How to make friends - at a party

1. Offer to make the birthday cake
2. Choose a killer recipe
   
3. Make sure there is no competition (let the hosts know that they needn't bother making any other sweets- you will make enough to go round)
   

I suggest you try this one. I got the recipe from a California Cookbook years ago, but don't have the publishing details. I made it for a friend's birthday (yes, 60 - the new frontier!) and I am only exaggerating a little when I say people were almost fighting over a piece of it at the end.
Making it proved a drama from the start as I needed to double the recipe. Big quantities. That is nearly one and a half kilos of chocolate, 16 eggs, and 6 cups of icing sugar, not to mention the butter! Ooh! Let's not count calories! I also needed to drive miles to borrow a cake pan large enough from my sister, only to realise my oven wasn't big enough when the time came to put it in. And what happened to my lovely big cake at the birthday venue? The serving staff decided to cut it up before bringing it out to sing Happy Birthday. Hence, the grid. The birthday boy (man) called it an artwork. A curator said it looked like an Imants Tillers (one of my favourite Australian artists). That did console me. Anyway, I suggest you try this recipe. Trust me. It is worth it.
It is called:
SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE CAKE





 

24 ounces (680 gr.) semisweet chocolate, in small pieces
1 cup (226 gr.) unsalted butter
8 large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
1/2 cup potato flour24 ounces (680 gr.) semisweet chocolate, in small pieces
1 cup (226 gr.) unsalted butter
8 large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
1/2 cup potato flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (160-180 C).  Line an 8 inch (20 cm) spring form pan with baking paper. (I like to use a wider pan or a rectangular pan at times).
Melt the chocolate and butter in the top of a covered double boiler over simmering water and cool. In a large bowl, beat eggs until pale and thick.
Fold in the cooled chocolate, and then the sugar. Then sift and fold in the potato flour. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 25 minutes. It will seem soft in the middle and cracked and fallen in on itself.
Covered and held at room temperature, it will keep for one week.
Serve small slices with double cream. It is very rich. Strawberries add a nice touch.