Now I'm not professing this to be the best chocolate cake recipe. To make a really good, moist cake it is always better to use fresh chocolate. But this is an excellent fallback recipe which uses cocoa powder, so you can whip it up if you don't always keep chocolate in the house (or if it doesn't hang around long..) It also bakes quickly so is great to make with kids, who are not the most patient of cooks!
This will make enough to fill two thin 20cm cake tins, or one deep tin if that's all you have. Then you can ice the two sponges together, or ice the top of one large cake as above. 175g of soft (room temp.) unsalted butter
3 large eggs 150g self-raising flour
175g Castor sugar
30g of cocoa powder
1 teaspn of vanilla essence
2 tablespoons of milk
Pre-heat oven to 180°C/Gas 4.
Put all the butter into a good-sized mixing bowl and, using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer, beat until creamy. Add the sugar, beating all the time until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Break the eggs into another bowl or jug, add the vanilla essence, and beat together with a fork. Pour this mixture a bit at a time into the bowl containing the butter and sugar mixture.
Sift the flour and cocoa powder over the butter, sugar and egg mixture.
Add the milk. Then gently fold the flour and cocoa mixture into the rest of the mixture, until thoroughly combined. You want to do this in as few movements as possible though, to ensure there is lots of air still in the mixture.
3 large eggs 150g self-raising flour
175g Castor sugar
30g of cocoa powder
1 teaspn of vanilla essence
2 tablespoons of milk
Pre-heat oven to 180°C/Gas 4.
Put all the butter into a good-sized mixing bowl and, using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer, beat until creamy. Add the sugar, beating all the time until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Break the eggs into another bowl or jug, add the vanilla essence, and beat together with a fork. Pour this mixture a bit at a time into the bowl containing the butter and sugar mixture.
Sift the flour and cocoa powder over the butter, sugar and egg mixture.
Add the milk. Then gently fold the flour and cocoa mixture into the rest of the mixture, until thoroughly combined. You want to do this in as few movements as possible though, to ensure there is lots of air still in the mixture.
Pour the mixture into your tin/s and bake for 15-20 minutes.
The cake is done when the sponge springs back when gently pressed in the centre; or is starting to brown on top and has shrunk away from the edges of the tin.
Turn out onto a wire rack and let the cake cool completely before you filling or icing. I made a simple chocolate butter icing using 125g unsalted butter at room temperature; 400g icing sugar, sifted; 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder, sifted and 3-4 tablespoons of milk. Thoroughly mix together before using.
Mmmm looks great. I have a lovely choc fudge cake recipe that is a bit faffy but this looks great to do with the kids! x x
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