This delicious chocolate cake is the staple for big celebrations in our house! To make it dairy-free as well as egg-free, you can use soya margarine instead of butter.
Ingredients:
85g (3oz) butter, plus extra for greasing
2 tbsp Golden Syrup
1 tbsp vanilla extract
300mls boiling water
300g (10 ½ oz) self-raising flour
100g (3 ½ oz) caster sugar
25g (1oz) cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
20cm round cake tin
Chocolate Buttercream Icing
50g (2oz) butter softened
140g (5oz) icing sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp boiling water
Method:
- Heat oven to 160C / Fan 140C / Gas 3
- Grease the cake tin.
- Add the butter, golden syrup and vanilla extract to a heatproof jug. Add 300mls boiling water and whisk with a fork to combine.
- Sieve the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl, then tip in the butter mixture. Stir until you have a smooth batter, then add to the prepared tin. Bake for 50-55 mins until the cake is well risen and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tin for around 15 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack.
- To make the chocolate icing, mix together the cocoa powder and boiling water to make a smooth paste. Let it cool. Beat together the butter and icing sugar until creamy. Fold in the cooled cocoa paste and mix together to form a smooth icing.
- Once the cake is completely cooled, take a palette knife and smooth the icing over the top and sides of the cake to your desired taste.
- This really is a great cake for all those birthday celebrations – you won’t have much left!