Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake

Here's my no fail chocolate cake recipe that used to be top playground swap food
when my children were young(er).

Preheat oven to 190 C 375 F.
Grease and flour or line a 20cm (8") cake pan.

1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup plain cocoa powder ( I use Dutch cocoa, but have used plain
wrap without any hassles.)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk (or water depending on if you like it 'milk' or 'dark')
1 tablespoon vinegar

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Combine water, oil, vanilla, milk or water and vinegar in a large jug and mix well. Pour wet ingredients into dry and beat well with a wooden spoon for a minute or two until well combined. Bake for 40-45 minutes until a skewer inserted come out clean. Leave in tin for 5 minutes before cooling on wire rack.

I used to sprinkle the hot cake fairly thickly with choc chips. They melted and you could spread it over the cake and when cooler but still tacky, sprinkle it with 100s & 1000s or shredded coconut. It has the benefit of being egg and dairy free (if you use water) and very quick and easy.

Cuts into 12 pieces and freezes well.

Black Forest Cake

Dene's Black Forest Cake

2x20cm round chocolate cakes using your favourite recipe

Mascarpone cream

500g mascarpone

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 tbs icing sugar

Cherries

2 1/2 tbsp cornflour

1 jar of Morello cherries (about 670gms)

75g-100g sugar (depends on how sour the cherries are.)

30ml Kirsch

500 ml whipping cream

200gm dark chocolate

2 tbls extra Kirsch

prepared cake board (I used a chopping board covered in pretty silver paper)

Method

Cakes

Bake the cakes according to recipe or packet instructions, cool over night then trim and slice in half. Place in fridge or freezer whilst preparing fillings.

Mascarpone cream

Beat the mascarpone, vanilla and sugar in a bowl until smooth and slightly thicker in volume.

Cherries

Drain the cherries and reserve the liquid, then mix the cornflour with enough cherry juice to make a paste. Reserve 12 cherries for the top of the cake.

Combine the rest of the juice with the cornflour paste and put into a saucepan with the desired amount of sugar. Cook, stirring, until it boils and thickens. Add the cherries and Kirsch, remove from heat and place in the fridge to cool.

Ganache

Break 150gms of chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl.

Gently heat 75-100ml of cream in a saucepan until just boiling, then pour over the chocolate. Leave for a couple of minutes for the chocolate to soften then mix together until smooth. Put aside.

Cream

Whip the remaing cream with sugar to taste and the extra Kirsch. Take out one cup of whipped cream and set aside.

To assemble the cake

Place first layer on a board, spread half of the mascarpone cream on top of cake. Add one third of the cherry mixture and then top with one third of the whipped cream. Place on the prepared cake board and put in the fridge.

Place the second layer on the board. Take out half of the remaining cream and mix it with half of the remaining cherries, spread on the cake. Put the second layer on top of the first layer and place in fridge. Allow to set for 15 – 20 minutes.

For the third layer repeat the process for layer number one using the rest of the mascarpone cream, cherries and whipped cream then allow to set in fridge for 10 – 15 minutes.

For top layer, place cake on board, carefully spread ganache over the top of the cake, allowing a small amount to droop over the side of the cake. Pipe the reserved whipped cream into 12 rosettes on top of the cake; place a cherry on each rosette. Put final layer on top of the cake and refrigerate until needed.

Fruit Cake - easy

I made a cake today too... something weird must be happening to the planets!...

Soak 1 kilo mixed fruit in 600ml carton of iced coffee, overnight

Stir in 1 cup of SR flour & cook

Smells & Looks OK... am about to try it

Dot

just had slice... very moist, yummy

Mud Cake with Ice Cream

Originally from Dot and seconded by Maxine

Can I add to this recipe - this is what my friend made for my kids last year for their birthday cakes (the one who we just spent Christmas with - she is kind of a godmother/auntie to my kids). She made the mud cake from a packet mix though. I would prefer home made - not that hard? Anyway - she then asked the kids what lollies they wanted - they chose stuff like maltesers - then she mixed those in with the icecream middle bit. Then made a chocolate cream to go on top - decorated with more maltesers and then froze it again.

Need to leave it to soften slightly before cutting. - You can use any mix ins in the middle icecream section.

Maxine

Take one purchased mud cake - cut icing from top - discard. Then cut in half across the middle (you will have two pieces - like a sponge). Roll first piece of cake between two pieces of glad bake with a rolling pin.

Place a circle of glad bake on the bottom of a cheesecake tin (sprung with side opening to remove from base) and put one rolled out piece of cake on top of the glad bake in the tin. Then add approx. one litre of softened ice cream. Then repeat process with second half of mud cake.

Spread approx. 1 litre of softened ice cream in top, place "topping" on top, cover with glad wrap and freeze.

Bring out of freezer approx half an hour ahead of eating - or less if weather is HOT.

Suggestions:

- choc/caramel mud cake with caramel swirl ice cream and topped with broken "crunchie" or violet crumble.

- white choc mud cake with cookies and cream ice cream and topped with broken "Flake" or grated white chocolate.

- choc mud cake with vanilla ice cream with respberries added - topped with flake and fresh raspberries.

- You can even make a type of frozen plum pudding by adding mixed fruit etc.

NOTE: If adding dried fruit or berries etc always soak in some sort of liquor to prevent freezing too hard - any of your old liquors that you have a little left in the bottle are perfect for this.

I have made the choc mud cake with caramel swirl ice cream topped with a broken up crunchie and it was very nice. It is not something for everyday, but great for a celebration cake and so very quick!

Chocolate Mug Cake

4 tbs flour
4 tbs sugar
2 tbs cocoa

mix together:
1 egg beaten
3 tbs oil
3 tbs milk
Vanilla if you have it
3 tbs choc bits optional.

Add wet to dry and mix. Put in 2 mugs and cook for 3 mins in microwave. Allow to stand before eating. 1000 watt microwave used.

Kerrilee

Pecan Sour Cream Cake

250g butter
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
300g carton sour cream
1 and 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup sr flour
1 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
2 tblsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Grease a deep 23cm round pan.
Cream butter, essence and sugar in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy; beat in eggs one at a time, beat until combined.
Transfer mixture to a large bowl, stir in sour cream then sifted flours and soda.
Spread half hte cake mixture into prepared pan, sprinkle with half hte conbined pecans, brown sugar and cinnamon. Spread evenly with remaining cake mixture, sprinkle with remaining pecan mixture; press gently into cake mixture. Bake mod oven 1 hour or so. Stand 5 mins before turning onto wire rack to cool.

Keeps 3 days (yeah, sure!)

Chocolate Cake in a Mug

The Most Dangerous Choccie Cake Recipe in the World After all the talk on buddies about the muffin in a mug cake, I thought you might like this one that was sent to me...

· Get out your biggest mug. (Mine is a 500ml pottery beer mug.)
· Break an egg into it.
· Add 2 tbsp sugar (2x20ml)
· Add 2 tbsp cocoa
· Little splash of vanilla
· Beat well with a fork
· Add 1 tbsp self-raising flour
· Add 1 tbsp milk
· Add 1 tbsp oil
· (in that order, so you don't get the measuring spoon all yukky)
· Mix it all up with the fork until no lumps. Makes 180ml total
without extras.

· (Optional extras at this point are a slurp of your favourite tipple,
and/or a couple of leftover baby Easter eggs, or 1-2 tbsp chockbits, or 2 or
3 after dinner mints, chocolate ginger or whatever rows your boat.)

· Cook for 1 minute 20 seconds in a 1600W microwave, adjusted for the
power of yours. The mixture rose up almost to the top of my big mug, then sank back to twice the starting size. According to the original (erroneous) recipe "the mixture does rise up above the top of the mug, but don't worry."
Do you believe that?
· Stand 1 minute.
· You can shovel it out with the fork and eat it straight away, or top
up the mug with whipped cream and shovel it out anyway, or
· Tip it out on a plate and shovel from there, which makes room for
more fruit and veg, cream and/or icecream. Any chocolate you added will melt like a frosting if you let it sit for an hour, or sauce if you are a greedy guts who thinks waiting for cake to cool, and chocolate to harden is a pointless exercise.
· This is a light cake with a few holes in it. It is not as onerous as
restaurant chocolate cake to eat, but might be with ½ a cup of Baileys poured over it. You could probably make it more onerous by adding more oil, but what's the point? Don't want to kill yourself, do you?

SUGGESTION: Email this to a friend and agree on a time for coffee and cake over a phonecall. Five minutes before you ring them, put the kettle on, and make your cake while the kettle is boiling. Enjoy. It's a whole new take on "I saw you pull into the driveway and just popped a batch of scones in the oven!"

Louisa

Never Fail Chocolate Cake

1 cup S/R flour
1 cup sugar
½ cup (milk)
½ teas vanilla
2 eggs
2 tbsp cocoa
125g butter, melted (approx ½ cup)

Prepare a 20cm cake tin. Grease and line the tin to ensure it comes out properly. Preheat over to 180C/350F. Put all ingredients except the butter into the bowl of an electric mixer. Melt butter, add to mixture and beat for 3 minutes, then pour into cake tin. Bake for about 50 mins.
Notes:
 Cake can easily be doubled if required.
 Can use half wholemeal flour.
 Better if heaped tablespoons of cocoa.
 Can halve flour and replace with ground almonds/hazelnuts.
 Can replace milk with orange juice. Also add grated orange rind. Haven’t tried lemon juice and rind but it could be very nice.
 Some liquor can be added – e.g. I put in a tablespoon or two of Grand Manier with orange juice and reduce the amount of milk by the amount of liquor added.

The cake was filled with White Chocolate Mousse
250gms white choc & 1/4 cup plus 1 tbs of water (=1/4 & 1 Tbs water), melt together. When cooled stir into 1.5 cups cream whipped to soft peaks.

Debbie P

Debbie P's Grandma's Chocolate Cake

Below is Grandma's flourless chocolate cake. Mum made it for our Austrian Winter Feast. It was yummy. I've made it but found it a bit tricky. So good luck with it. We put a layer of apricot jam on top then cover with chocolate ganach.

1 glass water
¼ pound chocolate
4 oz sugar
4 oz round almonds
5 eggs –separated
1 tbl breadcrumbs

Put water, chocolate, sugar and almonds in a saucepan. Heat, dissolve sugar and chocolate. Cool chocolate mixture. Beat yolks into chocolate mixture. Whip egg whites, fold in breadcrumbs. Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 mins to 1 hour.

Mixed Berry Yoghurt Cake - Sophie

125 g butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2/3 cup (150 g) caster sugar
3 eggs
¾ cup (110g) self-raising flour
1/3cup (50g) plain flour
1/3 cup (40g) almond meal (ground almonds)
200g plain yogurt
1/3 cup (50g) frozen blueberries
1/3 cup (40g) frozen raspberries

Oven 180 C
20cm ring tin –line base
1. Beat butter, vanilla and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined between additions.
3. Stir in combined sifted flours, almond meal and yogurt.
4. Spread the cake mixture into tin and sprinkle with berries.
5. Gently press berries into top of cake mixture.
6. Bake approx. 45 minutes.
7. Stand the cake for 5 mins before turning out, cool and dust with icing sugar.

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

4 tablespoons sr flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate drops
1 mug

Method
Add dry ingredients to the mug and mix well
Crack an egg and add it to your mug. Be sure to mix it well to avoid any pockets of flour in the corners
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well
Add the chocolate drops if you've got them, and a splash of vanilla essence too
Pop your mug into the microwave and zap for 3 minutes on maximum power (1000 watt)
Wait until the cake stops rising and sets in the mug
If necessary, run a knife around the sides of the mug and tip the still warm cake out of the mug and onto a saucer
Anyone like me who doesn’t like the taste of of oil, you can replace most of it except one teaspoon with baby apple and 2 and a half tablespoons of sugar instead of 4 still tastes yummy, especially since you have the sweetness of the choc bit. I’ve made it twice now and it was yum with a spoonful of icecream!
I’d love to find a non-chocolate variety for my boys.

Linda Piper

Sophie's Apple raisin chocolate cake

Here is the recipe Brenda asked for. From my MIL

APPLE RAISIN CHOCOLATE CAKE (Although I used Sultanas on Saturday.)

4 oz butter
8ozs castor sugar
2 eggs
8oz SR flour
1 level teaspoon bi-carb soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup apple puree
1 pkt chocolate bits
4 ozs seeded raisins.


Cream butter & sugar, add eggs and beat. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with the apple puree. Then add the choc bits and raisins. Put in greased tin and bake at 185C for 1 1/4 hours approx. I used a ring tin but cake can be made in a 20 cm round or square tin.

Beck's Once a year (or eat in a day) chocolate cake

500g dark chocolate

2 tablespoons golden syrup

125g unsalted butter

4 eggs

1 tablespoon castor sugar

1 tablespoon plain flour



Preheat oven to 220 degrees

Grease and line a 20cm springform tin

Melt chocolate, syrup and butter, set aside and cool slightly

In a separate bowl, mix eggs and sugar with beater on high until very thick, creamy and pale

Gently fold in sifted flour, then chocolate mixture until combined

Pour into cake pan and bake on middle shelf of oven for 10 – 12 minute

Remove, run knife around side of the cake and remove collar (sides) and transfer to fridge for 1 hour.

ENJOY (serve with unsweetened cream or plain vanilla icecream)

Donna's easy donut cake

Drive to dreamy donuts. Buy 16 donuts - some with yummy custard fillings others with Lindt chocolate on top

Return home

Beat to death the child who ate one from the stash in the fridge

Pile up on plate. Mathematical skills are desirable not essential. Some discussion on the precision arrangement of each layer useful for homeschoolers I think.

stick candles in top ones - lindt choc ones are not the best choice for the top

light candles, sing, enjoy...

Judy's RICH CHOCOLATE CAKE

(recipe 2815 NMAA Cooks Again)

1/2 cup cocoa 2 cups SR Flour
1/2 cup boiling water 1/4 tsp bicarb soda
175 gm (6 oz) butter/marg 3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups caster sugar 1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs

Grease 2 20cm (8") round tins, oven 180.

Blend cocoa with boiling water, cool a bit.
Cream butter/ sugar and add eggs one at a time, beating well.
Sift flour and soda, then sift again into creamed mixture, stir lightly, add milk, vanilla and when well mixed stir in cocoa mixture.
Bake 30-35 mins. Allow to stand 5 minutes before turning out on rack.

For the middle, I spread some jam (anything but marmalade), make some mock cream (or you could use real cream whipped well) and then chocolate icing.

Brenda's chocolate cake that will fix anything

Boiled Chocolate Cake

2 cups (500ml) water
3 cups (660g) caster sugar
250g butter, chopped
1/3 cup (35g) cocoa
1 tspn bicarb soda
3 cups (450g) SR flour
4 eggs, lightly beaten

Grease a deep 24-25cm round cake tin or 2 x 20cm round cake tins and line bottom(s) with baking paper. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved, then increase heat and bring to the boil. Reduce heat again and simmer uncovered 5 mins. Let cool for 10 mins.

You can either transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer or use a hand held mixer straight in the saucepan. Sift in the flour and add the eggs and beat until smooth. At this stage the mixture will be very runny - like chocolate sauce - but don't worry, this is correct.

Pour into tin(s) and bake for approx 50 mins to 1 hour. Test with a skewer in the centre, when cooked leave in tin(s) for about 10 mins before turning out. It's a good idea to run a knife around the edge between the cake and the tin before turning out.

You can ice it if you want, or sprinkle with icing sugar/drinking chocolate or just eat it as it is.

Yum! Enjoy!!