Professor Butter Beard and “The Boy, the mole, the fox and the Horse”
“I got you a delicious cake,” said the mole.
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“I ate it,” said the mole.
“Oh.”
“But I got you another.”
“Did you? Where is that one?”
“The same thing seems to have happened,” replied the mole.
I have always been drawn to authors who illustrate their own thoughts. Leonardo stands at the front of the line. His exquisite notebooks contain diagrams, drawings, personal notes and observations, providing a unique insight into how he saw the world. Tolkien's artwork was a key element of his creativity from the time when he began to create his world filled with hobbits, dwarves, elves and humans. One of my favorite cookbooks, Jacques Pépin’s “Heart & Soul In The Kitchen,” includes breath-taking examples of his own beautifully illustrated menus. The list goes on: Kurt Vonnegut, Beatrix Potter, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Victor Hugo - all able to share their visions and wisdom in both prose and illustration.
During the past holiday season, a friend gifted me with a first edition of Charlie Mackesy’s “The Boy, the mole, the fox and the Horse.” I offered a polite thank you and smile and set it on my nightstand stacked between Edith Wharton and Richard Russo. Just the other evening, awoken from a terrifying nightmare of spoiled buttermilk, I rolled over, plumped up a pillow and opened the small book. It only took four pages for me to develop a serious crush on a small mole with a fixation on cake.
“I’ve learned how to be in the present,” said the mole. “How?” asked the boy, “I find a quiet spot and shut my eyes and breathe. Then I focus.” The boy asked, “What do you focus on?” “Cake,” said the mole.
The book, in Charlie Mackesy’s words, is a “small graphic novel of images and conversations over a landscape.” Much like A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh,” it follows the journey of the unlikely quartet, set off by a chance meeting of the lonely young boy and the cake-loving mole. The two strike up a blooming friendship as they wander through the wilderness, swapping pieces of insight and encouragement. Midway through their journey, the duo meet a fox caught in a snare. Despite the danger, the mole takes a leap of faith to rescue the fox, before embracing a horse as yet another traveler on their shared vision quest. Moles, foxes and horses. Oh my!
It began on Instagram. Mackesy, a cartoonist for Britain’s “The Spectator,” began posting pen-and-ink drawings about a little boy and his animal friends. One of their earliest appearances, in January 2018, was a simple depiction of the child and a mole sitting together, each wrapped in a blanket, looking into each other’s eyes. “Tales from the underground. Another mole day I think,” read the caption. The response was immediate and loving. The resulting book is a collection of over 100 of Mackesy’s drawings, color and black-and-white, each matched to its corresponding words of wisdom from our curious travelers written in swirling black calligraphy. Navmi Krishna, a reviewer for “The Hindu” writes, “Sketched with his signature thick-nibbed dip pen and ink, the curvy lines and cursive writing lend an air of intimacy, much like a letter from a long-lost friend.”
“What do you want to be when you grow up,” asks the mole. “Kind,” said the boy.
“The Boy, the mole, the fox and the Horse” has sold more than 250,000 copies in the United States. It’s appeared on multiple bestseller lists, was named book of the year by the British book retailer Waterstones and Barnes & Noble and is being translated into 17 languages. Mackesy, as humble as his characters, is pleasantly surprised by this turn of events. “Oddly, I had no agenda with the drawings,” he writes, “they were just a way of saying what I felt about existence and what I thought was important.”
“Do you have a favorite saying,” asked the boy. “Yes,” said the mole. “If at first you don’t succeed, have some cake.” “I see,” said the boy. “Does it work?” “Every time,” replied the mole.
I baked you a cake, Mr. Mole. Two layers of dark chocolate cake are wrapped in a blanket of hazelnut buttercream topped with some toasted hazelnut sprinkles and a boozy cherry as a delicious extra treat. I just know it will encourage you on your journey. And, if you eat this one before sharing it with your friends, don’t worry. I’ll make you another.
“We all need a reason to keep going,” said the Horse. “What’s yours?” “You three,” said the fox. “Getting home,” said the boy.
“Cake,” said the mole.
Mole’s Dark Chocolate Cake with Hazelnut Buttercream
One Two-Layer 8” Cake
Cake layers:
1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened extra dark cocoa – available everywhere now
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp chili powder
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
¼ cup canola oil
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
½ cup steaming hot coffee, unsweetened
Finishing:
4-5 cups Hazelnut Buttercream – recipe is available on my blog site
¼ cup coarsely chopped roasted hazelnuts (for decoration)
Cherries (for decoration)
1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8” cake pans (either butter/flour or use floured cooking spray) and line the bottoms with a round of parchment paper.
2) Sift, or whisk, together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and chili powder in a medium bowl and then set at the ready.
3) In a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar and then add the oil. Mix until you have a light creamy mixture.
4) Add in the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla paste.
5) Alternately add the dry mix and the buttermilk – dry, milk, dry, milk and the remaining dry.
6) With the mixer on low, add the hot coffee and mix until batter is smooth. Divide the batter between the two cake pans and bake 25-30 minutes until a wooden skewer comes out clean and the cakes are just starting to pull away from the pan.
7) Cool the cakes on a wire rack for 15 minutes and then remove them from their pans to cool completely.
8) Frost the cake, between the layers and on top, with the Hazelnut Buttercream. Garnish with buttercream rosettes, the coarsely chopped hazelnuts and cherries.
