Christmas and the decision of what to bring to the yuletide table reared its head once again. Thankfully, the decision was already made when my cousin told me to bring my “famous chocolate cake”. I burst into laughter – never heard such silliness. I mentioned it to one of my neighbours and he remarked “I’ve heard that cake is the stuff of legends.”

 As someone to whom the magic of chocolate is completely lost, I was stunned by this reaction. It’s always been the Teen’s favourite cake but I thought that was simply due to the high concentration of chocolate. It’s a bit of a tricky one to make but obviously worth the effort judging by the feedback I’m getting!

Ingredients
Cake
4 ounces unsalted butter
7 ounces castor sugar
6 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
4 ounces plain flour
2 ounces cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C
2. Prepare two circular cake tins with grease proof paper
3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and leave aside to cool
4. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt together three times and leave aside
5. Place the eggs and sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric whisk until light cream in colour and ripples can be left in the mixture
6. Mix in the vanilla essence
7. In three stages, fold in the dry ingredients until mixed completely
8. Add in the butter and blend thoroughly
9. Divide this batter into the two tins and bake for 20-25 minutes in the oven
10. The cake is done when tested with a skewer which comes out clean and the cake is coming away from the sides of the tin
11. Remove the cakes from the tins and leave to cool on a baking rack

Icing
4 ounces icing sugar, sifted
2 ounces soft unsalted butter
1 ounce drinking chocolate powder
2 tablespoons milk

Method
1. Blend all of these together
2. Spread on one side of the cake and sandwich together

Frosting
8 ounces icing sugar, sifted
2 ounces unsalted butter
3 1/2 ounces dark chocolate (75% or over)
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method
1. Break the chocolate into pieces
2. Place all the ingredients over a low heat and allow to melt
3. When melting, keep stirring to insure all ingredients are mixed together
4. When melted, remove from the heat and keep stirring until the mixture cools and thickens*
5. When the mixture has thickened and is glossy, gently spread over the sides and top of the cake (I use a flat cake knife and do the edge first and then the top)

*If you leave the icing to cool without stirring, it will become unusable

So there you have it. Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. A nice cake or the stuff of legends? That, my dearies, is up to you to decide!