One pan chocolate cake

Hello everyone, I am baking a cake tomorrow to take to work on Monday for the birthday of someone in the office. I thought it would be a good one to share with you as you can never have too many chocolate cake recipes and this one is so easy, plus its yummy. I think of it as my stand by chocolate cake as it's so reliable. Every time I have made it people ask for the recipe. I think its because it's so chocolatey and very moist. It comes from one of my favourite cook book writers, Belinda Jeffery, from her first book called Belinda Jeffery’s Tried-And-True Recipes. I really recommend this book, I have cooked nearly every recipe in it and never been disappointed.

I hope you have the opportunity for a yummy morning tea some time this week too!

Love from Jane xx

One pan chocolate cake

Serves 8-10

What you need:

· 1/3 cup cocoa powder (preferably Dutch processed)
· 75g cultured unsalted butter
· 1/3 cup light olive or vegetable oil
· 2/3 cup cool water
· 90g good quality chocolate (dark or milk), finely chopped
· 250g castor sugar
· 1 large egg
· 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
· 1 ¼ cups plain flour
· 2 teaspoons baking powder
· 1/3 cup buttermilk (or you could substitute yoghurt or sour cream)

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C.
2. Butter a 24cm round cake tin. Line the base with buttered baking paper then dust the tin with flour. Shake out the excess flour and put it aside.
3. Put the cocoa, butter, oil and water into a fairly large saucepan.
4. Bring the mixture to the boil over a medium heat, stirring regularly until it’s smooth, then take it off the heat.
5. Add the chocolate and sugar and whisk them in until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Leave it to cool.
6. Once it has cooled, add the egg and vanilla and whisk them in thoroughly.
7. Now sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and stir them in until they’re just combined.
8. Whisk in the buttermilk.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and give it a gentle shake to even it out.
10. Bake the cake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the tin on a rack for 5 minutes. Then invert the cake onto the rack, remove the paper and leave it to cool completely.

When you’re ready to serve the cake, transfer it to a serving dish. You can ice it with chocolate ganache, or fresh cream and grated chocolate or berries or crushed praline.