'Speedy' chocolate cake recipe (From York Press)

'Speedy' chocolate cake recipe

11:10am Saturday 24th March 2012 in Too Many Cooks By Anita Tasker

This week, our new columnist ANITA TASKER gives us her “speedy” chocolate cake recipe.

THIS chocolate cake takes roughly 20 minutes to make, plus 50 minutes to bake.

Please note that timings for cooking are for my fan oven and we all know our ovens can be either a little hotter or cooler, so cooking times may vary a little.

Ingredients

185g softened butter (not melted to liquid)
165g castor sugar
3 eggs
150g self-raising flour
75g plain flour
35g cocoa
125 ml full milk.

Method

Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 4/350F or 150C fan oven.

Put all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat thoroughly until everything is combined. This will take approximately five minutes. I use a wooden spoon for this. Try to get your batter nice and smooth.

Grease and flour or simply line your cake tin. (I like to grease the tin, then line it with greaseproof paper and grease and flour it all again which makes turning out easy and helps prevent burning). Pour your cake mix into your tin. Place in the centre of your pre-heated oven.

Bake for roughly 50 minutes or until a cocktail stick pushed into the centre comes out nice and dry. This means the cake is fully cooked.

Gently turn out on to a cooling tray. When cool, slice horizontally and decorate.

Filling and topping

200g double cream
400g chocolate (milk or dark works best, not white).

Method

Put the cream into a pan and boil, it must boil. Tip in your chocolate and stir until all nicely melted. Cover and leave to cool, then refrigerate.

When firm, beat with wooden spoon (or mixer if you have one) until nice and fluffy; your fudge will change colour and become all light and soft.

You can carefully lift the cake layers apart to fill your cake with this lovely fudge.

Put the top of the cake on to the fudge-filled bottom and use the rest of the fudge to cover the top of the cake.

Decorate with whatever you like, or leave plain. Store in an air-tight container (if you have any left after tea that is!).

Any remaining fudge can be stored covered in your fridge for up to a week ready for the next cake!

• Anita Tasker runs Pattacakes, a café, bakery and shop on Main Street, Welburn, near Castle Howard, selling an array of artisan breads, cakes and patisserie.

She will be contributing regularly to our Too Many Cooks column.