It was our turn to make the cake for the PTA cake raffle this week, so I (quite literally) plumped for my favorite tried-and-tested chocolate fudge cake recipe. Moist and squidgy, it is delicious with either a cup of tea in the afternoon, or with a guilty conscience at about 3am; if you still haven’t got over that marzipan binge at Christmas and can’t face the idea of an Easter simnel cake, this looks fabulous decorated with tiny chocolate eggs.
What I particularly love about this recipe is there is no creaming or melting of butter involved, you just chuck the ingredients in a kitchen mixer or use an electric whisk to combine into a smooth batter.
For the cake
- 175g self-raising flour
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 150g caster sugar
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 150ml sunflower oil
- 150ml semi-skimmed milk
For the icing
- 100g softened unsalted butter
- 225g icing sugar
- 40g cocoa
- 2 or 3 tbsp milk
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease and line two 8 inch sandwich tins.
Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a large bowl, then stir in the sugar, before adding the eggs and wet ingredients. Whisk to combine into a smooth batter and pour into the prepared tins, then bake for around 20 minutes until cooked and springy to the touch.
To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a large bowl, then beat in the butter and enough of the milk to create a fluffy buttercream. Sandwich the cakes together with half the buttercream, then top with rest before decorating with tiny eggs (and in this case, one of our lovely Gisela Graham rabbit egg cups!).
