Chocolate Cake

We found this recipe in Olive Magazine (UK) and used it for our daughters 6th birthday a couple of weeks ago. It's up there with the best of the best choc' cakes for eye appeal as well as flavour and we're heavily into chocolate cake, so I'm not saying that lightly . As it was mostly for a bunch of kids we decided against dusting it completely with cocoa powder, using real chocolate hundreds-and-thousands instead. but doing this could make it appropriate for say a dinner party, coffee break, breakfast lunch and supper or just as a casual snack!
Oh I forgot to mention, this chocolate cake is not overly sweet and it's ridiculously easy to bake.
What are you waiting for?

Wash your hands and pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 3. 140C / 275F or if fan assisted 160C / 325F

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Step 1: Ingredients. (metric)

For the cake mix:

250g / 9 oz. Self raising flour.
250g / 9 oz. Unrefined soft brown sugar.
50g / 2 oz. Best quality cocoa powder ( not drinking chocolate, gnargh! ) .
250g / 9 oz. Plain / Dark chocolate - again the best you can afford / liberate etc.
250g / 9 oz. Butter, unsalted is ok if you must, but a low salted (1.8%) is preferable.
4 Large eggs.

For the Ganache / icing.

400g / 14 oz. Plain / dark chocolate.
284ml - 300ml / approx 9 fl. oz. Single (thin) cream, the real stuff, accept no substitute.
25g / 1 oz.Butter ( as above ).
Cocoa powder for dusting.
2 1/2 - 3 heaped dessert spoons of icing sugar.

A sheet of baking parchment / grease-proof paper 38x38 cm / 15x15 inches approx.

Abov is the International Standards Symbol ISO 3864 denoting chocolate cake making in progress.

You can check out the real ISO 3864 it might even save your life one day.

bosherston (author) says: Jan 29, 2010. 3:31 AM

It's time for The Cake once more. Happy 2nd Birthday Peg!
Get to the cake before your Mum and Dad.

bosherston (author) says: Mar 6, 2009. 2:39 AM

Here we go again! Time to roll out the cake skills, 40th birthday this time. Has anyone out there tried making this themselves yet I wonder?

thingy says: Oct 21, 2008. 5:14 PM

That and a hot cup of coffee would hit the spot.

bosherston (author) in reply to thingyOct 23, 2008. 12:38 PM

That would be a fine combination indeed.

nickels says: Oct 21, 2008. 12:38 PM

My waistline got bigger just reading this recipe. I'll send it to my wife, aka my favorite chocolate lovin lady. Nice photos! PS - whats the deal with the non sequitur cake toppers: a ghost, a frog, what appears to be candy corn, a penguin, and some sprinkles. Was the theme miscellaneous things laying around the pantry? Since you appear to like baking, check out the book "Hello, Cupcake!" - you'll thank me (and so will your kids and their friends)!

bosherston (author) in reply to nickelsOct 21, 2008. 2:27 PM

LOL, yes it does look a bit randomly adorned - funny that's supposed to be a puppy although upside down the dog does look spooky. In retrospect such a grouping ticks all the zero sequitur boxes. Will go for less is more next time, which... >checks calendar< will be in two days time, ho hum it's started again. Thanks for the book tip-off :)

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jessyratfink says: Oct 9, 2008. 5:56 PM

Great camera work. And it looks really yummy! I've been craving chocolate for the past couple of days and this might have just pushed me over the edge. :D

bosherston (author) in reply to jessyratfinkOct 10, 2008. 4:50 AM

Thank you, this is very auspicious. We are about to embark on baking this cake once more. It's been about 6 months since the last time, when things got a bit out of hand. 1st cake for my daughters birthday, 2nd cake for instructables photography, 3rd cake ( ye gods ) because we needed some more photos, but we'd eaten the 2nd cake by then! So now it's probably safe to return to this recipe. Hey it's the weekend lets do it!

canarybuzzard says: Jun 12, 2008. 8:27 PM

those cake shots are worse than porn! I am SO hungry now! Your cake looks incredibly good, however I'm not sure how to translate the recipe into US ingredients and quantities. But thanks for sharing!

bosherston (author) in reply to canarybuzzardJun 12, 2008. 11:27 PM

Ya, we have this recipe book from Land O' Lakes it has great photos of biscuits / cookies. But can we fathom the quantities? I mean - 'sticks of butter' 'cups'? lol.

bosherston (author) says: Apr 28, 2008. 2:06 AM

Hey, thanks for the comment, I was thinking nobody could see my instructable, well I guess it's just a recipe really. I urge you to bake this chocolate cake before the week is out, you won't regret it :) And great cube cake too, do you remember the key ring sized rubics cube? It would be time consuming but you could use your method to make individual mini cubes.