Chocolate Fudge Cake

You can never have enough chocolate cake recipes. OK, let me be fair here, I can never have enough of them. I don't really know about you. Being the obsessed baker, I am on a continuous hunt for new recipes to try and also just looking for any excuse at all to bake. I could just bake whenever I wanted, but then I'd have to eat it all, by myself and pile on all the calories. Can't do that....... anymore. Already done that, boo hoo.

So what was my excuse this time? A lunch invite from a friendly neighbor. I wasn't going to show up empty handed, I mean I was taking my 10 month old in tow (ha ha), but I went hands full, literally. (Note to self, carrying a 9 inch cake  in one hand and a baby in the other, even if for 7 mins can be very challenging. Use the baby carrier next time) After looking at my million bookmarked recipe, I just couldn't be more sure that a chocolate cake seemed a safe bet. This recipe is from one of my favorite bakers, Mary Berry. I love this woman. Everything about her.

The recipe uses the simplest method for making the batter. Really, could hardly get any simpler, specially for a cake that uses butter. And the fudge icing follows suit. Super simple, super yum. I'm done selling this recipe.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

3 tbsp hot water

175 gm butter, softened

175 gm castor sugar

3 eggs

175 gm flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

For the icing:

50 gm butter

25 gm cocoa

2 tbsp milk

150 gm icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease and line a 9 inch round cake tin with parchment paper.

2. In a small bowl, mix the cocoa and hot water and keep aside.

3. In a large bowl, measure out the rest of the ingredients for the cake . Using a cake beater, mix the ingredients on  medium speed for about 2 mins. Add the cocoa mixture and beat again for a minute.

4. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for about 45 mins. The cake is ready, when the surface is springy to touch and the sides of the cake have slightly shrunk.

5. While the cake is baking, get started on the icing.

6. In a saucepan, ,melt the butter on a low flame. Add the cocoa powder and cook the mixture for 1 minute, till it is combines well.

7. Take the pan off the heat and add the milk and icing sugar. Stir well till you get a semi runny consistency. The icing will thicken as it cools down. If the icing is too thick, add a little more milk. Keep the icing aside to cool till it gets to a spreadable consistency.

8. Once the cake has baked and cooled down, take it out of the tin and place on a cake board.

9. Generously pour the cooled icing on the cake and smoothen and shape using an offset spatula. If the icing has thickened, gently heat the icing till it loosens a bit.

8. Serve on it's own or if you want to go the extra mile, a scoop of vanilla ice creams makes the perfect accompaniment.