The Ultimate Chocolate Cake

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I’ve had a few people ask me for the recipe of the chocolate cake I made for the 200th Boagworld. I wasn’t going to post this on my blog because it’s not really about web design, but to justify that, I’ve marked it all up in the (I believe not yet finalised) hrecipe microformat.

Anyway, I hope my mum won’t be too upset that I’ve posted this up here. It’s a family recipe that has been perfected over millennia. Possibly.

Here’s how to make the ultimate chocolate cake. Unlike most chocolate cake, this isn’t at all dry or rich. It’s nice and sweet with a soft, gooey texture.

A photo of the chocolate cake I made

You’ll need to make the cake icing after you’ve taken the cake out and it has cooled a bit. It sets reasonably quickly, but make sure it’s not too runny before pouring over the cake.

This quantity is for one 19cm round cake

Duration: 90 mins (Cooking 30 minutes, Baking 1 hour)

Serves 8-12

Ingredients:

The Cake

  • 140g self raising flour
  • 170g caster sugar
  • 170g soft margarine/Stork
  • 85g drinking chocolate powder (not cocoa powder)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 42g butter
  • 2 tablespoons water

The Icing

  • 3 tablespoons of boiling water
  • 55g caster sugar
  • 85g icing sugar
  • 30g cocoa powder
  • a handful of mixed chocolate drops (mixture of white, milk and dark)

Preparations:

  • Grease the cake tin
  • Preheat the oven to 180C

The Cake

  1. Mix all the ingredients into one bowl. Stir gently until all are combined.
  2. Bake the cake in centre of oven for about 1 hour.
  3. Lick the bowl ;)
  4. Remove the cake from the oven and leave in the tin for 5 minutes.
  5. Remove from the tin and leave to cool.

The Chocolate Fudge Icing

  1. Melt the butter, water and caster sugar gently in a pan until dissolved. Bring to the boil.
  2. Remove from the heat and add sifted icing sugar and cocoa powder.
  3. Mix together and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth, then pour over the cake.
  4. Immediately sprinkle with chocolate drops.