I am a bakeaholic. I love cooking when I’m in a rush and being able to change the textures and flavours of a dish. There is a lot more danger in baking: anything can fail you- underbaking, overbaking, falling in on itself, baking powder being out of date. The latter fact I only found out last year so that ancient carton in the back of the cupboard can now be blamed for years of heavy cupcakes. Still, baking cakes, pies and pastry is just such hands-on fun and the new wave of microwave cakes, while fun and relaxingly easy, produce rather unnervingly spongy results and isn’t something you’d eat elegantly with a fork like a tart, nor something you’d eat messily like a muffin.
With that said, I hate hate hate making chocolate cake. I get cocoa all over the workplace, everything smells sickly and I always get a headache. In all fairness, this is most likely my fault as I tend to make chocolate cake on rainy sundays but even when I don’t, I’m left massaging my temples to alleviate the stress.
But by the next day, I am left craving a slice, no doubt. Unlike almost all other cakes, chocolate cake is miles better the next day-the icing hardens a little and the flavours merge more harmoniously, creating a gooey, squidgy cake in all the right ways.It’s almost enough to make the tedium of the process bearable, especially with this recipe.
Nigella is the queen and I will have no words otherwise. Who else would devote a good chapter of her book to a hall of chocolate cakes? And this recipe is no exception, moist (sorry to those of you who hate the word, but damp doesn’t really cut it), supremely chocolatey and with a wonderfully rich icing. The addition of the water makes everything melt in the mouth and it doesn’t weaken the flavour. What’s not to love? Unlike other cakes, it doesn’t dry out and stays good and surprisingly light for a good 5 days, unless you finish it before that (hey, I’m not judging).
Now stupidly I failed to take a photo but just trust me, this cake is stunning.
Ingredients
for the cake
400 grams plain flour
250 grams caster sugar
100 grams light brown sugar
50 grams cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
142 ml sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
175 grams unsalted butter (melted and cooled)
125 ml flavourless oil
300 ml chilled water
for the fudge icing
175 grams dark chocolate
250 grams unsalted butter (softened)
275 grams icing sugar (sifted)
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/350ºF. Butter and line the bottom of two 20cm / 8 inch sandwich tins.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt. In another bowl or wide-necked measuring jug whisk together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla until blended. Using a freestanding or handheld electric mixer, beat together the melted butter and corn oil until just blended, then beat in the water. Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix together on a slow speed. Add the egg mixture, and mix again until everything is blended and then pour into the prepared tins.
3. Bake the cakes for 50-55 minutes, or until a cake-tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes in their tins on a wire rack for 15 minutes, and then turn the cakes out onto the rack to cool completely.
4. To make the icing, melt the chocolate in the microwave – 2-3 minutes on medium should do it – or in a bowl sitting over a pan of simmering water, and let cool slightly.
5. In another bowl beat the butter until it’s soft and creamy (again, I use the KitchenAid here) and then add the sieved icing sugar and beat again until everything’s light and fluffy. I know sieving is a pain, the one job in the kitchen I really hate, but you have to do it or the icing will be unsoothingly lumpy. Then gently add the vanilla and chocolate and mix together until everything is glossy and smooth.
6.Sandwich the middle of the cake with about a quarter of the icing, and then ice the top and sides too, spreading and smoothing with a rubber spatula.
mpinicooks 