A chocolate cake
As digestive systems everywhere brace for the annual chocolate onslaught, I thought I’d throw a cake your way so you’re match fit for Easter. Not literally, natch. I mean ‘throw’ more in a ‘here’s my chocolate cake recipe, come and geddit’ kind of way. And not that it’s ‘my’ cake, either. There is nothing new under the sun and don’t believe anyone who claims a chocolate cake as their own invention because it hardly ever is. I’m pretty sure it’s written somewhere that “on the 8th day He created cake” and then we all just kind of took it from there. This is a stirred-together, not-creamed-in-a-machine affair, making it pretty easy to tackle – even for a complete cake novice. It’s a fusion of the famous Ina Garten chocolate cake and the recipe a chef friend used to bake years ago. I’ve tweaked and finessed it, particularly the baking soda amount which I’ve overall reduced. I hate when baking soda gives Imperial Leather vibes because it can skew soapy. Plus, when you consider what else baking soda is good for – cleaning grouting, whitening gnarly sheets, removing coffee stains, de-gunging drains, sparkling up the loo, dealing to cat poo pong and pissing off ants, to name a few – you realise it’s only a short step from there to Ajax. You do have to haul the cake mixer out for the frosting so sozz about that. But it’s worth the hassle of firing up the Kenwood because honestly. When has 200g each of chocolate and butter, plus a shit load of icing sugar whipped into a frenzy, ever been wrong?
MAKES AN 18cm CAKE
260g (1¾ cups) plain flour
80g (¾ cup) cocoa powder
1½ tsp baking powder
1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 tsp salt
350g (1¾ cups, lightly packed) brown sugar
260g (1 cup) plain yoghurt
250ml (1 cup) hot, strong coffee
2 large eggs
125ml (½ cup) mild olive oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
Frosting
200g dark chocolate, chopped
200g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups icing sugar
Preheat the oven to 180C. Lightly grease and flour the sides of 2 x 18cm round springform pans and line the bases with baking paper.
Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a sieve, then sift into a large bowl.
Combine the brown sugar, yoghurt, coffee, eggs, olive oil and vanilla extract in another bowl, then whisk until smooth. Whisking constantly to prevent lumps forming, mix the yoghurt mixture into the dry ingredients in the bowl until a smooth batter forms. Divide the batter between the tins, then bake for 50-60 minutes or until a cake tester withdraws clean. Cool in the tins for 20 minutes, then carefully turn the cakes out onto a wire rack to cool.
For the frosting, bring a medium saucepan half filled with water to the boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium. Place the chocolate in a bowl large enough to fit snugly into the pot, then fit the bowl into the saucepan and heat until the chocolate has melted. Remove the bowl from the heat, then stand the chocolate until it cools to room temperature. Combine the butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl, then beat with electric beaters until pale and fluffy. Add the chocolate and beat to combine well. Use to sandwich the cooled cake and to cover the top and sides. Cake is best served on the day it is made.
