Chocolate fudge cake

I know I haven't posted for a while - so much going on -  holidays, life - but thought I'd share my first real attempt at a chocolate cake which I've been threatening to make for some time now. There are so many recipes some using chocolate in the cake others cocoa, but this recipe was pretty straightforward and the cake was pretty moist and the icing very tasty.

Chocolate fudge cake

Ingredients

175g 6 oz of soft (room temp.) unsalted butter

3 large eggs

175g 6 oz self-raising flour

175g 6oz Castor sugar

30g of cocoa powder

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

2 tablespoons of milk

For the Coating and filling

75g Unsalted butter

175g icing sugar

3 tablespoon cocoa powder

A drop of milk

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4 (350F).

Put all the butter into a good-sized mixing bowl and, using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer, beat until creamy. Add all the sugar, beating all the time until the mixture is very light and fluffy.

Break the eggs into another bowl or jug, add the vanilla essence, and beat together with a fork until this mixture is light and frothy. Pour this mixture a bit at a time into the bowl containing the butter and sugar mixture. Take time and care on each occasion that you add the mixture to mix carefully and beat thoroughly.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder together by gently tapping the sieve with the heel of your hand over the butter, sugar and egg mixture. At any point in making this recipe, the more air you can trap in the mixture the better; conversely, the more you knock out by mixing roughly, the poorer the texture of the cake will be.

Add the milk. Then using gentle folding movements with a large spoon, mix the flour and cocoa mixture together into the rest of the mixture, so that they are completely blended; i.e. no streaks, just a nice uniform colour, yet done very gently. Divide the mixture between the two tins 18-20cm in diameter and place in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 mins.

The cake is done when the sponge springs back when gently pressed in the centre; or is starting to brown on top and has shrunk away from the edges of the tin container.

Turn out onto a wire rack and let the cake cool completely before you ice.

To make the icing – cream the butter then add cocoa and icing sugar – add milk till you get a spreadable consistency. Sandwich the cakes together and spread the icing on top – decorate as desired.

Cut a slice and enjoy!