Real Chocolate Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cake without melted chocolate? That's criminal. Here's my recipe for real chocolate chocolate cake.

Ingredients:

• 200g dark chocolate, chopped
• 200g butter, softened
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup cream

For the fudge frosting:

• 150g chocolate
• 150g butter, softened
• 1 cup icing sugar, sifted

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Melt chocolate and put aside to cool slightly.
2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy, then add eggs, 1 at a time while beating, and finally the melted chocolate and cream.
3. Fold in the flour, stirring gently until smooth.
4. Spoon into prepared pan and smooth the cake’s surface. Bake for 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. It could take from 45 minutes up to about 80, depending on the diameter of your tin.
5. For the frosting, melt chocolate then leave to cool slightly. Whip up butter until fluffy, then start adding icing sugar. When combined, add cooled melted chocolate gradually until smooth. Add more icing sugar if mixture is too loose. Using a butter knife and a cup with very hot water (dip and dry off to assist spreading as the frosting starts to stick to the knife rather than the cake) smooth on the frosting.

I always use salted butter when cooking. The salt offsets the sweet and provides more flavour. This cake is gorgeous au natural (unfrosted), particularly with a cup of coffee - it's denser than a sponge, but lighter than a mud cake, and beautifully crumbly. If you use a little less sugar and a very high cocoa content chocolate (I use 70%), then it is actually not that unhealthy. Iced of course, it is an altogether different creature. I smooth my frosting using baking paper sprayed with canola oil, and for this one I used another 100g of melted chocolate to dribble on top. This makes a richer, sweeter cake, and is more appropriate for dessert. Keeps un-frosted in a container at room temperature for 2-3 days, or frosted in the fridge for a little longer.