chocolate cake

From time to time, requests have been made to me for my chocolate cake recipe.

Well, I do not wish to claim credit. The recipe actually came from my mother’s eldest sister. I merely improvised her recipe and er... made the cake more irresistible (haha... self-praise!).

So, to all of you out there who have been waiting for the recipe, here goes....

INGREDIENTS

1 cup castor sugar

½ cup milk

1 ¼ cups self-raising flour

2 tbsp Hersheys cocoa powder

2 tbsp Milo powder

250g softened butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 eggs

1/3 cup cooking oil

a few dashes of ground cinnamon

ground almond

chopped peanuts

mixed fruits and/or raisins

METHOD

1. Dissolve the castor sugar and the milk together in a mixing bowl.

2. Add the other ingredients and beat using an electric mixer until well blended.

3. Spoon into a greased tin pan and bake at 180 degrees celsius for 30 to 40 minutes.

TIPS

1. At times when I have run out of castor sugar, I have used fine sugar to make the cake. It works just as well.

2. You can use fresh milk / low fat milk. Naturally, the richer the milk, the richer the cake.

3. It would be preferable to sieve the flour and cocoa powder, especially if you have had them for some time. Otherwise, the mixture may be too lumpy.

4. You can use other brands of cocoa powder but I have tried several brands and still find that Hersheys makes the best cocoa powder and chocolate chips.

5. Although you can substitute butter with margarine, I find that a cake made using butter is more flavourful. Be sure to use a good brand of butter, eg. SCS.

6. Do not use cold eggs. If your eggs have been stored in the refrigerator, leave them on your kitchen top at room temperature for awhile before you mix the eggs. Some cookbooks advise you to beat the eggs 1 at a time to prevent curdling. You can do that when making this cake but if you add both eggs in at the same time, it should be fine as well. The more important thing is that the eggs should not be cold when mixed.

7. You can use any type of cooking oil. However, I prefer groundnut oil as it makes the cake more flavourful.

8. In addition to greasing the tin (with oil or butter/margarine), I usually either sprinkle the inside of the cake pan with flour (if I am using the disposable 8 inch square pan) or line the inside of the cake pan with baking paper (if I am using the non-disposable 9 inch square pan).

9. Depending on the age and size of your oven, you may need to adjust the baking time.