I Bake For Attention: Dense, Dark Chocolate Cake

Okay. I have a terribly-kept secret: I LOVE CHOCOLATE CAKE.

So it is time for another variation on one of my very favourite things! You know how

Mrs Doyle loves making tea? That’s the level of my feeling for chocolate cake. "Oh, won't you have a slice? You will! You will!" Which is why I’m posting a SECOND variation only a few months after the last one!

This cake is a little more grown up than the last iteration – it is dense and dark and moist and chocolatey and tastes extremely decadent. And it’s all in one bowl, minimal washing up! I made this cake as I was feeling inspired during the classic cakes finale of “Great British Bake Off.” I would bake a chocolate cake all day long for that challenge.

One thing that I wanted to show with this cake is that you CAN safely melt chocolate in the microwave. Sometimes there is just no time to melt over some hot water.

First, you break up the chocolate into a bowl:

Then, stick it in the microwave for 30 seconds:

Stir well, the bottom bits will melt quicker than the top, so mix them all up. Stick in the microwave for another 15 seconds:

Now, this is the point where I STOP microwaving. I think this is where a lot of people go wrong and burn their chocolate.

This is plenty melted enough, just keep stirring it. And pretty soon you will have this:

Don't stop, keep stirring!

I have fallen into a rut with my cake-decorating and that’s what I’ll be working on over the next few months, but for now, bask in the glory of chocolatey chocolate icing slathered dripping down the sides of your cake, and sprinkled with chocolate sprinkles for additional deliciousness.

Makes one huge three tiered cake

Ingredients for the cake

85g cocoa
190g flour
150g caster sugar
150g dark muscovado sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
2 eggs
175ml buttermilk
125ml water
3 tbsp oil

Ingredients for the icing

275g icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
Pinch salt
150g cream cheese
175g butter
250g melted chocolate
100ml double cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees

Grease and line 3 cake tins.

Sift the cocoa, flour, sugars, leavening agents and salt and mix briefly until all combined.

Add the eggs, buttermilk, water and oil and beat until smooth.

Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven and let cool for 15 minutes in the tins before letting cool on a wire rack.

I didn’t ice mine on the day of baking, instead I stacked them, separated by sheets of greaseproof paper and stored them in a cake tin. It doesn’t matter as long as the cake layers are cool before icing.