This cake makes a fab x2 18/20cm round sandwich cakes that freeze very well even filled with whipped cream. The reason for the lack of rising for so many is that you need need the melted chocolate to cool - you should never mix hot melted butter and chocolate with cold eggs (I use 5 medium eggs). Check you have used the correct size tin and the oven temp is correct. I have never had a brownie effect???

I made this cake for my dads 60th birthday....twice! Why? Because the first time round I really thought I had made a big mistake! It wasn't until the second one came out of the oven that I realised that surely this is the wrong image for this recipe! Deeply disappointed to get a brownie and not a cake! I just hope my dad likes it....I won't be making it again!

Lovely moist sponge, Tastes better the next day and more of a fudgy dessert cake, would be nice with some cream. Mine took 30 minutes longer to cook but things always do in my small gas oven.

Can't say I was very impressed by this. I was using it sandwiched in layers with coffee cake and it was okay overall, but I wouldn't use this recipe again, especially not on its own. It was very dense and very dry.

I was using coffee icing for my cake but the chocolate icing in this recipe looks promising so I will bookmark it to come back to!

This is a fail safe chocolate recipe. I sucessfully use it for x2 round 20cm sandwich tins - makes a lovely high cake which takes 45mins to bake. Filled with cream/mascarpone etc. Very easy and quick to prepare. I add additional baking powder and 5 eggs.

Have only made this once...so far!
Was very simple to make...buttercream was a bit messy but that may have just been me! ;-P
I used it as the base for a 4 year old's Spiderman birthday cake and couldn't believe how well it turned out! (faith in my baking, not the recipe!) Birthday boy was addicted and ate about 5 slices! (thinly cut mind you!). Everyone else had nothing but praise for it. I shall be making it again for my dad's birthday!
A lovely rich, slightly gooey yet not heavy choccie cake that is an all-rounder with all ages! :-)

Made this today for my team leaders birthday and I don't know why but it didn't rise properly so have turned it into brownies. Anyone and idea? Followed the recipe exactly

Perfect recipe for the larger cake. I marbled mine as it was too strong for children and recommend a mix of milk chocolate and dark or even orange flavour to calm any bitterness. I wouldnt use a high % chocolate for this but 50% - Sainsburys have a value dark chocolate at 35p per bar which is excellent for baking. As for the icing you just pop it in the fridge until you get the correct consistancy then you can use a spatula.

You can use any chocolate fudge icing or buttercream and fondant.

This is a straight forward sponge cake recipe and any failure is not due to the method or ingredients.

Really wish I'd read the comments before making this cake. Like so many others the icing was just too runny, plus it made LOADS! I ended up adding an entire pack of icing sugar (500g) and it still wasn't enough to thicken it. What a waste of chocolate and icing sugar. I would love to know how all those who thought it was successful managed to achieve it. What I am most annoyed about is the description 'a reliably good buttercream' which made me think it would be foolproof. Turns out I was the fool for trying this recipe.

This was beautiful, and very easy to make. I made it for my daughters birthday, instead of using 1 square tin I used 3 victoria sponge tins and it was still great, I just cooked them for 36 mins on gas mark 4. I was also worried about it being bitter, so I used milk chocolate!!!!!

This was beautiful, and very easy to make. I made it for my daughters birthday, instead of using 1 square tin I used 3 victoria sponge tins and it was still great, I just cooked them for 36 mins on gas mark 4. I was also worried about it being bitter, so I used milk chocolate!!!!!

I too was confused by the instruction, ended up making the cake by melting the chocolate and butter ABOVE the pan of water as I've done this before with good results. The mixture was runny enough as it was without extra water! I baked it in a round tin and didn't cut through the middle. It is cracked on the top but I expected that. Beautiful cake though.
As for the icing, I'd recommend making it before you make the cake, then it will be ready when the cake is cool. I used a 250ml pot of cream, 325g chocolate and fondant icing sugar and then put it in the fridge for a couple of hours to "set" or thicken up. I do this all the time with ganache icing, it works a treat and isn't so runny, MUCH easier to ice the cake with. Still doesn't look like the photo though, maybe because I used plain chocolate instead of milk.

Sorry forgot to rate

Made this for my son's birthday cake, I changed the plain choc for milk and everyone loved it! I needed a choc cake that would cope with the weight of layered regal icing and this was perfect. I wrapped it in cling until I was ready to ice, this kept it so moist ! This is a keeper.

Ive just made this cake. I put it in 2 8" round sandwich tins and baked at 140 in a fan oven for 50 minutes which was perfect, a few cracks on the top but not many. It tastes really bitter!! Thats from the bit that fell off when i was taking it out of the tin. It is however currently in my kitchen awaiting the icing which is now in the fridge after adding an extra 100g of icing and still being a bit lumpy even after whisking, but thats not the issue, my issue is the same as everyone elses... its a runny goopy mess and im so annoyed!! These ingredients are expensive, it is not a cheap cake to make and yes my house smells great but hardly worth making at all and im excellent at cakes! Im so very annoyed about this!

Very Impressive And Lovely!! It Takes Nearer Two Hours Than One Hour To Bake. However, It Is Moist And Beautiful!! An Absolute Pleasure!

I have just made this cake and it turned out well. I halved the ingredients and used dark chocolate. It is quite bitter but I think perhaps milk chocolate would work well in this. I too have large cracks in mine but I think I will do the cream middle and just spinkle with icing sugar. I cooked it for 30 minutes and perhaps could have done with a few minutes less.

I'm just gonna make it so here goes, will let you all know

Hi,

i've been planning to bake this for my partners and sons birthday....everything went to plan until i iced the cake but i think i added the icing sugar to the chocolate far too quick as the chocolate was too warm and i now have a cake that has huge cracks in and the icing has sunken into them. I added about 230g of icing sugar and that gave it a lovely thick consistency and easier to spread.

Quite dissappointed as it cost a lot of money to buy the tin and the ingredients. I will make it again for my sons birthday but i will wait a few hrs until i ice the cake. Not tasted yet but the icing tasted lush!! I'll let you know what it tastes like tomorrow.

Just read through all the comments on this cake. I should have read them first, it was indeed a disaster! Followed the recipe exactly, took about 90 mins to cook, then cracked all over with a dip in the middle resembling a crater.Tried to cover it with the indeed very runny icing, making it all sink even more. The end result was a gloopy and dense bitter tasting cake, very dissapointing as I made it for my sons birthday not to mention all that chocolate that went into it! Usually always had good results with other cakes on this site but not this time!