The best chocolate cake ever!

My son’s Godmother Kate named this cake for me after I made it for her one day to celebrate something (I honestly can’t remember what it was… a birthday perhaps?). She said it was possibly the moistest and most delicious chocolate cake she had ever tried – and everyone else seemed to agree with her! So, without further a due,  here is how to make the best chocolate cake ever!

You will need:

• 50g top quality cocoa powder
• 100g soft brown sugar
• 250ml boiling water
• 125g softened butter, plus a little bit for greasing your tin
• 150g caster sugar
• 225g plain flour
• 1/2tsp baking powder (which you can make by using 2 parts cream of tartar to 1 part bicarbonate of soda if you don’t have any in the cupboard)
• 1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

For the frosting:

• 125ml water
• 30g soft brown sugar
• 175g butter, chopped into cubes
• 300g top quality dark chocolate, chopped up

2 x 20cm sandwich tins

Preheat your oven to GM4/180C and line the bottom of both of the greased sandwich tins. Put the cocoa powder, 100g soft brown sugar and the boiling water into a bowl, stir and set aside. Cream the butter and the caster sugar in a separate bowl until white and fluffy – I always use my kitchen aid for this because I am lazy but its perfectly doable with a whisk!

While the butter and sugar is mixing (or after its mixed if you are doing it by hand) add the bicarbonate of soda and the baking powder to the flour. You are supposed to sift it, it will make the cake lighter –  although I have to confess this is something I never do and have never done, I lack the patience, not to mention the time, but if you want to be thorough, sift the flour and powders together.

Add the vanilla extract to the creamed butter and sugar along with a tablespoon of flour and 1 egg. The flour will stop the mixture from splitting, its something that my Mum passed onto me when I was little and it has always worked!

Add the other egg and another tablespoon of flour, mixing until smooth. Add the rest of the flour to the mixture, and finally pour in the dissolved chocolate mixture. Don’t forget to use a spatula to scrap all of the mixture out of the bowl – it will be worth it!!

This will leave you with a runny batter, which you need to divide between your two greased and parchment lined tins. Pop them in the over for 35 minutes, then check to see if they are cooked. To check you you will need to insert a clean skewer into the centre of each cake, if its cooked the skewer will come out clean, if it doesn’t cook again for another 5 minutes.

Take the tins out of the oven and leave the cakes to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning them out. Leave to cool completely before you put the frosting on.

For the frosting:

You could ideally do this while the cakes are in the oven, its what I do once I’ve cleaned up and if Roo is helping me cook, it keeps the ball rolling for him and holds his interest instead of having a 30 minute gap – which we all know leads to wondering off to find out what other fun can be had!!

Add the water, sugar and butter to a saucepan, bring to bubbling point then add the chopped up chocolate. The original recipe calls for you to swirl the pan as you aren’t supposed to stir melted sugar and butter, but as with the sifting of the flour – I don’t follow the rules, I do stir the mixture, always with a wooden spoon as a metal one absorbs the heat of the mixture and can change the taste (or so my mother tells me…)

The frosting will be a totally useless runny mixture until it has had chance to thicken up, but once it thickens up (after about an hour of cooling) it will be perfect. Spread it across the middle of one cake then sandwich together and spread the remaining mixture around the top and sides of the cake.

Bon appétit!

Harriet x

P.s – Do you have a favourite cake recipe – please share, I’d love to know 🙂