Decadent Chocolate Recipes

Ok so I might be blowing my trumpet a little too hard here but, you know what this recipe has produced the best cake for me time and time again.  It has the best chocolate icing topping, crisp and rich and a fluffy sponge with just the right texture not too soft and not too dense.  I know you’re dying to know my secret recipe so here goes:

Chocolate Cake Ingredients:

2oz/50g cocoa powder

10oz/275g caster sugar (fine sugar)

6oz/175g unsalted butter

3 eggs beaten

9oz/250g plain flour

1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp baking powder

 

Icing Ingredients:

3oz/75g unsalted butter

12oz/350g icing sugar

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

 

Filling Ingredients:

3oz/75g unsalted butter

6oz/175g icing sugar

 

CAKE METHOD:

Preheat your oven to 180oC/350oF/gas mark 5

Grease two round sponge tins (4cm/1 ½” Deep- 20cm/8″ Round) pop a layer of grease proof paper on the bottom of the pan it will give you a nice clean result.

Blend together cocoa with 8floz/240ml of boiling water

Soften butter and place in a mixing bowl with the sugar and 4 tbsp of the cocoa mixture.  Beat the ingredients together until they are light a fluffy.

Gradually beat in the eggs and the remaining cocoa mixture, it may look as though it is separating, don’t worry it will all be OK.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into the mixture, gently folding in all the ingredients together.

Divide the chocolaty mixture between two cake tins and bake for 25 minutes until the cake has risen and it is firm to touch.

Once the cake has cooked leave in the tin for five minutes, turn out onto a wire rack and make sure it is cooled completely before filling and icing.

ICING METHOD

In a saucepan place the milk and butter and heat gently until melted.

Sift in icing sugar and cocoa and mix thoroughly until it is smooth and glossy.

Keep aside 4 tablespoons of the mixture for the filling.

Pop the rest into the fridge until you are ready to decorate your cake.

FILLING METHOD

Beat the butter and sugar together, when it is a smooth consistency start to blend in the reserved icing.

ASSEMBLE

Spread the filling evenly across the top of your base cake. Pop on the second layer and evenly spread across the icing, voila a chocolate cake to die for.

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About the Author:
Dawn is a self confessed chocoholic and likes nothing better than to share her passion with others through her blog cocomoi, there are recipes, reviews, how to videos and anything else to do with the chocolate.
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1. “Chocolate causes certain endocrine glands to secrete hormones that affect your feelings and behavior by making you happy. Therefore, it counteracts depression, in turn reducing the stress of depression. Your stress-free life helps you maintain a youthful disposition, both physically and mentally. So, eat lots of chocolate!” – Elaine Sherman, Book of Divine Indulgences

2. “Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar in four pieces with your bare hands–and then just eating one piece” – Judith Viorst

3. “Self-discipline implies some unpleasant things to me, including staying away from chocolate and keeping my hands out of women’s pants.” – Oleg Kiselev

4. “It’s not that chocolates are a substitute for love. Love is a substitute for chocolate. Chocolate is, let’s face it, far more reliable than a man.” – Miranda Ingram

5. “Life is like a box of chocolates…You never know what you’re gonna get.” – Forrest Gump in Forrest Gump

6. “The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain.” – Thomas Jefferson

7. “Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate.” – Sandra Boynton

8. “If one swallows a cup of chocolate only three hours after a copious lunch, everything will be perfectly digested and there will still be room for dinner.” – Brillat-Savarin

9. “It has been shown as proof positive that carefully prepared chocolate is as healthful a food as it is pleasant; that it is nourishing and easily digested… that it is above all helpful to people who must do a great deal of mental work.” – Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

10. “If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you. But you have no chocolate! I think of that again and again! My dear, how will you ever manage?” – Marquise de Sévigné

11. “Chocolate is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power. It is the best friend of those engaged in literary pursuits.” – Baron Justus von Liebig

12. “Nine out of ten people like chocolate. The tenth person always lies.” – John Q. Tullius

13. “There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love chocolate, and communists.” – Leslie Moak Murray

14. “Forget love… I’d rather fall in chocolate!” – Author Unknown

15. “There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and chocolate truffles.” – Author Unknown

16. “My favorite thing in the world is a box of fine European chocolates which is, for sure, better than sex.” – Alicia Silverstone

17. “After about 20 years of marriage, I’m finally starting to scratch the surface of that one. And I think the answer lies somewhere between conversation and chocolate.” – Mel Gibson in What Women Want.

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About the Author:
Boris Nefedov writes for Chocolate Gift Basket website at: http://www.alivearticles.com/category/food-beverage/coffee/ which features gift ideas, chocolates and more.
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