OLD-FASHIONED CHOCOLATE CAKE

If you are looking for a good old-fashioned chocolate cake which guarantees you perfectly rich and moist texture, look no further. Give this recipe a shot and you will agree with me. If you are a first time baker, you may ditch those ready-mix and try this one. As what Nigella Lawson says, "The fact that it is scarcely harder than making one out of cake-mix (only worlds better) is an added joy."

I had omitted the frosting as I was craving for just a simple chocolate cake to go with during my coffee break. But please remember to include sour cream. This is the secret ingredient to having a moist cake.

This gorgeous cake is adapted from Nigella Lawson. For the complete version which includes frosting, hop over to Nigella's website.

Ingredients

For the Cake:

200g plain flour

200g caster sugar (I reduced to 170g)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

40g best-quality cocoa (I used Valrhona)

175g soft unsalted butter

2 large eggs

2 tsp real vanilla extract

150ml sour cream

1. Take everything out of the fridge so that all the ingredients can come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C and line and butter two 20cm sandwich tins with removable bases.

2. Now all you have to do is put all the cake ingredients - flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarb, cocoa, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream - into a food processor and process until you have a smooth, thick batter. If you want to go the long way around, just mix the flour, sugar and leavening agents in a large bowl and beat in the soft butter until you have a combined and creamy mixture. Now whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, vanilla and eggs and beat this into your bowl of mixture.

3. Divide this batter, using a rubber spatula to help you scrape and spread, into the prepared tins and bake until a cake tester, or a thin skewer, comes out clean, which should be about 35 minutes, but it is wise to start checking at 25. Also, it might make sense to switch the two cakes around in the oven halfway through cooking time.

4. Remove the cakes, in their tins, to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before turning out of their tins.

Note: For Step #3, I used a 9" round cake pan and baked one whole cake without separating it.