Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting

I have my laptop back and I'm ready to roll!

I recently watched Matilda. And honestly, any time I watch that movie, I automatically want to eat Chocolate Cake-probably because of the scene where Trunchbull makes Bruce eat all of the cake. For those who have never seen Matilda (what a shame), or don't remember the scene I'm talking about, I'll refresh your memories:

Love that movie

Anyway, I finally mustered up the courage to make my own Chocolate Cake. Pretty sure it was the best thing I had eaten that whole week.

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting

The recipe is from Nigella

Ingredients

Cake

200 g Flour (sifted)

200 g Sugar

1 tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp Baking Soda

40 g Cocoa Powder

175 g Unsalted Butter (softened)

2 large Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

150 ml Sour Cream

Icing

75 g Unsalted Butter

175 g Dark Chocolate (broken into small pieces)

300 g Icing Sugar

1 tbsp Golden Syrup (similar to maple syrup)

125 ml Sour Cream

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Method

**Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature

There is one main alteration to the original recipe: Nigella used 2 separate cake tins/2 separate sponges. I opted to have only one sponge (and 1 layer) for my cake, so I poured all the batter in one pan.

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350ºF, and line 1 cake tin (I used a 9x9inch).

2. You have two options for this next step: You can either combine all the cake ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarb, cocoa, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream) into a food processor and process until you have a smooth, thick batter OR Mix the Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, and Baking Soda in a large bowl and beat in the soft Butter until you have a combined mixture; whisk together the Cocoa, Sour Cream, Vanilla and Eggs (in a separate bowl) and then beat it into your bowl of mixture until smooth(I don't have a food processor, so I did it the long way)

3. Pour your batter into your cake tin and bake until your cake tester/toothpick comes out clean—35-40 mins.

4. Remove the cake and leave in the tin to cool for about 10mins. Then invert cake, take it out of the tin, and leave to cool on wire rack. Make sure your cake is completely cooled before icing it!

Don't worry about any cracks-the icing covers them up

5. ICING: melt the butter and chocolate in a good-sized bowl either in the microwave or suspended over a pan of simmering water. Go slowly—you don't want any burning or seizing.

7. While the chocolate and butter are cooling a little, sift the icing sugar into another bowl. Add the golden syrup to the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla and then when all this is combined whisk in the sieved icing sugar. I found the icing too thick, so I added a tbsp. of milk (this is entirely up to you, and if you don’t have milk, use water). Using a spatula, spread the icing all over the top of the cake and the sides. Don’t worry if it isn’t entirely smooth—I personally prefer the cake to have a bit of a rustic look.

look at that shine

And now, a few more pictures:

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!