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 Moirscake 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!
- Chocolaty goodness!!