Impressive chocolate cake
Here is a real winner of a chocolate cake recipe. It is foolproof and from start to eating is about 1 and a 1/2 hours with 1 hour being the baking time. It’s a really fantastic chocolate cake that is soft, moist, delicious and if you are looking for a chocolate cake to impress without any hassles, this is it. The real secret to this recipe is getting the baking time right and using the ground almonds, so set your alarm or a reminder on your phone, you don’t want it to overcook.
What you need
400g milk chocolate
75ml water
175g soft butter
250g light brown muscavado sugar
4 eggs
100g self raising flower
50g cocoa powder
100g ground almonds
300ml whipped double cream
250g mascarpone cheese
The process
Heat your oven to 160 Celsius and lightly but thoroughly butter the inside of a 20cm springform round cake tin.
Heat 75ml of water in a small pot to boiling, remove from the heat add 250g of the chocolate and stir until it is melted.
Add the sugar and butter to a large bowl and beat with your electric beaters until pale and creamy. Addthe eggs 1 at a time and beat them into the mixture. If you notice the mixture starting to curdle, add about a tablespoon of the flour.
Now stir in the chocolate with a metal spoon until the whole mixture is brown. Sift the flour and the cocoa into the bowl, add the ground almonds and fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients gently. Don’t mix it, just fold it in to distribute evenly.
Pour the whole lot into the cake tin, into the oven for about one hour. You want the cake to have risen and be firm to the touch, check it at 50 minutes with a skewer. You want a little stickiness in the center so the skewer should come out with a little wetness and cake on it.
Set the tin aside and allow the cake to cool.
Remove the cake and find the longest straightest knife you have. Slice the cake into 2 or 3 equal slice. Place a layer of whipped cream between the slices.
Melt the rest of the chocolate in about 30ml of boiling water and in a separate bowl beat the mascarpone cheese with another 30ml of boiling water, add the chocolate to the mascarpone and beat well with your electric beater. Smother the cake with the mixture and you have made one seriously delicious and impressive chocolate cake.
I made this chocolate cake yesterday and I must congratulate you on the simplicity of this recipe. My girlfriend is suspicious of my motives and keeps asking me why I made this cake. Anyway, thanks for the recipe.
Good one Nicolas, because you love her… what other possible reason could there be 😉 Have a lekker weekend. G
Hey G
I saw this recipe on the follwoing link http://www.mycookbook.co.za/view/1344/easy_impressive_chocolate_cake_recipe.html
Are you posting recipes on this webiste as well?
Thanks
Renz
Hi Renz, mycookbook uses my recipes in exchange for a link back to my site. Cheers for now G
Hi Graham
I like your chocolate cake recipe, I have a friend who wants me to bake her wedding cake with 3 tiers. She saw my daughter’s birthday cake that I baked but to tell the truth I am really not good at baking and I would like some tips on how to assemble the cakes once they are baked and a simple white cake recipe and how to decorate it.I could really use your input.
Thank you,
Nomusa
Hi Nomusa, a Victoria sponge is a fantastic sponge cake recipe
https://cookbook.co.za/baking/cakes/victoria-sponge-cake/
I am not really one for fancy decorating but most decorative icing is available from good bakeries already made, leaves, flowers etc. As long as you have a great cake and a good icing, the fancy bits are up to you, take a look at these cake decorating ideas
http://www.wilton.com/decorating/
Going to try this definitely. Just a hint. If you score the cake around sides, and insert ordinary thread in the cuts, cross over in front and pull to left and right, you get perfect, even layers.
That is such a great way to cut cake slices, will definitely be using that method next time.. I will use some fishing line I have lying around. Thanks Kiti and have a wonderful weekend G
Hi Graham
What can Mascarpone cheese substituted with.It looks divine by the way.
Mapula
Hi Mapula, here is a very good substitute, 250g cream cheese, 1/4 cup whipping cream, 2 tablespoons sour cream. mix together and the result is very similar to mascarpone cheese. No low fat versions! Enjoy it G
Looks absolutely delicious Graham! i must try it this weekend.
Hi there.
Im new at cooking so wha is muscavado sugar 🙂 Is it normal brown suga.
Hi Brandon, it’s a dark brown sugar that is a little sticky sometimes called treacle sugar. Enjoy it G
Hi Graham,
What is muscavdo sugar? Can I use ordinary Hullets brown sugar for this recipe. Its sounds Great, want to make it for tonite.
Regards,
Gail
Hi Gail, Muscavado is a dark brown sugar that sticks together a little, Hullets will have it, maybe called treacle sugar. Cheers for now G
Sorry Graham, I might just be doff but do you melt the 250g chocolate into the 75ml water, The recipe doesn’t call for water, thus the question?
Thanks
Carey
Thanks for pointing that out Carey, yes you melt the chocolate in the water.. enjoy it and have a delicious long weekend G
Dear G
I would like to try this however there seems to be some confusion(for me) There are 2 different lots of choc here. First the 250Grams for the choc mixture – do we melt the 250g choc into the boiling h20? Sorry I know you responsed to Carey but I didn’t think you could melt choc into boiling water!!! Also what depth in cm is your 20cm baking tin?
Thanks
R
Hi Renz, I have changed the method so that it is a bit clearer. Yes, you boil the water and pop in the chocolate to melt it. The tin is about 9cm or so high, don’t have it here with me so not exactly sure.
Hello G
Thanks so much. Will definitely give it a bash. Is there any way of adding a function on the response page so that we can upload a pic of the cake or dish we prepared? It would be nice to see how the dishes actually look when tried by others? Just a thought?
Take care
Hi Renz, I have thought of doing something like that and would love to, thanks for reminding me, just have not found an out of the box solution or a plugin to do it. Will have look again and see what I find. Have a delicious weekend G
Hi Graham,
Have to try this – everyone loves a chocolate cake and no-one more than me.
Just a question – I don’t care much for almonds, is there something I could substitute the almonds with?
Thanks,
Di
Hi Di, you could grind up hazelnuts or even meusli with a bit of coconut instead of the almonds. Cheers for now G
Thanks Graham, I will try it and let you know. The meusli and coconut sound like a good combination.
Enjoy your weekend.
Di