Cake Three: Chocolate Cake (~jinghan)

This week’s cake is the good old dependable chocolate cake. Also, you should consider creaming butter and sugar together by hand as an alternative to working out at the gym.

Recipe from Jules Stranbridge’s novel Sugar and Spice, published in 2009 by Little Black Dress, an imprint of Headline Publishing Group.

Ingredients:

• 175g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 5 heaped tablespoons of best quality cocoa powder
• 175ml milk
• 225g plain flour and 1.5 teaspoons bicarbobate of soda sieved together
• 125g good quality 75 per cent minimum plain chocolate broke into chunks

Method:

Line a 18cm tin and heat oven to 180 Celcius (160 Celcius for fan-forced). Bream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa and half of the milk to create a smooth paste. Add the rest of the milk to form a runny liquid. Stir in half the flour then half cocoa mixture. Repeat. Sprinkle chocolate chunks on to the top of the cake. Bake in the oven for 1.5 hours.

Jinghan Says: in the book the author names this “the best chocolate cake ever” mine did not turn out that mind-bogglingly good. A bit dry and not rich enough, I was going to say… but I just noticed that the ingredients say 5 table spoons of cocoa powder, and I’m starting to think that my sister may have only put in 5 teaspoons… (tisk!) looks like I’ll have to have another go at this one some time in the future.