Recipe: Rich Chocolate Cake

My lovely sister in law made this cake for me for my birthday last year. It is adapted from a recipe on the blog The Crafting Foodie. It is a very rich chocolate cake, it would make a lovely Valentine’s treat if you were staying in for the night, or a for a dinner party or special occasion.

Rich Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 220g plain flour
• 400g sugar
• 90g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1  tsp baking powder
• 1  tsp salt
• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• 230ml soya, almond, or rice milk
• 1 tbs white vinegar
• 230ml strong black coffee, hot
• 120ml vegetable oil
• 1  tbs vanilla extract

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (170C Fan) degrees. Line two x 8 inch cake tins with baking paper.
2. Sieve the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt  into a bowl or into the bow of a mixer. Stir in the sugar.
3. Combine the soya milk, vinegar, oil, coffee and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat in the eggs.
4. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, if using a mixer it should be on low. Mix well until combined.
5. Divide the mixture into the two tins. Bake for about 30 minutes, be sure to turn the tins halfway through baking.
6. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before inverting the tins to tap out the cakes. Allow the cakes to cool completely before icing.

Icing

I have had this once with buttercream icing (dairyfree) mixed with raspberries, and once with strawberry jam and fresh strawberries as a filling and the cake covered in melted dark chocolate to finish. The buttercream way is nicer but more time consuming.

Buttercream icing: