Our Forever Chocolate Cake.....

An occasion where I dressed up the cake - she's great for that - eat as is or turn her into a celebration!

Years and years of chocolate cake baking, tweaking, twisting, settling, unsettling and ongoing experimenting finally lead to 'our' cake. Recently I introduced a few twists and the inevitable happened. I wasn't happy. Back to the original. The saying 'once you're on a good thing stick to it', couldn't be more true.

So sorry Brydie and Annee who a few posts back expressed their interest in 'our family' chocolate cake. Unexpected events turned our world around here upside down for a good month or more. Better late than never.

Last Sunday was Father's Day and youngest daughter wanted to show her appreciation for him with 'our family chocolate cake'.  She made a template with a plane and the words 'Happy Father's Day'. The sprinkling with icing sugar wasn't the neatest but the plane turned out okay and that's the most important bit. Why? Well if you follow this blog; you'd know by now that life is never dull round here. Father has bought himself a plane (not a toy - a dinky di real plane); and is currently going through the ropes to get his pilot's license.

Tomorrow he'll be registering his latest project. It's been a few years in the making; mostly due to his ridiculous work load but finally his 'clubman' is complete. A bright yellow open top race car that looks to be a few inches from the ground. Not sure where he'll find the time to drive it; but she's ready.

Changes. Life changes every day and I never know what's around the corner.
One thing that won't be changing though, is our chocolate cake.

Chocolate Cake

200gm caster sugar
90gm salt reduced butter
185mls hot water
2tbsp rich chocolate cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 fresh eggs
150gm SR flour

• Sift cocoa powder in a small bowl; whisk in hot water till there's no lumps. Pour into medium sized saucepan along with sugar & chopped butter. Melt over low heat till sugar dissolves & mixture begins to bubble; add bicarb; stir till it froths up nicely; take off heat; pour into a large bowl; set aside to cool.  Sometimes I make this step the night before and then complete the cake in the morning. 
• Allow to cool; I mean cool - not still warm cos I've done it and the texture changes. You may notice a skin has formed upon cooling; don't worry; it's perfectly normal. When cooled, hand whisk in the vanilla essence followed by the beaten eggs till nice and glossy. Sift in flour; whisk briskly for only a minute. 
• Mixture is quite runny. Pour into greased, bottom baking paper lined 20cm round tin; place into preheated 160-170 degree fan forced oven for 35 - 40 mins or till baked.
• Sit for 1 minute; slide a knife all around the sides. Upturn onto metal rack; remove paper; allow to cool. 

Icing

• Put 125gm icing sugar, 1 tbsp cocoa powder, 2tspn butter & 1tbsp milk (you may need to add a little more) into ceramic bowl. Place over saucepan with hot simmering water. Mix continuously till the mixture comes together and the icing is nice, thick and pourable. If it's slightly runny, that's fine, just allow to thicken up a little longer before pouring over cake.
• Place cake onto serving plate. You'll need to move fairly quickly with the icing as it sets pretty fast. Pour directly onto the middle of the cake; use a long knife to swirl over top or to simply push the icing to the edges and allow to set in a rustic fashion. Practise makes perfect.  

I  took this photo 2 days after making the cake.  It's still spectacularly moist.