Rich, dark chocolate cake

by Janet Anderson

Ingredients :
2 cups sugar
1 ¾ cups flour
10 mls of powdered instant coffee
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ teas of baking powder
1 ½ teas bicarb
1 teas salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
½ cup cooking oil
2 teas vanilla
¾ cup boiling water

Method :
Pre-heat oven to 180C.
Sift dry ingredients in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, add together milk, eggs, oil and vanilla and beat well and then fold into the flour mixture.
Mix in the boiling water. The mixture will be thin at this point so don’t be alarmed.
Pour into 25cm pans and bake for 30- 35 minutes.
Test with skewer for readiness. Skewer should come out clean.

Butter icing

Ingredients :
Sift the icing sugar, 125 mls cocoa and 10 mls of coffee together
100 grams soft butter
5 mls vanilla
milk

Method :
Beat butter till soft. Add 100 mls of the icing sugar and then the vanilla. Continue adding icing sugar mixture slowly and alternate with tiny amounts of milk until you get a fluffy icing. Take care not to add the vanilla or milk too early else the mixture may curdle.
Spread on the cake and decorate with glace cherries or other trimmings of your choice

recipe chocolate cake baking