Chocolate cakes are great to eat at home, for tea or a snack. They can also be a lovely gift for a friend or neighbour. And that’s why this is a recipe for two. Simply reduce the amounts accordingly if you only want one.
Serves: 10 – 12 slices
Time: 90 – 100 minutes + cooling + 15 minutes to decorate simply
Level: Easy
Tins: Two 1kg (2lb) loaf tins + paper liners if you have them (or just one if only making one cake.)
Ingredients (This is for two identical cakes)
- 175g/6oz Dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
- 175g/6oz Light chocolate* (i.e. white or milk), broken into small pieces
- 2 Tbsp milk + 2 knobs of butter (about 30g)
- 325g/11oz Self raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 30g/1oz coffee powder
- 1 tsp of salt
- 275g/9½oz softened unsalted butter or baking spread
- 275g/9½oz caster sugar
- 5 eggs
- 75g/2½oz flaked almonds
- 30g/1oz cocoa powder (optional)
- Another 2 Tbsp milk, if needed
*In this example I used milk chocolate, which was OK, but the colour difference between dark and milk chocolate was minimal. White chocolate would probably be more effective.
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C / fan 160°C / 350°F / gas 4. Either grease and line the loaf tins, or simply insert the paper liners without greasing the tins.
2. Melt half of each chocolate with 1 tbsp milk and a knob of butter in separate bain maries or carefully in the micro wave using short blasts and regular stirring. Set both aside to cool.
3. Into a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, coffee powder and salt. Mix together then add the butter, sugar and eggs. Beat until everything is fully combined. Stir in around 50g/1¾oz flaked almonds. (Reserve enough to decorate the tops later.)
4. Put roughly half the mixture into another bowl. Into each half, stir one of the melted chocolates, making a dark mixture and a light one. (To increase the colour difference and to give a little more flavour you could add the cocoa powder to the dark mix.)
5. Now stir the reserved dark chocolate pieces into the dark mixture and the reserved light chocolate into the lighter mixture. If necessary add the reserved milk to loosen the mixtures if they’re very stiff.
6. Place alternate “blobs” of each mixture into the tins and swirl the two together with a skewer, chopstick or similar instrument. Don’t overdo this or the two shades will not be distinctive.
7. Bake for 55 – 60 minutes. Cool in the tin for ten minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully.
Decorating
Option 1 – If you want something quick and easy (as I did, in this version) simply buy a carton of ready mixed icing/frosting and cover the top of each cake, using a small spatula. Add the reserved flaked almonds. I made a simple pattern using a fork. I also mixed about 30g/1oz of full fat cream cheese into the frosting to ensure that I had enough mixture for two cakes. This, in fact, was unnecessary; a 400g tub was more than enough for two loaf cakes.
Option 2 – Another, fairly quick and easy option would be to make a ganache. Again, use a small spatula to apply it and add the flaked almonds, or sprinkles, or chocolate chips.
I hope you enjoy making (and eating) this lovely cake. If you want more loaf cake recipes click here. Or for cakes in general try this link.
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Retired Bloke on Food n stuff 