Saturday 2 August 2014

Best Chocolate Cake

Everyone loves chocolate cake. I think I can honestly say I have never met someone who doesn't at least like some form of chocolate cake. Anyone who follows me on instagram or knows the kind of cakes I make will know that I generally make pretty girly cakes. So when I was asked to bake a cake for my grandpa's birthday a week or so ago I just panicked. What kind of cake do you make a 79 year old man who has zero interest in flowers or pretty buttercream swirls? But I had a brainwave in the midst of my breakdown on the morning of his birthday. I have seen absolutely loads of these nest type cakes with chocolate fingers or kitkats around the outside of the cake, filled with some kind of confectionery or small chocolates (maltesers, minstrels, smarties etc.). So I decided this cake would be the perfect cake for my grandpa!   

My family absolutely adore the Betty Crocker Devil's Food cake mixture and is always their cake of choice when it comes to chocolate cakes. To be completely honest, as cake mixes go it is absolutely delicious but I did a bit of research and merged a few recipes together in a way that I felt, in my experience, would work well to create a cake to rival this! Everyone enjoyed the cake and it was well worth all the blood, sweat and tears (literally!!) that were shed!


Excuse the messy board and utensils, what a chaotic experience!!

Ingredients:
450g plain flour
450g caster sugar
175g unsweetened cocoa powder (best quality available!)
2 tsps baking powder
2 tsps baking soda
240ml buttermilk
120ml vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 tbsps vanilla extract
200ml boiling water
plenty of chocolate chips!!

Method:
1. preheat oven to 180 c. Grease 2 9 inch cake tins.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together well in a large mixing bowl. 
3. Add in oil, buttermilk and vanilla and mix until well combined, then beat in eggs 1 at a time.
4. Pour in the boiling water gradually and mix gently until combined- DON'T PANIC if it looks awful and runny but thats okay, it will be sooo moist when it's cooked!!
5. Divide the batter evenly between the 2 prepared cake tins and bake for between 30-40 minutes depending on your oven. Mine isn't the best so it took just over 40 minutes. Bake until a cocktail stick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool before icing with the icing of your choice (I chose my own chocolate whipped cream icing - it was delicious!) and decorate!


Would love to know how yours turned out or even your favourite, tried and tested chocolate cake recipes!


Teri x


2 comments:

  1. Oooo I love a good chocolate cake, especially covered in smarties! That looks yummy!

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  2. Thank you :) The messy picture doesn't really do it justice it was fabulous!

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