Chocolate cake
By: Rachel Allen From: Rachel Allen: Christmas Bake!
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Chocolate cake
- Prep time:
- 25 mins
- Cook time:
- 40 mins
- Serves:
- 6-8
Rachel Allen's recipe yields a simply made, yet versatile and absolutely delicious cake that can also be adjusted to make cupcakes
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Tips and suggestions
- Cooks Tips...
- Add the finely grated rind of one orange to give the cake a chocolate orange flavour or replace the vanilla extract with one tablespoon of instant coffee powder for a mocha flavour. This can also be turned into chocolate cupcakes if you wish – the recipe will fill 12 paper cases in a cupcake or muffin tray, and will take about 18–20 minutes to cook.
Adapted from Rachel Allen, Bake (Collins)
Ingredients
For the cake
- 125g dark chocolate
- 3 tbsp Milk
- 150g Butter, at room temperature
- 150g caster sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 200g plain flour
- 1 tbsp good quality Cocoa powder
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
- cocoa powder or icing sugar, for dusting (optional)
For the chocolate butter icing
- 75g Butter, at room temperature
- 1 tbsp Cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 175g icing sugar
- 1 tbsp good quality Cocoa powder
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180/gas 4. Butter and flour the sides of two 20cm sandwich tins and line the bases with greaseproof paper.2. For the cake: place the chocolate and the milk in a bowl sitting over a saucepan of gently simmering water and heat until the chocolate has melted. (Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the surface of the water.) Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Beat the butter until very soft then add the caster sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then fold in the melted chocolate.
4. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and the bicarbonate of soda, and fold in gently to mix. Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean.
5. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to sit for five minutes before turning them out of their tins and placing them on a wire rack to cool.
6. For the chocolate butter icing: beat the butter, cream and the vanilla extract until very soft. Then gradually sift in the icing sugar and the cocoa powder, beating all the time, until it is all added. Continue to beat until very soft, then whisk the mixture until it is light and fluffy.
7. Once the cakes are cool, sandwich them together with the chocolate butter icing. Place the cake on a plate or a cake stand and either dust with cocoa powder, or make double quantities of the chocolate butter icing and spread over the cake.
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Latest Comment
View all comments (22)thank u thank u thank u for such an easy recipe. i cant believe ive finally baked a cake yippee!!!! i gave up trying to bake when my scones used to come out like hard biscuits. i baked this cake for my mums birthday and she is defo a chocolate lover. i recommend this recipe thanks again xx
hi, I need some tips for baking a good cake. Any cake cake that I make the top layer becomes hard, Y is that?? can any 1 help me. While making this cake everything went out well, except that I had to give it a more 10 min to bake coz the inside wasn't cooked properly, on the other hand the upper layer became hard. Can any one help me.
i have made this cake twice now and i find it to be very dry the first time i cooked it for the whole 25min the second time i cooked it for 20min still dry it is ok on the first day but the second day gets really dry need lashings of cream with it
I'm 12 and I made this for a cake-sale at school for charity, and wow! The results were amazing! It was one of the first cakes to be finished! Everybody was so amazed! I do recommend you to try out the pan of water above the cake when cooking method, as this does really help! If you're planning to impress, make this cake! x:) Atiya
It will help keep the cake moist if you dissolve the cocoa powder in a little warm water to make a thick paste. Allow it to cool before adding to the mixture.
did this yesterday and everybody loved it..
There are many ways to stop a cake from drying out, if you are using a fan assisted oven then you must place a pan of water in the oven with the cake as the moisture helps the cake and it cant dry out. Getting it out of the oven about five -ten minute before you should helps and turning down the temperature five - ten minute before its cooked as the shock from a hot oven to a cold kitchen affects the cake.
How can i make this moist? I want to make it for my examination, but its kinda dry, when i tested it at home.
I loved this cake.Really easy to make and bake.
i'm hopefully gonna make this cake today if my mummy lets me
Made this cake yesterday. It was well risen but i thought it was a bit dry and needed plenty of icing sugar ( which was delicious).
just made this cake which has risen well and tastes great. i even accidently put eggs in after the choc but still worked well!!
An easy recipe to follow but I found it a very dry cake. Delicious butter icing!
Lovely cake, but i didnt use the bircarb added extra baking powder and subtituted 50g of the plain flour with 50g of cornflour. was absolutely delicious. also i made a gananche for over the top. a mary berry recipe from uktvfood.co.uk
i made this for the first time today, I followed the recipe to the T, it was nice but a little dry, can anyone give me some advice so how to make it a little more moist?
Cake is sooooo yummy, made it 3 times in the space of 2 weeks. Family and friends love it when I make it. It is so easy to make and so easy to finish it all of. There should be an advertisment for plus size clothes at the bottom of this recipe (",)
could you give me a recipe for a 12" choc maderia cake for my sons wedding and how long does it keep for? please help many thanks michele.
i saw how u made the cake,so i came on to the website andcoppied theway umade the cake.i am going to make this cake on my husbands birthday which is on 5 novembre hope all goes well wish me the best .thankyou!!!!!!
I have just made this cake, smells yummy! Looking forward to eating it. Congratulations also !!
Congrats on baby Donna!!! Will be making this cake for all my special occaisions, like my wedding!!!
I made this cake today after watching the show. The recipe is incredibly easy to make and the end result was fab a very light cake!
I have eaten 2 slices already, one for me and one for baby!
I will definately make this again!