Handy chocolate cake
Servings: 5
This recipe appears on Series 2 of A Bite To Eat with Alice. The new season starts Monday 31st March on ABC TV at 5pm weeknights or any time on ABC iview. The entire catalog of recipes from Series 1 and Series 2 (as they air) can be found here
15 minutes
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Ingredients
- 1½ cups (225g) plain flour
- 1 cup (220g) caster sugar
- ½ cup (50g) quality cocoa powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- pinch fine salt
- 2 eggs
- 180 g unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup (250ml) buttermilk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate ganache
- 200 g dark chocolate roughly chopped
- 200 g thickened cream
Whipped cream frosting
- 300 ml thickened cream
- 2 tsp icing sugar plus extra for dusting
- 2 tsp quality cocoa powder plus extra for dusting
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 170°C (conventional). Grease the sides and base of a 20cm cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
- Sift the flour, caster sugar, cocoa, bi-carb soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. In another bowl whisk the eggs, butter, buttermilk and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, then pour in the wet ingredients and stir to mix well until the batter is smooth and lump free (balloon whisk is best but can use a large spatula).
- Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Take the cake out and let it sit for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn it out onto a wire rack, remove the baking paper and let it cool completely. Once cooled, transfer to a cake plate.
- For the chocolate ganache, place chocolate pieces into a medium glass bowl. Warm the cream in a small saucepan over low-medium heat. Once the cream is heated through and just before coming to the boil, pour over the chocolate and mix well with a whisk until smooth. Cover and place in the fridge to cool for 15—20 minutes. Once cool, whisk again until the mixture becomes airy and lighter in colour.
- For the whipped cream frosting, pour cream into the mixing bowl. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa over the top of the cream. Using a hand whisk and elbow grease, beat to combine and until the cream forms firm peaks. Or you can use an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, instead.
- Slice the handy chocolate cake in half horizontally and spread the base with the whipped chocolate ganache. Place the lid back on and press down slightly to join the two halves.
- Spoon large dollops of the frosting over the cooled cake, then with a spatula gently spread evenly over the surface, gently nudging it to the edges. Dust the cake with a combination of about a teaspoon each of icing sugar and cocoa, sifted over the top.
