Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

Yesterday my good friend Rach had a bit of a bbq for her birthday so of course I had to make her a cake. I chose the first of Nigella’s cakes from the Chocolate Hall of Fame in Feast. As you can see from the pic I didn’t have two matching tins (I never read the instructions first!) so I went for a tiered effect. I think it looked pretty good myself & all of the kids loved it, we had to hide in a cupboard to pretect it from them until time to serve. It was really good & as I always find with Nigella’s cakes there was more than enough icing to go between all of the layers nice & thickly, very simple yet delicious cake. Also the ‘throw it all in the food processor’ method was great, esp as I was running late after a big night the night before. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACH!

Old Fashioned Chocolate cake

Cake
200g plain flour
200g caster sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarb soda
40g cocoa
175g soft unsalted butter
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
150ml sour cream

Icing
75g unsalted butter
175g dark chocolate, broken up
300g icing sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
125ml sour cream
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

Take everything out of the fridge & bring to room temperature. Preheat oven to 180c & line & butter 2 20cm sandwich tins with removable bases.

Put all the cake ingredients in a food processor & process until you have a smooth thick batter. Divide the mixture between the tins & bake for abt 25-35 minutes until cooked when tested with a cake tester.

Remove the cakes in their tins to a wire rack & let cool for 10 minutes before turning out of their tins.

To make the icing, melt the butter & chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. While this mix is cooling a little, sieve the icing sugar. Add the golden syrup to the chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream & vanilla & when combined whisk in the icing sugar. When done of too thick then add a little boiling water.

Cur four strips of baking paper & place around the edge of your plate & place the first layer over these (these can be ripped away when done leaving you with a clean plate). Spoon about 1/3 of the mixture over the top & spread with a knife or spatula bring down over the sides as you go, put on the next layer & repeat until all covered with chocolate goodness.