One of my S6 pupils makes the best chocolate cake in the world. She bakes one and brings it in each time a class member has a birthday and we greedily devour it whilst discussing Janice Galloway’s novels or our latest creative writing task. I’d love to be able to make such a chocolate cake but, much like the muffin lady, this pupil firmly refuses to share her secret recipe. I tried begging shamelessly, I tried to catch her off guard and I even, in a moment of madness, considered bribing her. It’s not going to happen though – I have accepted that now.
And so I turn to you guys. I’m looking for a fabulous chocolate cake recipe. A sponge rather than a flourless recipe. Do you know where I could find one? Would you be willing to share one? Would you?
Let me try to bribe you with this super-cute picture of Marco’s wookie friend, Bo… 🙂
A Wee Bit of Cooking 
Aw, cuteness wins!
People beg me to make this: http://athinkingstomach.blogspot.com/2007/03/day-after-st-patricks-day.html
It’s phenomenally chocolatey, impressively huge, and delightfully decadent.
Here is the basic Hershey chocolate cake recipe. I have never tried it, but I have eaten and it was good. Personally, I prefer vanilla cake with chocolate icing, but I did like the icing on this cake. It is a recipe that I think could be tweeked to one’s liking. I would add some sour cream!
http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/184/HERSHEY'S%20%22PERFECTLY%20CHOCOLATE%22%20Chocolate%20Cake.aspx
This one is brilliant! http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/old-fashioned-chocolate-cake-119
And I’m not a fan of keeping recipes secret, where’s the fun in that? Food is a thing that should be shared!
I have an extreme chocolate, chocolate cake, but then I don’t quite no what I am up against. Bo is cute and scarily like a wookie 🙂
know even and not no 😀
Oh and if you make the hershey cake don’t use hershey bars. In my opinion actually in my husband’s and friend’s too, it tastes like sick!
I grew up eating only one chocolate cake which was a plain sponge and thought it was the only chocolate cake – now I have posted so many that I don’t know what is the best. However it is strange that I have never posted my childhood chocolate cake – I really must do that!
I do love a mud cake still such as this one http://gggiraffe.blogspot.com/2007/06/shf-mud-glorious-mud.html which is one of the first cakes I discovered upon realising my mum’s cake wasn’t the one and only! But it might be a bit dense for you.
The one tip I got on a sponge cake when I was young was that if you beat the mixture with electric beaters for about 3 minutes it makes it light and fluffy.
And I meant to say that I understand a cafe owner not sharing a recipe but a primary school child!!!! That is crazy. You need to just tell her she will fail the year unless you get the recipe!
Helen’s Farmhouse Chocolate Cake
In my Kenwood cake mixer I make the following miracle!
Cream 4oz butter
5oz sugar till light and creamy
Add 3 eggs – 1x at a time, then
3 tbsps cocoa mixed in little hot water
Sift in 1 cup flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
half a tsp of baking soda
Line bottom of tin 18cm square, 7cm high, with baking paper and lightly butter sides. Pour mixture into tin and spread evenly. Bake at 150C for 50-60 mins. Turn out on to cake rack. When cool, split and sandwich with raspberry jam and ice top.
This recipe can be doubled (I always do), use an oblong tin, 20cm X 30cm x 5cm high, also lined, bake for 35mins on 150 degrees C on fan bake. Turn out on cake rack and ice top when cool and cut into squares.
A lovely buttery rich cake, but not at all heavy. Always successful. This is my mother’s recipe which has never failed.
For you Wendy with love.
Helen
:^)
Personally, if I have to make a choc cake, I need one quickly. My favourite, foolproof recipe is for a microwavable choc cake.
I know what most think about “baking” in the microwave, but I really like this recipe.
10 min. from start to finish.
1 cup of flour
2 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of oil
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tbsp cocoa
1 cup of hot water
Mix well, all the ingredients, adding the hot water last.
Pour into an empty ice-cream container.
Microwave for 8 min. on med-high.
Once cooled, I half it, put caramel in the centre and pour a nice chocolate sauce (no set recipe for this yet) over it; which soaks into the cake.
Hmmm, chocolate cake can be such a personal thing, can it not? haha! I’m also not a fan of “secret recipes”… food is a joy and needs to be shared! Unless you’re in a competition, why not share the recipe?
Anyway, I usually don’t bake chocolate cake (I prefer making moist brownies or muffins instead) and I haven’t tried this one, yet. But this looks like a very easy, very simple recipe… and experience has told me: usually simple is best when it comes to baking! There’s even a video to get those creative mojo-juices flowing:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easy_chocolate_cake_31070
What kind of chocolate cake is it? Is it a rich one or a more simple old-fashioned what we call in our household “Famous Five Cake” – something you could imagine taking on a picnic in an Enid Blyton scenario. If it’s the latter let me know and I will share my Famous Five Cake recipe. Hehe.
I make this for birthdays all the time and it has never let me down http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3092/ultimate-chocolate-cake
Right – going to buy some butter and make me a cake! Surely perfect for the blues-off for a wee bit of Scotland tonight!
my favourite tv chef is james martin ~ very good looking ~ the one who makes the spun sugar, anyway he seems to have a sweet tooth cos he has a recipe for a chocolate cola cake that is beautifully moist and decadently chocolately ~ what more could you want??
preheat the oven to 180/350/mark4
grease a 24cm loose-bottomed cake tin
sift 250g self raising flour, 300g caster sugar, 3 heaped tbs cocoa and a generous pinch of bicarbonate of soda into a bowl.
gently melt 250g butter and 200ml cola drink in a pan, then add to the dry ingredients, together with 75ml milk, 2 beaten eggs and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
mix gently but thoroughly, then tip into the cake tin
bake for about 40 mins until a skewer comes out clean. remove from the oven and leave to cool
to make the topping: beat 60g butter, 200g icing sugar and 2-3tbs cocoa together in a bowl until blended. Beat in 2 tbs cola drink to combine. spread over the cake and allow to set.
you can add a chocolate sauce to make it even more delicious: melt a king sized caramel chocolate bar [mars?] gently in a pan with a splash of double cream, then stir in 2 tbs mini marshmallows [optional] ~ this makes the cake very rich ~ you could do the topping or the sauce or both!!
Ive made it 2 or 3 times ~ it never fails!
full marks to your pupil for perseverance!! how about asking the mother or father for the recipe in return for a good report!!!!!! not very professional ~ depends on how well you get on with them!!!!
Hi, Wendy,
The chocolate cake I make for special occasions comes from Nigella’s “How to be a Domestic Goddess”, page 172 in my edition. Torta alla Gianduja is absolutely wickedly delicious, as you would imagine from such a source!
I also find that a cake which involves sour cream is extremely good.
If you put “Torta alla Gianduia” into your search engine, you will find that “80 Breakfasts” has blogged about it and included the recipe. It’s worth a look.
Thank you everyone! Lots and lots of ideas.
Christina – Shall try this one tomorrow. 🙂
Gale – The icing is important to get right, indeed. David’s favourite bit!
Domestikate – It was a Nigella one that I tried at first and failed miserably with. Don’t know what I did wrong…
Jacqueline – Shall most definitely be avoiding the sick-flavoured chocolate bars then. 😉
Johanna – She’s a secondary school child, but still! 😉
Helen – Thank you! Shall certainly try this one out.
Stu – This sounds like great fun. And perfect for a snowy day like today. If only I could get out of my driveway to get the ingredients…
Jessica – To be fair to the girl, there is a certain magic about the days she makes the cake for us all. Maybe when she leaves school she’ll share. 🙂
Shauna – Looking for an old fashioned sponge, I think, but could be convinced otherwise.
Helen – Thank you! 🙂
Robyn – Hope it was good! 🙂
Pippa – Thank you! And yes, she has a will of steel. Very impressive. The girl will go far!
Yvonne – Hello! That looks utterly divine. 🙂
I see you have enough chocolate cake recipes to keep you busy 😉 That pup’s face is priceless.
Wonderful dog.
Our best chocolate cake in fact was a yellow cake with thick, fudge-like chocolate frosting. Let me know if you’re interested, although it sounds like you have everything you need right here.
i’m loving this very light (sponge texture) but also very dark (intense flavour) cake: http://eattherightstuff.squarespace.com/blog/2010/11/27/darkest-lightest-chocolate-cake.html
it’s very grown up and utterly delicious.
Why not give my recipe for the easiest (and best) chocolate cake ever a try – you can find it here…
http://hollygrovekitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/easiest-chocolate-cake-ever.html
Hope you enjoy it as much as we do – I bake one almost every week!
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