Chocolate Cake With Creamy Butter Icing

Meet everyone’s dream cake!

This spongy chocolate cake with generously smeared creamy chocolate butter icing on the top is simply divine!

Once tasted this, you will say a firm no to ready-made chocolate cakes available on supermarket shelves. Even if offered a piece from those cakes you will spot the difference immediately.

I suggest you pick a good quality spread or margarine to make this cake and the buttercream icing.  Some prefer to use butter but in my opinion, butter gets too lumpy in cold weather and too weak and runny in hot weather. Either way, it is not very appealing. So, as approved by the celebratory British baker Marry Berry, the good old margarine spread is the best for any cake and for frosting too.

Even for an absolute novice, making this cake, metaphorically speaking, is a "piece of cake". I suggest measuring the ingredients using a digital scale which is more accurate and easier.

So, let’s start making this delicious treat

Ingredients             Amounts

Self-raising fl.	250 g
Margarine	250 g
Caster sugar	250 g
Eggs	4 medium
Lemon	1 tsp
Vanilla essence	1 tsp
Baking powder	1 tsp
Cocoa powder	3 tbsp
Salt	2 pinches
Milk	2 – 3 tbsp

Let’s make it

Set the oven to 180 C . (Temperature conversion chart  is given under Tips)

Cream the batter

• Beat butter and sugar together until creamy, using an electric hand mixer  (3 mins)
• Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each addition (2 mins)
• Add vanilla essence,  lemon juice, and salt, and beat for two rounds
• Mix baking powder,  flour, and cocoa powder and sieve onto the cake batter, holding the sieve well above it, allowing the air to escape
• Fold the flour gently with a wooden spoon until everything turns into a creamy batter (Do not use the electric mixer at this point)
• Add milk
• Finally, give a good mix with a wooden spoon going clockwise

Tray the batter

• Line up a baking tray with parchment paper and spoon the batter into the baking tray and flatten with a spatula, leaving some space on the top for the cake to rise
• Lift up the tray and drop it twice onto your kitchen top gently, allowing the batter to spread and settle evenly on the try

Bake it

• Place the tray in the oven and bake for 20 – 25 mins. In the first 10 mins never open the oven door
• Insert a skewer into the middle of the cake and if it comes to clean your cake is ready!
• Take it out from the oven and let it rest for 10 mins
• Slowly remove it from the tray and place it on a cooling rack to cool off completely. This will take 2 -3 hrs
• Your cake is ready to ice now

Tip : If the top of the cake has got a nice brown colour but the middle is still very runny, immediately cover the top of the cake with a foil or baking sheet and bake further 10/15 mins.  This will allow the middle of the cake to bake without damaging the upper crust

Chocolate Butter Icing Recipe

    Ingredients          Amounts

Icing sugar	300 g
Margarine	125 g
Cocoa powder	5 tbsp
Milk	3 tbsps
Lemon	1 tsp
Vanilla	a few drops

• Sieve icing sugar to get rid of hard bits
• Beat the icing sugar and margarine together
• Add milk, vanilla, and lemon
• Beat at high speed until the consistency is creamy
• Your chocolate icing is ready

Now start frosting the cake 

• Cut the cake into four squares. Remove the top crust slowly without damaging the cake
• Slice them  from the middle with a long knife, and dipped them in hot water
• Spread icing on the bottom layer
• Place the top layer, press softly
• Spread icing on top, throw a handful of sprinklers
• Place in the fridge
• Take out 20 mins before serving
• Serve on a pretty plate with a small spoon on the side
• Yummy!