Decadent chocolate cake

It is coming up to birthday time and that means one thing: birthday cake. I have made decadent chocolate cake once before and it turned out beautifully so decided to give it another go. The recipe I used came from the Food Lovers website and was simple to follow. I used Whittaker's 50% Cocoa Dark Block but would also happily use Whittaker's 72% Cocoa Dark Ghana for those who particularly dark chocolate with a bite.

Decadent chocolate cake

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon coffee powder
• 1 cup hot water
• 250 g butter
• 200 g dark chocolate, chopped
• 2 cups caster sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 140ºC.
2. Place coffee, water and butter in pot and melt. Add chocolate and stir gently. Once smooth, add the caster sugar and stir until dissolved.
3. Pour mixture into a large bowl and beat in dry ingredients. Add eggs and vanilla extract. Beat well with electric beater.
4. Bake for 1 1/2 hours on a regular bake setting (not fan) in a well greased and lined 23 cm cake tin. Check progress after 1 hour.

The cake is in the oven as we speak (so no photo yet) and smells simply divine. Depending on how much time I have before the birthday dinner tomorrow night, I'll either ice it with chocolate buttercream frosting or serve it slightly warm with whipped cream. Mmmmmm.