From My Kitchen

There’s chocolate cakes, and then there’s chocolate cakes, and then there’s THIS chocolate cake. It’s really chocolatey, and that makes it a winner in my book. My daughter requested a chocolate cake for her 14th birthday, so this is what I made and she was very happy indeed. Oh and I’ve just had a piece with a cup of coffee for second breakfast while I write this post, and can confirm its excellent eaten that way too. Serves 12 easily.

Ingredients

Cake:

250g unsalted butter / stork

250g light muscovado sugar

1/2 tsp free flowing salt

100g cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate)

250g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

3 large eggs

50g dark chocolate, melted and cooled a little

50g dark chocolate cut into small chunks

250ml milk

Icing:

150g soft unsalted butter

300g icing sugar

50g dark chocolate melted and cooled a little

Pinch of salt

50g drinking chocolate (not cocoa)

2 tbsp milk

Decorations:

Whatever you feel like. I used 5 crushed oreo cookies and heaps of giant chocolate buttons.

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C, grease and line the bottom of 2 x 20cm springform tins.
2. Using an electric hand mixer, freestanding mixer, or wooden spoon if you’re feeling super strong, beat together the butter and sugar until really light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding in a teaspoonful of the weighed flour with each egg so that the mix doesn’t curdle.
4. Mix together the remaining flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder.
5. Gently fold in half of the dry ingredients until well combined.
6. Then stir in the melted chocolate, followed by the remaining dry ingredients, followed by enough of the milk to enable the batter to fall off a spoon when given a tap.
7. Finally fold in the chocolate chunks, divide the mix between the prepared tins and bake for 23-25 minutes until the centre feels firm.
8. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tins on a wire rack, before carefully removing from the tins and peeling off the lining paper and allowing to cool completely.
9. Make the icing by beating the butter until very soft, then gently mixing in the icing sugar and drinking chocolate until it starts to combine, then use an electric hand whisk or freestanding mixer to really give it a good thrashing.
10. Mix in the melted chocolate, and do not worry that it appears to make the icing mottled – that’s just the chocolate cooling in the icing and forming delightful little chocolate lumps.
11. Put one of the cakes on your serving plate, and smooth over around 1/3 of the icing, allowing it to be thicker at the edges.
12. Load up the second cake, dollop on the remaining icing, and gently ease it down the sides and all over the cake.
13. Sprinkle over the crushed oreos / push on the chocolate buttons, or decorate in any way that you feel like. Chocolate finger biscuits standing to attention around the outside would work well. Or cover the whole thing in malteasers. You can never have too much chocolate on a cake like this!
14. Perfect for birthdays, also excellent for second breakfast with a cup of coffee.