One-Bowl Chocolate Cake

In my last blog post I had decided I was going to make a chocolate cake to cheer myself up on these cold, dark January days. Well today we had an unexpected snow day so that was enough to cheer us up, especially my two excited children! We made a snowman, pulled them round on sledges, threw snowballs and generally got very cold and wet. The smell of chocolate cake baking in the oven was a lovely smell to come back to though and this classic recipe from a Marks and Spencer classic cakes recipe book was a nice treat for us all.

This recipe is really easy, you put all the ingredients in the mixing bowl at once and when it's mixed it goes straight in your cake tin and into the oven.

Ingredients

125g butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
275g caster sugar
2 eggs
200g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder
160ml water

Chocolate icing
90g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarsely
30g butter, softened
160g icing sugar
2 tablespoons hot water

Method

- Preheat oven to 180C (160C Fan oven)
- Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin
- Beat the butter, vanilla extract, sugar, eggs, sifted flour and cocoa, and the water in a large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are combined
- Increase the speed to medium, beat for about three minutes or until mixture is smooth and pale in colour
- Spread mixture into the cake tin and bake for about an hour

The cake mixture ready to go in the oven

- Stand the cake in the tin for about five minutes before turning, top-side up onto a wire rack to cool

The baked cake just out of the oven

For the Chocolate icing
- Melt the chocolate and butter in a small heatproof bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water (do not allow water to touch base of bowl)
- Gradually stir in the sifted icing sugar and the water, stirring until icing is spreadable
- Once the cake is cool you can spread the icing over the cake using a spatula or the back of a spoon

This recipe is taken from Marks and Spencer Classic cakes (ACP MagazinesLtd 2009)