SUPER EASY SPICED CHOCOLATE CAKE
This is a quick 2 bowl recipe that I use for during-the-week cake or church teas as it requires less eggs, care and time than my chiffon chocolate cake that I spoil the kids with but it has lots of delicate, subtle flavour.
- 125 ml oil
- 250 ml sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cups cake flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 4 tablespoons cocoa
- 1 teaspoons vanilla essence
- 1 teaspoon good quality strong instant coffee
- ⅓ teaspoon mixed spice
- ⅓ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅓ nutmeg
- 2 – 3 tablespoons Kahlua coffee liqueur, optional
- 250 ml whipping cream, optional
Tip:
I’m lazy so I put my cup of sugar and 1 extra teaspoon (cos I lose some to the machine) through my spice grinder to make this process faster.
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C and prep either 1 x square cake tin or 2 x round 20cm.
In bowl 1 sift together the flour, baking powder, cocoa and spices. Let the baking powder activate with the dry ingredients.
In your mixer bowl blend the oil and pulverised sugar till well blended and aerated. If using the sugar as-is then the usual goal is ‘light in colour and higher in volume’ but without overbeating.
Add all 3 eggs in at once, yes we are breaking baking norms here but don’t tell our moms. Blend only for a few seconds till combined. Stir the coffee, vanilla and only half the Kahlua into the milk and add to your mix. Blend for seconds only just to combine all.
Tip in your entire bowl of dry ingredients, blend on low to start so no lumps form and quickly move to highest speed only long enough to fully combine. We are going quick and dirty here but definitely not creating a rubbery cake.
Bake for approx. 35 – 40 mins if using all the batter in 1 square pan or 20 – 25 mins if 2 round. I test with toothpicks and if no batter clings then it’s done.
Note:
As you can see from my picture even though it only takes minutes to blend together it’s a beautifully textured cake and the spices give it the best delicate taste on the palate.
In this case I blended the last of the Kahlua into 250 ml of cream and used it to ice the cake but you could make icing or serve plain cake with ice cream. My daughter once made a simple syrup of water and sugar and cooked down leftover aging berries and spooned that over when serving.
Recipe and photo : Leora Nair
