Nigellas Chocolate cake

I have previously blogged about chocolate cake and I must admit I became a bit obsessed for a while finding a great chocolate cake recipe that wasn't too dry and was a great versatile recipe that you could use for a variety of cakes.
I the stumbled upon the goddess of the kitchen, Nigella Lawson's Devils Chocolate Cake recipe.
At first when I read the recipe I was a little intrigued on how so much liquid could be transformed into a cake, but I wasn't put off. I decided that I was just going to make the cake and not the frosting as I wanted to decorate the cake my own way, and too be honest I couldn't make her frosting without dipping my fingers in it and doing a really bad Nigella impersonation.

the first cake I made was 21st biryday cake with choclate fondant icing and a Malteser trim around the base.

The recipe is as follows;

Ingredients

• 50g/2oz best-quality cocoa powder, sifted
• 100g/4oz dark muscovado sugar
• 250ml/8fl oz boiling water
• 125g/4½oz soft unsalted butter, plus some for greasing
• 150g/5oz caster sugar
• 225g/8oz plain flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 free-range eggs

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line the bottoms of two 20cm/8in sandwich tins with baking parchment and butter the sides
• Put the cocoa and the dark muscovado sugar into a large bowl and pour in the boiling water. Whisk to mix, then set aside.
• Cream the butter and caster sugar together in a separate bowl, beating well until pale and fluffy; I find this easiest with a freestanding mixer, but by hand wouldn’t kill you.Stir the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together in another bowl and set aside for a moment. Dribble the vanilla extract into the creamed butter and sugar – mixing all the while – then crack in one egg, quickly followed by a scoop of the flour mixture, then the second egg. Keep mixing after each addition.
• Incorporate the rest of the flour mixture little by little, then finally mix and fold in the cocoa mixture, scraping the bowl well with a spatula.
• Divide this fabulously chocolaty

On a scale of 1 to 10 for difficulty (1 being easy, 10 being expert level) this cake is probably a 3 (yes a 3!) it is such a great recipe and I have used it on numerous occasions now for various jobs.

I have made celebration cakes with it and also cupcakes, it truly is a great chocolate cake recipe that I am sure I will be using for many years to come