Quick Chocolate Cake

I made three of these cakes at once, two were for paying customers and one was for us to devour.  This cake is quick to make and bake, great if you need to whip up a cake stall or afternoon tea treat in a hurry.  You could ice and fill the cake with buttercream but I used ganache as I needed something more decadent and  delicious.

I used my usual 2, 2, 2, 4 sponge cake recipe (200g butter, 200g sugar, 200g flour, 2 tsp baking powder and 4 eggs) but changed the flour measurement to compensate for the addition of cocoa to make a rich chocolate cake.  

Quick Chocolate Cake

140g plain flour

60g cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

200g butter, softened

200g caster sugar

4 large free range eggs

Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan.  Grease and line a 20cm/8in round deep cake tin with baking paper.

I used my stand mixer to make this cake but you could use hand held electric beaters instead or make it by hand if you want a good arm workout.

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder together.  In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time with 1 or 2 tablespoonfuls of the dry ingredients, beating well after each addition.  Fold in the rest of the dry ingredients until well combined. 

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface.  Bake for 30–40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Leave to cool completely in the tin.

Once the cake has cooled completely you can ice and fill it with either buttercream or ganache.

Chocolate Ganache

Bring 200ml of double cream to the boil then take it off the heat and stir in 300g of chocolate broken into pieces.  Keep stirring until a smooth mixture forms.  Chill in the fridge until thickened then spread or pipe onto the cake.

Chocolate Buttercream

125g butter, softened

250g icing sugar

50g dark chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature

Put the butter and icing sugar in a bowl and whisk together until light and fluffy.  Add the cooled melted chocolate and whisk again until fluffy.  Spread or pipe on to the cake.