Mum’s Chocolate Cake

Claire Macdonald recipe that mum uses. This recipe exactly fills my bill for everything that a chocolate cake should be. It is very gooey, and very chocolatey. It keeps extremely well, and it is a most adaptable cake, because you can juggle around with the ingredients. If you would prefer an even stickier and rather fudgy cake, use dark soft brown sugar or, better still, muscovado sugar instead of caster sugar; and if you would prefer a less gooey and slightly less rich cake, use less drinking chocolate powder and more flour. It has the advantage of being very quick and easy to make, using only one bowl.

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Cream the butter and sugar well together, until they are light and fluffy.

Step 2

Add the eggs, one by one, beating really thoroughly in between.

Step 3

Sieve the flour and drinking chocolate together and add to the butter, sugar and egg mixture, and stir in a few drops of vanilla essence. The mixture will be fairly runny.

Step 4

Grease and flour 2 sandwich cake tins, about 8-g in (20-23 cm) in diameter, and divide the mixture between them.

Step 5

Bake in a moderate oven, 350°F (180°C) Gas Mark 4 (bottom right-hand oven in a 4-door Aga) for about 30 minutes, or until a skewer pushed into a cake comes out clean. Take out of the oven, and leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then turn onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Step 6

Beat together the butter and icing sugar until pale and flavour with a few drops of vanilla essence.

Step 7

Put the butter, granulated or caster sugar and 6 tablespoons water in a small saucepan.

Step 8

Heat gently until the butter is melted and the sugar dissolved, then boil for 5 minutes.

Step 9

Sieve the icing sugar and cocoa powder together, pour on some of the liquid from the saucepan, and beat the icing really well, adding more liquid as you need it.

Step 10

As it cools, it becomes glossy. When it coats the back of the wooden spoon without running off, coat the cake with icing.