GoodyFoodies: I baked: All-in-one chocolate cake

For Baby C's birthday this year, we decided to bake her a cake instead of buying one from the shops. Baby C loves it when we bake cakes at home and the look of contentment on her face is just priceless.

I found a recipe for a chocolate cake on BBC Good Food website; it looked simple enough to make and the picture of the cake looked absolutely tempting. This cake is absolutely perfect as a birthday cake for small parties. We definitely had a very pleased birthday girl in the house that day.

Custom-made for a special girl ♥

All-in-one chocolate cake

Preparation time: 45 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Serves 8

Ingredients

175g self-raising flour, sifted

3 tbsp cocoa powder

175g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

175g caster sugar

1 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

1-2 tbsp milk

300ml pot double cream (I substituted with whipping cream)

For the ganache icing

50g butter, cubed (I halved the original amount as I felt we did not need so much icing)

50g dark chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 2 x 18cm sandwich tins with baking paper.

2. Take 3 tbsp of flour from the full flour amount and put it back in the bag. The cocoa powder will make up the difference.

3. Place all cake ingredients (except the double cream) in a large bowl and beat them together with an electric whisk until you have a creamy mixture. Add a little milk if the mixture is too stiff - it should fall easily off a spoon.

4. Divide the mixture between the two tins and level the surfaces of the cake mixtures.

5. Bake on the same shelf in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the sponge springs back when pressed.

6. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Peel off the baking paper.

7. To make the ganache icing, melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water. Stir well, and leave to cool so that you can spread it onto the cake.

8. Whip the cream and use it to sandwich the cake together. Spread chocolate ganache over the top of the cake, letting some run over the edge.

9. Refridgerate the cake for 1-2 hours to allow the chocolate ganache to harden slightly. (Not in the original recipe, but we preferred ours like this)

10. We also made some chocolate chip cupcakes using this recipe. We cut off the tops so that it's flat and decorated the cupcakes as we desired.

How the chocolate cake should look