Old-fashioned Chocolate Cake Recipe     

Feel like baking an old-fashioned chocolate cake? Try this recipe for a dark and delicious cake served with vanilla cream, a spice-infused raspberry coulis and decadent chocolate glaze.                  

Sponge Cake                     

245 g cake flour
400 g sugar
90 g cocoa powder
8 g baking powder
8 g bicarb
5 g salt
1 C (250 ml) milk
½ C (125 ml) oil
1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla essence
1 C (250 ml) boiling water
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 160 °C.

Grease and line x 22 cm baking tins.

Sift all of the dry ingredients (cake flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb, salt) together in the bowl of a stand mixer (or just a regular bowl if you are going to hand-mix).

Combine the milk, oil and vanilla essence in a small jug. Add the hot water and mix. Allow to cool slightly and then whisk in the two eggs, continue to whisk so that the eggs don’t cook in the warm mixture.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in three batches. Whisking to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl in-between additions.

Pour the batter evenly into the prepared baking tins and bake for 20-30 mins until a cake tester or skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin and then remove and cool completely.

Raspberry coulis                             

10 g star anise
10 g ground cinnamon
10 g whole All Spice
500 g fresh or frozen raspberries
180 g sugar                                          

Add all the ingredients to a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Remove the visible spices and blend until smooth with a stick blender.                          

Chantilly Cream                           

1 C (250 m) cream
1 vanilla pod                                                             

Split the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds with the back of a small knife. Add to the cream and then whip to soft peak stage. The raspberries will be added when the cake is put together.

Chocolate Icing

250 g butter, softened (not melted)
500 g icing suga
¾ C (180 ml) cocoa powder
2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla essence
2 Tbsp (30 ml) milk

Cream the butter in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa together in a bowl. Add the sugar and cocoa mix to the butter in batches with the machine running. 

Add the vanilla essence and milk and mixed until well combined.

Chocolate Glaze

6 Tbsp (90 ml) butter
¼ C (60 ml) cocoa powder
¼ (60 ml) milk
2 -2 ½ C (500-625 ml) icing sugar, sifted

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat.

Stir in the cocoa powder and milk. Cook the glaze, stirring, until it thickens and comes to a boil.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in 2 cups of sifted icing sugar, adding more if needed to make the mixture smooth and a little thicker than syrup; don’t let the glaze get too thick.               

To assemble                                             

Once the cake sponge is completely cooled down, split the 2 cakes evenly into 4 layers by slicing across the middle widthways (you can opt to just do a 2-layer cake if preferred).

Place one completely cooled chocolate cake layer on a serving dish/stand. Pipe Chantilly cream to cover the layer and dot with raspberries coulis.

Carefully place the second layer of the chocolate cake on top of the cream and then repeat the above step – cover with Chantilly cream and dot with coulis. Keep going until the cake is completely assembled.

Ice the cake with a layer of chocolate icing all around. You can opt to chill the cake in the fridge to set the icing before glazing.

Ladle the semi-warm glaze over a room temperature cake and let sit until the glaze sets about 30 minutes.

Slice and serve.