When I saw that Maltesers was donating £5 to Comic Relief for every cake made in their #bakeamillion challenge, it seemed like a better than usual reason to make a chocolate cake! The devil's food cake I'd tried for Theo's birthday was so good that I didn't need much persuasion to bake it again. The original recipe made a BIG cake. So in the interests of all our waistlines, I halved the quantities this time. And of course, adorned it with Maltesers.
Devil's Food Cake
Recipe adapted from Green and Black's Chocolate Recipes. Apart from halving it, I reduced the amount of sugar and avoided mixing the cocoa with the cold water. In my experience, all this does is give you a brown sludge which is hard to get out of the measuring jug. I don't see how that improves the quality of the cake.
175g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
50g cocoa powder
200ml cold water
125g margarine or shortening
200g sugar
2 large eggs
Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt and cocoa.
Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and very soft. Whisk the eggs, then add to the creamed mixture a little at a time, beating well. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cold water to give a light airy batter.
Scoop into a greased and base-lined 8-inch round tin, and bake for 30-35 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then on a wire rack. Decorate as desired.
Devil's Food Cake
Recipe adapted from Green and Black's Chocolate Recipes. Apart from halving it, I reduced the amount of sugar and avoided mixing the cocoa with the cold water. In my experience, all this does is give you a brown sludge which is hard to get out of the measuring jug. I don't see how that improves the quality of the cake.
175g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
50g cocoa powder
200ml cold water
125g margarine or shortening
200g sugar
2 large eggs
Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt and cocoa.
Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and very soft. Whisk the eggs, then add to the creamed mixture a little at a time, beating well. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cold water to give a light airy batter.
Scoop into a greased and base-lined 8-inch round tin, and bake for 30-35 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then on a wire rack. Decorate as desired.
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