Potent Chocolate Cake

All families seem to have a chocolate cake recipe, this is mine. Like all good recipes it was pilfered from someone else, in this case given to my mother by one of primary school friend’s mothers. As to where it came from before then, that’s anyone’s guess – it might even be your family chocolate cake recipe.

I have made this cake many many times, but the best was probably in first year uni. The cake was cooked and we had sliced it in half and put some whipped cream in the middle. The cake was still a bit warm and a friend and I attempted to put it back together. Needless to say the top half of the cake slid over the bottom ending with a delightful mess of warm destroyed chocolate cake. I can’t remember who’s birthday it was for, but it never made it through the night. We poured hot icing over top and all sat around at 9pm at night and ate it.

The cake is easy to make, but isn’t for the faint-hearted. I don’t think even a marathon would work off all the calories in this bad boy.

Ingredients

Cake

1tbs instant coffee
200gm butter
200gm dark chocolate (I use one with 72% cocoa solids)
1½ cups self-raising flour
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup hot water
2 cups castor sugar
¼ cup cocoa
2tsp vanilla essence

Icing

¾ cup cream
175gm dark chocolate (again the 72% cocoa solids)
1tsp Kremelta (I never have any so don’t bother with it)

Method

Place coffee and water in a saucepan and add butter. Stir over a low heat until melted.
Add castor sugar, stir until smooth.
Add chocolate, stir until smooth.
Place chocolate mixture into a large bowl and gradually beat in sifted dry ingredients.
Add eggs and vanilla
Lightly grease a 25cm cake tin and line base with baking paper.
Poor mixture into tin.
Bake in a slow oven for 1-1½ hours (if you want the cake to be fudgey take it out of the oven before a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean)
Stand for 5min before turning out.
Ice when cold.