the hungry mum

It was my baby brother’s birthday recently and a cake was absolutely in order. By baby I meant he is nudging the upper end of his 30s but in my heart he’s still the funny little boy who used to fall asleep standing up while playing with Matchbox cars.

My mum hosted a family lunch and bought my bros an ice-cream cake – sort of as a joke, sort of because he actually requested one. Obviously a real, actual chocolate birthday would also be needed.

I found the ideal recipe in David Herbert’s Best Ever Baking Recipes and it was not only a snap to make, it turned out exactly like the photo in the book! Huzzah! It tasted rich and fudgy and decadent – a perfect birthday cake.

Gather:

100 g butter, diced, at room temperature

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

250g caster sugar

100g dark chocolate melted

280g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon bicarb

2 tablespoons cocoa

250ML milk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

 Let’s get to it:

Preheat oven to 180C and grease a 20cm springform tin and line the base with baking paper.

Combine butter, egg, sugar and meted chocolate in a large bowl. Sift in flour, bicarb and cocoa.

Combine milk and lemon juice in a small jug (it should curdle slightly) and pour into the bowl.

Beat with hand held beaters or spoon for 2minutes / until smooth.

Pour into tin and bake for 50 minutes/ until a skewer comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before turning out to wire rack to cool.

When cold dress with ganache [I cheated and tried a new product I’d seen in the chilled section – Philly chocolate frosting. It tasted good & is perfect for when you don’t have time to whip up ganache].

Tags: baking, birthday, cake, chocolate, recipe