Indulgent Chocolate Cake

Hello friends,

A good rich, moist chocolate cake is up there in my top 3 of cake types, so here it is - my new favourite recipe. I made this for a birthday lunch, and wanted a little bit of wow, which is why I coated the cake in a white buttercream, and then poured a chocolate ganache over the top. I like how it turned out, although coating the cake was fairly time consuming and I kept getting crumbs in the icing so it wasn't perfect!

Ingredients:

200g plain flour

80g cocoa powder

200g caster sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 duck eggs

100g vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla

175g milk

75g warm water

180g soft butter

560g icing sugar

A dash of milk

100g milk chocolate

100g double cream

Method:

This makes an 18 inch sandwich cake. Preheat oven to 180C/ 160C fan assisted.

In a bowl mix together the flour, cocoa, caster sugar, baking powder and salt. Make sure this is well incorporated then add the wet ingredients, eggs, oil, vanilla and milk. Beat this until very consistent then add the warm water.

This will loosen up the mixture and keep beating until well mixed. Pour into two sandwich tins and bake for 25 - 30 minutes, when done allow to cool fully on a wire rack.

Whilst the cake is cooling, mix together the softened butter and icing sugar. I dislike icing sugar because it always coats my kitchen with the fine white dust, so if you put a tea towel over your bowl, this will help! Beat until the icing is light and fluffy and add the milk if the icing is a bit thick.

When the cake is cool, sandwich together with a little of the icing, then coat the cake. I found the best way of doing this was with a thin layer to start with, which will get mixed with crumbs, then go other with a second coat to make it neater.

If you want to add the ganache on top, melt the cream and chocolate together and then allow to cool, until it is just still at the pouring point. Slowly, pour onto the cake a little at a time allowing it to dribble down the sides. Add more until you have your desired effect. Put in the fridge to harden up the icing, then serve and watch people's faces as you cut into the cake and reveal the dark center!