Crowd-Pleasing Chocolate Cake

Crowd-Pleasing Chocolate Cake

I know that there has been a trend (perhaps more so in the 90s than now, but still), for dense, rich, adult chocolate cakes - with the darkest of dark chocolate, loads of butter and the scantest amount of flour or almond meal to bind everything together. This is not one of those cakes. This is a simple, light and fluffy confection - easy to make, and even easier to eat. And on a prosaic note, as it doesn't contain any melted chocolate or cream, it is very cheap to make.

It's the perfect cake to make when you need to whip up something quick and delicious, but don't want to spend loads of time or money - children's birthday parties, bake sales, bring-a-plate occasions with people whose tastes you don't know that well, that sort of thing. Funnily enough, I made it for a work morning tea where I wasn't sure if my efforts would be appreciated, and it went down really well!

I found the cake recipe in an issue of that free magazine they give away at Coles to advertise their products, replacing their ganache-icing with an easy icing based on icing sugar and cocoa. I'm glad I made the substitution, not just because it was cheaper (hah!), but also because the cake itself wasn't very sweet, and it really benefited from the sugar icing.

Both the cake and icing were really easy to make, just a little whisking and stirring.

Making the cake

Icing

I baked the cake in a big slab, for ease of sharing, and once it had cooled, lazily spread it with a thin layer of the icing. I loved how the icing drips down the sides of the cake!

Iced cake

I also love the way the icing goes a little crackly as it sets - it's a little messy to eat but so delicious!

Sliced cake

Although I've gone on about how light and easy this cake it, rest assured that it is a proper chocolate cake - the large quantity of cocoa in the batter gives it a deep chocolatey flavour without making it dense or overly rich. Win win!

Crowd-Pleasing Chocolate Cake
Cake recipe from the September issue of Coles Magazine, icing recipe from Taste.com.au

For the Cake
2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup milk
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
125 grams melted butter

For the Icing
195 grams icing sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
10 grams butter, at room temperature
1-2 tablespoons boiling water

To make the cake, preheat the oven to 170C. Grease a 30x20cm cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Sift flour and cocoa powder into a large bowl and stir in the brown sugar. Make a well in the centre.
Whisk together the milk, eggs and vanilla extract. Pour into the dry ingredients with the melted butter, and stir gently until just combined. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre. Allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
To make the icing, sieve the icing sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl. Add the butter and enough boiling water to make a spreadable consistency. (Start with 1 tablespoon, and add the 2nd tablespoon if necessary. Once the cake is cool, pour the icing over and smooth with a palette knife or spatula. Allow the icing to set before slicing into squares to serve.