Chocolate Celebration Cake

In Hour is Come, Dotty makes a chocolate cake for Lucas, her husband’s young son. This is the recipe for the cake including the gooey fudge icing which tends to flow over the top of the cake and drip down its sides.

If you have children, they will love helping to decorate this cake with chocolate flakes, smarties, buttons or any other sweets or sprinkles.

Ingredients

200 gms (1 ³/₄ cups) self-raising flour

2 level teaspoons baking powder

40 gms (2 level tablespoons) cocoa powder, plus 1 tablespoon for the icing.

225 gms caster sugar/ 1 cup of fine sugar

350 gms (3 ¹/₂ sticks) soft butter

4 large free-range eggs

100 gms (4 ounzes) dark chocolate

325 gms icing sugar/ 2 ¹/₄ cups confectioners sugar

1 tablespoon golden syrup (if not available use maple syrup or light molasses)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c/Gas4. Grease and line the bases of two 20cm sandwich cake tins. Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa into a mixing bowl and put to one side.

2. Beat the sugar with 225 gms of butter until soft and pale. Add the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of the flour mixture so it doesn’t curdle, and beat and repeat until all the eggs have been added. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until evenly mixed.

3. Divide the cake mixture between the tins and level the tops. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cakes have shrunk from the sides of the tins and the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Turn onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

4. Break the chocolate into small pieces and put into a bowl. Bring a pan of water to a simmer, then stand the bowl over it, making sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Leave until the chocolate has melted. Remove the bowl from the pan and leave until the chocolate is just warm.

5. Beat together 75 gms butter and 150 gms icing sugar until really light and fluffy. Add the melted chocolate and beat again. Spread the mixture on one cake, then put the other one on top. I put the two tops of the cakes together leaving the flat bases for the top and bottom.

6. Sift 175 gms icing sugar and 1 tablespoon cocoa into a bowl. Put 50 gms butter, 1 tablespoon golden syrup and 1 tablespoon of water into a small pan and heat gently until the butter has melted and the mixture is hot, but don’t let it boil. Stir it into the icing sugar and pour over the top of the cake, spreading evenly. The icing is gooey so you can have a glass of hot water beside you into which you dip your knife, to stop the icing sticking to it.

7. Leave it to cool if necessary, and decorate.

Variation

If, like me, you can’t buy high quality flour, or self-raising flour, then just adding more baking powder can make the cake dry. This is my amended version for a soft, well risen cake.

250 gms butter mixed with 250 gms of sugar. Add 6 large eggs, one at a time and mix. Use 210 gms flour, 40 gms of cocoa powder and 3.5 teaspoons of baking powder. I cook this at 170 degrees C.