Thursday 24 July 2008

The best chocolate cake


I’ve had to think long and hard whether to share this one, as its one of those precious family recipes. My sister Nicky brought it back from school many years ago, since then its been made (and adapted) by every member of the family for every occasion whether: birthdays, celebrations, commiserations or family get together. So I hope I don’t ruffle to many family feathers…

Sieve together 7oz self raising flour, 8oz caster sugar, and 4 tbs coco powder.
Mix with 4oz marg, mix it up in the air to make light mix.
Beat 2 eggs with 5tbs evaporated milk, add to the mixture.
Mix 5tbs water (or less, see the texture of the mixture- you want it quite loose)
Cook in two cake tins, in a medium oven for 35 mins.

Then my favourite bit of the cake, the icing:
Sieve together 3 and a half tbs coco powder with 8oz of icing powder. Mix with 2 and half oz marg. Mix with a little milk that’s been boiled and cooled. (or a little left over evaporated milk) Use the mix immediately otherwise it will set. Expect a fight over whose going to lick the spoon and bowl.

Today’s illustration is a silk painting ‘cocoa’ © Lois Blackburn. Please visit http://www.loisblackburn.co.uk for more images.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Ahh. I used to love this cake. The recipe actually came from the Biro cookbook, which even then was extremely old. On the cover it had a woman dressed in 50s clothes. She was wearing a frilly pinny, one of those silly little ones that tie at the waist. Completely useless for real cooking, as everything always falls on your shirt.
I made this cake for my cookery O-level.

Lois Blackburn said...

I'm a huge fan of the older cookbook, for inspiration and also illustration. Here is a link to a wonderful collection http://flickr.com/groups/vintagecookbooks/ hours of fun.