It is to die for!
I love baking. I do it for joy and it also calms me down. But the best thing about it is when you serve whatever you made and you are worshipped because of it! (I am only kidding!) So when I saw Nigella making this cake I knew I must definitely try it out.
As the name suggests there are four choc factors that comprise its glory: cocoa to make the cake; chocolate chips or morsels to fold into it; a chocolate syrup to drench it once out of the oven; flakily sliced dark chocolate to top it before slicing. I love this for tea, even for weekend breakfast, or late at night. I could have it anytime of the day!
All you need is:
For the cake
200 grams plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
50 grams cocoa powder
275 grams caster sugar
175 grams soft unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
80 ml cream
125 ml boiling water
175 grams dark chocolate chips (unless you prefer milk)
For the syrup
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
125 ml water
100 grams caster sugar
25 grams dark chocolate
Method
· Take whatever you need out of the fridge so that all ingredients can come to room temperature.
· Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/170°C, putting in a baking sheet as you do so, and line a 900g / 2lb loaf tin with greased foil and leave an overhang all round.
· Put the flour, bicarb, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and cream into the processor and blitz till it’s a smooth brown batter. Scrape down with a rubber spatula and process again while pouring the boiling water down the funnel. (If you don’t have a food processor you can even do it with a beater) After it’s done stir in the chocolate chips or morsels.
· Pour this beautiful batter into the prepared loaf tin and slide into the oven, cooking for about 1 hour. When it's ready, the loaf will be risen and split down the middle. It is a moist cake so it will be a little sticky.
· To make the syrup put the ingredients of cocoa, water and sugar into a small saucepan and boil for 5 minutes. You may find it needs a little longer: so that the sugar caramelizes and the syrup has a really dark chocolate intensity.
· Take the cake out of the oven and still in its tin, pierce here and there with a cake tester. Then pour the syrup as evenly as possible. It will run to the sides of the tin, but some will have been absorbed in the middle.
· Let the cake become completely cold and then slip out of its tin. Now take your bar of chocolate and cut with a heavy sharp knife, so that it splinters and flakes and falls in slices of varying thickness and thinness. Sprinkle these chocolate splinters over the top of the sticky surface of the cake.
Make this once and it will forever be in demand! Trust me on it.
By Jithendri Gomes
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