Mmm Chocolate Cakey

I decided — a spur of the moment thing — to do some baking today. It’s been a while, but after raiding my Mum’s for baking tins and a reminder about ingredient quantities I set to it.

The cake itself is based on a traditional British pound cake, so named because it was originally created with a pound of flour, butter, eggs and sugar. I didn’t have scales and I certainly didn’t need several lbs of ingredients (or have a bowl to mix it in) but as long as the quantities are identical the concept is the same.

baking ingredients

I used a big spoon to measure out my ingredients (you don’t have to be precise) and for the bottom layer, I substituted half a spoon of sugar for half of drinking chocolate for chocolatey colour and taste. The top layer stayed plain. Both were cooked in round cake trays, I’d guess those are 12-13″ at 160 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, but my ‘new’ oven is fan assisted and I’ll still getting used to it.

I cooled them on a rack from inside the oven because I don’t have a proper cooling rack, and layered them with a filling of chocolatey buttercream style icing. I didn’t have icing sugar (always forget something) so I improvised based on a recipe from chowhound (jdub1371’s reply).

baking ingredients

Finished product doesn’t look too bad, although in the heat of the kitchen the filling was already starting to separate. Bottom layer is a tiny bit charred around the edges but a sharp knife should see to that. I’ll let you know how it tastes after my little geeky housewarming shindig tomorrow :9


38 comments on “Mmm Chocolate Cakey”

  1. Aisling

    Ooh, baking! *claps* I LOVE baking!! I have a chocolate cake recipe I thoroughly enjoy- it only involves ONE bowl. I love the minimal amount of dishes it creates! And it is SO yummy, and chocolatey. I randomly whip one up on a random basis. Your cake looks good, I bet it will taste great!! Have a great housewarming! :D

    Comment added: March 28th, 08 @ 11:00 pm
  2. Peter Green

    Oh chocolate cake! I make it all the time to the same recipe, though I use old balance scales using the eggs as the weight to measure everything else against. I make my own bread too, you can’t beat it! Can you e-mail me some of yours to taste, maybe as an attachment? :-)

    Comment added: March 28th, 08 @ 11:21 pm
  3. Amber

    I can’t believe you managed without scales! (Aha, I knew they were called scales. The word just defied me when I was writing about my brownies — they were then “measuring bowl, erm, thingies, you know?”) I don’t think I’ve ever had a pound cake before.

    Comment added: March 28th, 08 @ 11:22 pm
  4. Amelie

    Aw, how sweet, you baked me a cake. I will be round to collect it shortly. >:P

    Comment added: March 28th, 08 @ 11:47 pm
  5. Janet

    Ooh! Yum. I hope it’s really good and that you enjoy it.

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 12:02 am
  6. Ang

    MM CAKE.

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 12:08 am
  7. Katy

    shotgun a non-charred bit :P

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 12:25 am
  8. Robmarie

    I used to *love* baking! It’s such a shame that my oven doesn’t work — although I’ve heard stories of cakes being “baked” in microwave ovens and whatnot. I think it’s all an urban legend, but maybe one day I’ll try it out — I miss licking cake batter! =P

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 1:04 am
  9. Zatanna

    Chocolate is delicious! *drulls* I want to make one now! I add rum to my chocolate cakes.XD

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 1:08 am
  10. Belinda

    Mmm yay I love baking! The cake looks delicious, not exactly very chocolatey looking (since it’s not very brown in the picture) but it looks like a mouth-watering pie or something. Great work!

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 2:05 am
  11. Chien Yee

    *drools* I’ve always loved cake! Give me some (if it’s delicious, or alternatively, you can help me to get food poisoning) XP

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 3:16 am
  12. Niki

    Unfortunately, I’m lactose intolerant =( [quote]ooh la la :3 please bear with me while I make structural changes[/quote] Omgz! The sidebar!

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 4:11 am
  13. Baohan

    Cake…cake…chocolate cake. I love them all..

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 4:40 am
  14. Mumblies

    Turned out fine by the looks of it Jem, now if only you had used self raising flour then it would have risen all by itself, you can use plain flour but then you need to add bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) But even so, it looks delish and will quite probably taste the same. Psssst… I had icing sugar too, why didn’t you ask lol

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 9:21 am
  15. Sarah

    This reminds me, I need to do some more baking. Yummy!

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 10:39 am
  16. Brigitte

    Slightly burnt but still looks like fun!

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 1:25 pm
  17. Mike Haddad

    Chocolate cake and chocolate pies - that is how you get VERY BIG THIGHS.

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 3:56 pm
  18. Sarai

    God, I wish I could bake delicious treats. :(

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 4:06 pm
  19. Carly

    Oooh looks absolutly yummy to me! Yum yum.

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 5:06 pm
  20. Frutee

    I envy you for being able to bake! I cant bake at all. lmao. :P

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 6:06 pm
  21. Kaylee

    Ahh, that looks good! I don’t know why, but I’m always more attracted to the batter than the cake itself. I plan on baking a cake today, but I have to be precise when measuring ingredients!

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 9:46 pm
  22. Hev

    Looks good, Jem.

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 11:36 pm
  23. Josh

    I did something similar to this once. Except it was apple pie. And I stupidly decided that it would be o.k. to set the oven timer and NOT check up on the pie. :( The top was burnt. So I basically ate the whole thing by myself.

    Comment added: March 29th, 08 @ 11:56 pm
  24. Stephanie

    I

    Comment added: March 30th, 08 @ 12:40 am
  25. Katy

    shame the other chocolate cake didn’t come out quite so well :P hehehe

    Comment added: March 30th, 08 @ 12:47 am
  26. Jordan

    The cake is a lie! /end portal joke :P

    Comment added: March 30th, 08 @ 2:09 am
  27. Connie

    woo, the layers look nicee and yummyy

    Comment added: March 30th, 08 @ 2:23 am
  28. Christine

    mmm, nom nom! looks a tiny bit crisp but all the better! just add some ice cream.

    Comment added: March 30th, 08 @ 2:54 am
  29. Kachii

    Cakes are so quick and easy to make and I usually have the ingredients lying around my house anyway, so I often make cakes at the spur of the moment ;)

    Comment added: March 30th, 08 @ 4:32 pm
  30. Lil

    Cookery, gardening and house cats - I think your title has shifted from ‘php ninja’ to ‘domestic queen’ :p The golden colour on that cake looks so damn good. I’m tempted to make my own cake now despite being a culinary deficient. Using a pound of each ingredient to make a pound cake was somewhat of a revelation to me. Perhaps I should just demand food rather than make it.

    Comment added: March 30th, 08 @ 5:52 pm
  31. Scott

    Oh god, that cake looks lovely! I can’t make anything to save my life… lol!

    Comment added: March 30th, 08 @ 7:22 pm
  32. Mae

    wish I could do something even close to that hehehe

    Comment added: March 31st, 08 @ 3:05 am
  33. Chantelle

    I only use the oven in my house once every few months (if that) XD because baking isn’t my thing. But your cake looks tasty. *eats*

    Comment added: March 31st, 08 @ 5:32 am
  34. adastra

    Looks yummy! I wish my kitchen was big enough to allow me to do some baking. Unfortunately I only get around to do it when I visit my parents…

    Comment added: March 31st, 08 @ 8:13 am
  35. Robbie

    Looks quite tasty :) Perhaps I shall bake a cake today and send you a picture…

    Comment added: March 31st, 08 @ 9:22 am
  36. Louise

    Mmm that looks tasty. I want cake now.

    Comment added: March 31st, 08 @ 1:38 pm
  37. Melissa

    *craves* Ohh…chocolate. O.o

    Comment added: March 31st, 08 @ 2:34 pm
  38. Jem

    testing a comments problem…

    Comment added: March 31st, 08 @ 7:56 pm

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