Have your cake and eat it!

Aaron has been asking to make a cake the whole week so I looked into the cupboard and found that I didnt have my trusty Moirs cake mix, I did have flour, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and milk so I figured I would try making a cake from scratch.  Aaron wanted a chocolate cake so I found some cocoa powder too.

I found a recipe for a chocolate butter sponge in an old International Goodwill Cookbook (7th edition).  I made a few small adjustments but it turned out really well.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup castor sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla ( I just poured in a splash)
• 1 ¼ cup flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt (I threw in a ‘pinch’)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (I use 3 teaspoons but I know in my kitchen I have to increase baking powder)
• 1 heaped tablespoon cocoa
• ½ cup milk
• 45g butter

Method:

• Beat eggs, add sugar gradually, add vanilla and beat with a hand held beater for 3 minutes.
• Sift dry ingredients 4 times (at this point I have to ask whose socks the creator of this recipe was smoking, I sifted the flour once, straight into the wet ingredients, that was it!), and stir into egg mixture, blending thoroughly.
• Bring milk and butter to the boil and add to mixture.
• Mix well with an electric beater.
• Pour into 1 large or two small tins and bake at 180°C for 40min (large tin) or 25min (small tins).
• Allow to cool before icing.

For the icing I decided to make a ganache.  Mainly because I had some bitter sweet chocolate from Pesach and I wanted a really chocolaty icing.  Unfortunately I didnt have any cream so I used margarine (purist dont hate me, I know its not even BUTTER!!!) instead.

Ingredients:

• 250g bitter sweet chocolate
• 250g margerine
• icing sugar to thicken

Method:

• Break chocolate into pieces and place in a microwavable bowl.
• Add margarine.
• Place bowl in microwave for about 1min depending on microwave strength.
• Mix the icing until the chocolate is melted into the marge.  You may need to nuke it a bit longer.
• Once the icing is melted add a bit of icing sugar and mix.
• Keep adding icing sugar until you reach the thickness you want.
• This icing will also thicken/harden as it cools, so you may want to leave it to cool down before adding any icing sugar.
• Once its ready layer it onto the cake, starting in the middle and spreading it towards the sides.
• It may drip over the sides or you may need to spread it depending on thickness.

Eat and enjoy!