27 January

National Chocolate Cake Day

Chocolate Orange Espresso Martini

So we are drinking a...

Chocolate Orange Espresso Martini

We say there's nothing quite like a slice (or two) of rich, decadent chocolate cake to make your day a little sweeter.

Today we pay homage to one of the most beloved desserts of all time: chocolate cake. And let's be real, who doesn't love chocolate cake? It's the perfect combination of rich, chocolatey goodness and light, fluffy sponge cake.

It's hard to believe that chocolate cake has only been in existence for just over 150 years. In 1828, a Dutchman named Coenraad van Houten developed a method to extract the fat from cacao, resulting in cacao butter and the party de-fatted cacao, a compacted mass of solids which could be sold as it was or ground into cocoa powder, a process which transformed chocolate from a precious luxury into an affordable snack. Almost 60 years later, American cooks began to add chocolate to their cake batter and the chocolate cake as we know and love it today was born.

Sachertorte, fudge, lava, red velvet, mud, Black Forest or truffle...whatever your chocolate cake of choice, today is the perfect excuse to indulge in as much chocolate cake as your heart desires. And why not wash down a slice or two with a Chocolate Orange Espresso Martini, or go all out with a Death By Chocolate.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, designated as 27th January each year by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005, remembers and honours the millions of people persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime and other persecuted groups during more recent genocides.

It's a day of collective remembrance, and people are encouraged to light a candle and safely place it in a window at 8 pm and to share on social media using the hashtags #HolocaustMemorialDay and #LightTheDarkness.

Such a sombre day calls for a similarly sombre cocktail, a Fallen Leaves.

Mozart's birthday

If you thought child stars like Lindsay Lohan and Macaulay Culkin had it hard, spare a thought for the infant prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born on this day in 1756.

By the time he was six Mozart was not only composing but performing in front of European royalty on a grand tour of Europe. Slight and hardworking, Mozart drove himself hard through his short life, composing a body of work that spanned operas, concertos, quintets and Requiems before his untimely death aged only 35.

He influenced composers including Beethoven and, after his death, Tchaikovsky and Chopin, and his music is, of course, still adored today.

We are raising a glass to this iconic man with an Opera cocktail combining influences from Jacques Straub's 1914 recipe and Harry Craddock's 1930 recipe.

Today is also Thomas Crapper Day

On this day in 1910, a London plumber and sanitary engineer with the couldn't-make-it-up name of Thomas Crapper passed away, and the interwebz have appointed today to celebrate his legacy: the flush toilet.

Except, unfortunately, Crapper didn't invent the crapper (although he did patent several improvements to it). The first flushing water closet in England appeared during the time of Queen Elizabeth, and the first patent was awarded in 1775, decades before Crapper emerged on the scene.

The myth of Crapper, in fact, comes from a book - Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper - published by one Wallace Reyburn. But Crapper was a real person, and his T. Crapper & Co. manhole covers can still be seen around London.

We are toasting Crappers everywhere - and their surprisingly common surname, which derives from the old English word "cropp", meaning cut - with a Chocolate Sidecar, created by Wayne Collins.

On this day the siege of Leningrad was broken

At last, on this day in 1944, the Soviet Army broke through the German blockade of Leningrad that had endured for an agonising 872 days.

All land communication had been cut off, the city had been subjected to air and artillery bombardment, and hundreds of thousands of Leningrad's population of 2.5 million had died since the beginning of the siege on 1 September 1941.

The harshest winter in decades had added to their suffering which had been eased a little when Lake Ladoga to the North of the city froze, allowing an ice road to bring in supplies. In memory of the heroes who freed the city, and those who endured so much, today we will be drinking a Leninade.

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