Ultimate chocolate cake
By Angela Nilsen
Cooking time
Prep: 30 mins - 40 mins Cook: 1 hr - 1 hr, 30 mins Plus baking and cooling timeSkill level
EasyServings
Cuts into 14 slicesIndulge yourself with Angela Nilsen's heavenly moist and fudgy chocolate cake - perfect for celebrations - birthdays, weddings, christenings - any excuse!
Nutrition and extra info
Additional info
- Without icing
Nutrition
- kcalories
- 541
- protein
- 6g
- carbs
- 55g
- fat
- 35g
- saturates
- 20g
- fibre
- 2g
- sugar
- 40g
- salt
- 0.51g
Ingredients
- 200g good quality dark chocolate, about 60% cocoa solids
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Method
- Butter a 20cm round cake tin (7.5cm deep) and line the base. Preheat the oven to fan 140C/conventional 160C/ gas 3. Break 200g good quality dark chocolate in pieces into a medium, heavy-based pan. Cut 200g butter into pieces and tip in with the chocolate, then mix 1 tbsp instant coffee granules into 125ml cold water and pour into the pan. Warm through over a low heat just until everything is melted – don’t overheat. Or melt in the microwave on Medium for about 5 minutes, stirring half way through.
- While the chocolate is melting, mix 85g self-raising flour, 85g plain flour, ¼ bicarbonate of soda, 200g light muscovado sugar, 200g golden caster sugar and 25g cocoa powder in a big bowl, mixing with your hands to get rid of any lumps. Beat 3 medium eggs in a bowl and stir in 75ml (5 tbsp) buttermilk.
- Now pour the melted chocolate mixture and the egg mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just until everything is well blended and you have a smooth, quite runny consistency. Pour this into the tin and bake for 1 hour 25- 1 hour 30 minutes – if you push a skewer in the centre it should come out clean and the top should feel firm (don’t worry if it cracks a bit). Leave to cool in the tin (don’t worry if it dips slightly), then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- When the cake is cold, cut it horizontally into three. Make the ganache: chop 200g good quality dark chocolate into small pieces and tip into a bowl. Pour a 284ml carton of double cream into a pan, add 2 tbsp golden caster sugar, and heat until it is about to boil. Take off the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
- Sandwich the layers together with just a little of the ganache. Pour the rest over the cake letting it fall down the sides and smoothing to cover with a palette knife. Decorate with grated chocolate or a pile of chocolate curls. The cake keeps moist and gooey for 3-4 days.
Recipe from Good Food magazine, April 2004
Comments, questions and tips
Comments
I have bought three sided 20 cm tins with loose bottoms to avoid cutting the cake into three layers. This reduced the cooking time to 35 minutes.
Instead of instant coffee dissolved in hot water I added finely ground coffee beans which gave a much better flavour and the final difference was due to me not reading the recipe.
I first dissolved the chocolate and then added the sugar and the double cream while stirring. This made a very good ganashe which was neither too soft nor too hard.
I have finished with the best chocolate cake I have ever made!
FABulous cake! Made this for my son's 3rd birthday (yes he loves chocolate) and just made a fireman sam and his quad bike to go on top. It went down a treat with everyone...children and adults alike. In fact I only had one slice left after the party had finished . Had so many comments about it and 3people said best choc cake they've ever tasted. The only thing I changed was using a choc fudge buttercream for the topping (adding track marks for the quad bike!) although i still used the ganache in the middle. DELISH.
Made this cake for my sons bday, he wanted an chocolate oreo cake, made this as recipe although split into two 20cm 3" high tins (cooked for around 40mins, put vanilla buttercream with crushed oreos in middle and finished with the chocolate ganache with loaded crumbled oreos on top. It was a success!! def the best moist chocolate sponge I have made! gooey chocolatey ..perfect!
This was a delicious cake - I followed recipe but only had dark muscovado sugar instead of light. I baked it in 2 sandwich tins. My advice would be to leave to completely cool before turning out. My first cake broke in half so I left the other one for longer and it was fine. The ganache is delicious, I just left in in the bowl to cool before spreading and it worked a treat. My only slight issue was the cake was quite crumbly to cut, although texture was beautiful and fudgy, definitely like a giant brownie as someone previously mentioned. We served it with pouring cream, and after a couple of days warmed it slightly in the microwave. Will definitely make this again - everyone loved it.