madebyjade

This cake is the 1, 2, 3 of choclate cakes – soft and moist, but I’m missing the intense chocolatey taste here. I guess that is because of the use of cocoa, it still does not allude to that chocolate high. Nevertheless, it still gets the thumbs up-sign! When looking for the ideal but easy birthday cake, last-minute or 35 minute chocolate cake, or if you are new to this nirvana, go for this one! Mmmmm….

For the cake:

400ml cake flour

220ml castor sugar

1 t baking powder

1/2 t bicarbonate of soda

120ml best-quality cocoa you can find

175g unsalted butter, soft

2 large eggs

2 t vanilla extract

150ml sour cream

Take everything out of the fridge, just to let it come to room temperature. Put your oven on 180 degrees Celsius, and grease (with butter or marge or cooking spray) your cake pan – any one you like as long as it is big enough for the mixture. Line it with baking parchment at the bottem. (For a round cake tin, use a square piece, fold it in a triangle in half, then the triangle in half again, and once more. Put the tip in the middle of the pan, and measure it along the edge – the size of the pan. Tear/cut it with a round angle and open the paper, it should be more-or-less round and ready to fit!)

All you have to do is chuck all the ingredients in a food processor and mix! I find it to be a quite thick batter so watch it as it spins for about 30 seconds. You can also do it the other way – here goes – mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, raising agents except the cocao) and then cream in the butter by beating it with a whisk for a bit less than a minute. Whisk in the cocoa, sour cream, vanilla and eggs.

Put this in your cake pan, make shure your oven is hot enough and pop it in for 35 minutes, start checking at 25 though, especially if you are making two smaller layers (you can also swop them around half way into the cooking time if one is under the other one in the oven (to ensure even cooking). Test if the cake is ready by inserting a sharp knife in the middle of the cake – if it comes out clean, not wet with chocolate, it is ready! Take it out…

Leave it alone for 10 minutes, just so that it can cool down before you turn it out, otherwise it will break (tried and tested)! Then turn it out on a wire rack for further cooling (5 minutes). This feels like forever – but now you can ice the cake! Use a can of caramel, mixed around a bit to loosen it up and then spread over nice ‘n thick. Or you can make some
ganache (the chocolate icing of the kings which uses no icing sugar): equal quantities of dark chocolate and cream, in this case use 150g dark chocolate and 150ml cream. Put a deep pan on the heat with a some water in it. Now you need a bowl which does not touch the water, will fit the pan like a lid, so that no steam escapes. Place the chocolate (broken up into small pieces) and the cream in that bowl. Turn the heat down. When the chocolate has melted, about 3-5 minutes, take it off the heat and whisk furiously in the bowl, or you can transfer it not to spill this liquid black gold. It should be glossy and smooth. All you have to do is pour the ganache on the cake in the middle, use every bit of it and let it run over the sides. Transfer to a clean serving plate.

*This cake a made for dessert once, and served it with ice cream. That was cool, but my icing just did not work this time, I added to much cream. It happens!