Every baker worth their salt has got a great chocolate cake recipe that everyone loves… Here’s my one. – Simply called “Easy Chocolate Cake”, it is, as the title suggests delightfully easy to make and it always turns out well. I would even go so far as to say that this is a recipe that’s near impossible to cock up. Perfect for making with small children or for beginner bakers.
To attest to the fact of how easy it is to make I should tell you about the time I made it with my Nana. First off, It was supposed to go into the base of a dessert so it wasn’t exceptionally important, but anyway, I accidently put in 1 1/3 cups of water instead of 2/3 of a cup; after I realised that the cake was far too runny and that I’d made a mistake; and also after being shouted at by my Nana we still put it in the oven. After about an hour and a half it was cooked. Rather nicely actually. It was just a little paler than normal. I wouldn’t really say it was a success but I certainly wouldn’t call it a failure.
My Nana was still angry at me afterwards though.
I should say that I still can’t be entirely sure of how well it tasted as I never got to try it. My Nana refused to let me have even a tiny bite, even though it was going to be squished up into a dessert and even though I was burning with curiosity. She said that if I was so interested in its taste then I should make it again that way myself… I have still yet to try it out. I also still disagree with her about not letting me try it too. It wasn’t like it was going to be sold at a fete or something. After expressing that to my Nana, more shouting followed.
If you’re a keen experimenter in the kitchen then why don’t you try adding more water and tell me how it went. I would be very interested to hear the results. If you’re not though then I strongly advise you to read a recipe more than once.
Anyway – This cake is chocolatey, rich, moist, yummy and light, and is most importantly near impossible to cock up! Why don’t you try it out at your next birthday party, coffee group meeting or neighbourhood watch evening. I’m sure that everyone will enjoy it.

Notes -

I have also included my recipe for butter icing below but any icing would work well with this recipe.
For decoration I simply advise stirring up the icing into swirls with a fork which always looks attractive. You could also get some of those little flowers you find in baking shops. They’d look very cute on top. Or just make it your own.

But definitely give it a go. You won’t be dissapointed.

Credit – Thank you Aunty Tracy for the great recipe,

 

Recipe – Easy Cocolate Cake – Serves 8-10 people

Ingredients -
1 1/3 cups of plain flour
1 1/2 tsps of baking powder
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
125g of butter
1 tsp of vanilla essence
1 1/4 cups of caster sugar
2 eggs, pref. free-range and at room temp.
2/3 of a cup of water

Method -
Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and line a cake tin and sift the flour and cocoa into a large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Beat on low speed with an electric mixer until ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium and continue to beat for a further 3 mins or until the mixture is smooth and paler. Pour the mix into your cake tin and shake it a little so everything is evenly dispersed. Bake in oven for about 15 mins, check it, cover the top with a sheet of baking paper and continue to check on it with a skewer every 3-5 mins until an inserted skewer comes out clean and light prod causes it to spring back lightly. Leave to stand in tin for 10 mins then turn onto a wire rack to cool.

Use below icing to decorate when stone cold and serve.

Chocolate Butter Icing -
This icing recipe is a rough guide and will require you to play around with it a bit to make it perfect. Feel free to use your own recipe if you’d prefer and don’t feel afraid to use the optional kahlua to spike it.

Ingredients -
6 or 7 heaped dessert spoons of sifted icing sugar
2 heaped dessert spoons of sifted cocoa
Large knob of softened butter
dribble of vanilla essence or to taste (this should not be necessary if using kahlua)
Kahlua to flavour and loosen (optional), or a bit of water

Method -
Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and slowly mix with an electric mixer. When combined continue to beat until very smooth and a little paler. Taste. Add more cocoa or sugar or kahlua or butter and mix again. Continue to taste until it’s good and if you haven’t enough for the cake then make more.

Filed under: Baking/Dessert, My posts Tagged: about sean's food, Chocolate, Easy Chocolate Cake, food blog, Giraffes, NZ, Sean Hampson-Tindale, teenage food blogger

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