Chocolate Cake

Another week, another birthday cake! This was my own birthday cake…terrible I had to make my own! I’m sure my husband would have made (bought…) me a cake but I enjoyed making his so thought I would have another go at decorating again. This recipe is from Recipe Tin Eats and was listed on Pinterest as an everyday chocolate cake (which I hope Nagi doesn’t mind me sharing) – she did hers as an Easter version which looked fab – and it really was straightforward and not overly complicated.

Ingredients

• 265g plain flour
• 55g cocoa powder
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 440g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 250 ml milk
• 125 ml vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 250 ml boiling water

As always start by preheating the oven to 180C / 160C Fan / 350F and grease and line two 9 inch cake tins with baking parchment. I actually had the right size tins, hurray!

Take the dry ingredients – flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda – and sift into a large bowl before adding the sugar and mixing together. Next add the other ingredients (except the boiling water) – eggs, milk, oil and vanilla – and whisk everything until its well mixed and there are no lumps, then add the boiling water and whisk again.

Luckily Nagi had already pointed out how thin the batter was so I wasn’t concerned about the consistency! Divide the batter between the two tins and bake for 35 minutes or until its coming away from the sides of the tin or springs back when you press the top. Mine actually took an extra 10 minutes on top of this but its a fan oven so maybe it was set too low.

Let it cool for ten minutes before turning out the cakes onto a wire rack. I used Nagi’s link for the chocolate buttercream frosting (and as recommended slightly increased the amount to cover the whole cake) but you could use whatever covering you like. This is definitely worth it though! I decorated mine with chocolate fingers and buttons too!

This cake was named by someone at work as my best yet – praise indeed! I was so pleased how it turned out and it was great to just be able to add everything relatively quickly and easily into the one bowl. I still need to practice my decorating techniques but I really enjoyed making this cake – feeling much more confident!