens – they may not have liked what he was teaching, but he’d been doing exactly that there all his life, unhindered. Why would they have waited until he was 70, with not too much time left to live  before executing him?  But then, Plato’s version of the incident confirmed it (see the Apology) …

This discussion does not belong here, save to end it with the noble farewell of Socrates to his judges, because it was such an insane action – he says: “I go to die and you to live, but which of us goes to the better lot is known to none but God.”  I will never understand why the old man didn’t defend himself! In modern times, Athens became the official capital of Greece only in 1834 after centuries of Turkish domination – they  became part of the Ottoman empire in 1453.

• 350 g cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 350 g sugar
• 200 g unsalted butter
• 250 g unsweetened cocoa
• 1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 50 ml milk
• 6 large eggs
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out

• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp milk
• 3 tbsp cognac
• 200 g dark chocolate ganache made from Lindt (7o% cocoa solids)
• 3 tbsp butter
• 350 g icing sugar

• Pre heat oven to 175 C and prepare cake tins for baking.
• Everything in this recipe can be put in a cake mixer and whisked together at once.
• Pour into the cake tins and bake for about an hour (depending on your oven).
• If you have no cake mixer, simply do it the normal way which, in essence, consists of  sugar and  butter whisked till light and creamy, then vanilla paste, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa sieved in and mixed well.
• Add the milk and the eggs (one at a time) and finally the flour and baking powder a little at a time.

Filling and covering

• When the ganache comes out of the refrigerator it’s usually stiff.
• Melt it in a glass fireproof dish in a simmering pan of water until melted.
• Remove from stove but keep in the warm pan.
• In a separate bowl, beat together the egg yolks, the cognac, the butter and the milk and then add this mixture to the molten chocolate.
• Lastly add the sifted icing sugar, little by little and whisk until very smooth.
• Remove from the stove and set aside.
• When the cake is ready, take it out and set aside to cool down.
• Cut the cake horizontally into three equal parts.
• You could also cut it into two, spread cream in the middle and cover with chocolate on top, allowing it to drip down.
• Fill the cake by spreading chocolate filling on the one half and whipped cream on the other half and assembling the two.
• Cover the cake with the rest of the chocolate filling and decorate with chocolate shavings or fruit.