This easy chocolate cake recipe is hard to resist and take just 35 minutes to prepare. A perfect cake recipe for birthdays or any special occasion.
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Yields:
10 serving(s)
Prep Time:
35 mins
Cook Time:
25 mins
Total Time:
1 hr
Cal/Serv:
470
Ingredients
100g
unsalted butter, softened, plus extra to grease
175g
self-raising flour
25g
cocoa powder
200g
caster sugar
2
medium eggs
75ml
evaporated milk
Few drops vanilla essence
For the milk chocolate icing
100g
unsalted butter
6Tbsp.
cocoa powder (we used Bournville)
300g
icing sugar, sifted
41/2Tbsp.
hot milk
11/2tsp.
vanilla essence
Directions
Step 1
Grease two 20.5cm sandwich tins (not loose-bottomed as the mixture will run out) and line them with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4.
Step 2
Sieve the flour and cocoa powder into a large bowl, and then mix in the sugar and ½tsp salt. Add the butter and use an electric whisk to combine until it resembles dark sand.
Step 3
In a large jug, beat the eggs, evaporated milk and vanilla essence with 75ml water. Pour into the flour mixture and beat well with an electric whisk until smooth. Divide mixture between the tins and bake for 18-20min until springy to the touch.
Step 4
Leave in the tins for 10min, then transfer on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
Step 5
To make the icing, melt the butter in a medium pan. Use a wooden spoon to blend in the cocoa powder and then the icing sugar to make a thick paste. Gradually stir in the hot milk and vanilla essence. Beat until smooth. Cover the surface with clingfilm and leave to thicken for 45min. Sit one sponge on a cake stand. Spread over a third of the icing. Put the second sponge on top and spread with icing, encouraging it down the sides and smoothing with a spatula. Use a palette knife or fork to make patterns on the cake top.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
