CHOCOLATE CAKE

CHOCOLATE CAKE
(from Good Food Magazine)

250g butter
300g light muscovado sugar
100g plain flour
100g self-raising flour
5 eggs
300g good quality dark chocolate
Heat oven to 160C / Gas 3 and butter and line a 20cm cake tin.

Beat butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy and then beat in the eggs one at a time - adding flour as necessary if the mixture starts to split.

Melt chocolate in a bowl over simmering water - cool slightly and then beat into cake mixture. Fold in the remaining flour and then bake for 1 hour 3o mins (mine actually took nearer to two hours!) The cake should be well risen and a skewer will come out clean when the cake is cooked. There will be a crust on the top, but you can cut this off when assembling the cake.

To make the Chantilly Cream whip together 250mls of double cream with 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 2-3 tablespoons of icing sugar. Use this to fill the cake.

For the Ganache:
300g good quality dark chocolate
100g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons double cream

Melt all the ingredients together in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Cool a little until it reaches a workable consistency - I found that I could out it onto the cake almost immediately!
NOTE-