chocolate fudge cake

i’ve been having really strong cake cravings for the past few weeks. it’s probably because despite many of my friends having birthdays in the first quarter of the year, there has been a real dearth of cakes, so any expectations i have had for a sneaky slice have been dashed with surprising regularity.the other factor has been the jar of caramel syrup which has been sitting in my kitchen since i made the november daring bakers caramel cake with caramelised butter icing. this was a great cake and i’ve wanted to make it again but haven’t managed to as people have requested different cakes (this pistachio and orange cake with lemon and rosewater icing has been particularly popular recently).

anyway, the long and short of it is that i have finally got round to making a cake which i knew would tick my cravings box. sweet icing and a not-too-sweet cake to balance it out. chocolatey but with a nod in the direction of caramel and fudge. the cake was very easy to pull together and is definitely best eaten on the day it is made.

the icing tasted lovely (be warned, it is very sweet) but didn’t look as good as i’d hoped – despite sieving the icing sugar into the melted chocolate/butter mix i still ended up with very tiny white specks in the icing. perhaps i should have creamed the butter and icing sugar together and then added the melted chocolate? any tips or ideas welcome.

chocolate fudge cake

50g cocoa powder

150g self raising flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

150g butter, softened

100g light brown muscovado sugar

4 eggs, beaten

3 tablespoons milk

for the icing:

100g chocolate (i used a mix of milk and plain)

100g butter, softened

75-100g icing sugar

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

mini eggs or chocolate curls to decorate

preheat the oven to 180c. and grease then line a 23cm springform cake tin.

sift the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl (or your food processor). add the butter, sugar, eggs and milk and beat until smooth and light. put the mixture in the cake tin, make a shallow hollow in the middle and cook for 30 minutes until it is ready. leave to cool then remove from the cake tin.

to make the icing, melt the chocolate and butter in a bain marie. stir together then sift in the icing sugar and cocoa powder to make a smooth paste. cover the top of the cake with the cooled icing and decorate with mini eggs or chocolate curls.