I tried making something new last week (the baklava) so I let Alex pick something for this weekend. He picked a simple one layer chocolate cake with a raspberry liquor cream and chocolate topping.
The chocolate cake recipe is pretty simple (another one bowl) but I was pleasantly surprised. It kept a nice shape, didn't stick and tastes nice and chocolatey. I used a round cheesecake tin but this recipe is more suited to a larger brownie pan and would be like a 3 layer bar or brownie. I don't have one so I made mine more cake looking.
Chocolate Cake Ingredients
1 cup self rising flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups Hershey's syrup
1. Heat oven to 350 F/180 C grease 13x9x2 inch baking pan (I don't have one of these so I used a 9 inch round pan).
2. Combine, flour, sugar, butter, baking powder and eggs in a large bowl. Beat until smooth.
3. Beat in chocolate syrup (I bought some chocolate sauce at Waitrose instead).
4. Pour batter into greased pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes (for round pan this needs to be nearly double the time) until tester in the middle comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Raspberry Cream Center Ingredients
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons raspberry liquor
red food coloring (optional)
I poured the whole mini bottle in!
1. Combine the icing sugar, butter and liquor and beat until smooth. Add a few drops of red food coloring if desired. Once cake is cooled spread on top.
The color in the center came out darker for some reason but it all tasted the same
Chocolate Glaze Ingredients
1 cup dark chocolate
6 tbs unsalted butter
1. Put the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute and stir. Microwave the butter until melted (not too hot) and gently stir into the chocolate. Let cool for a few minutes and then spread across the top of the cake. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.
