Chocolate Not-Quite-a-Pound Cake

You have this idea, don't you, that baking with your children is a wholesome kind of experience?

But the reality is a flour-flinging, egg-dripping, sugar-spilling mess, isn't it?    

I mean, I bake with my children all the time. I do. But I don't enjoy it. They love it, though, so I put on a grin and grit my teeth while I watch them scoop eggshell out of the batter with their fingers (did you wash your hands before you started?) and lick the spoon mid-stir (did you wash your... oh, never mind.) I can deal with all of that. (The powdery floor after a baking session is a little harder for me. I have an obsession a thing for clean floors.)  

And, anyway - it's quickly over. 

We have a little routine: they each get a bowl and spoon, and I line up the cupfuls of ingredients. 

No recipes, just basic ratios. 

Which is how I came up with this not-quite-a-pound-cake chocolate cake. It was my son's production (my daughter always does a pink cake... with sprinkles, icing and candles...). And it was really very good - a lovely fine crumb, moist, and dense enough for stacking in a tall cake. Just what I needed for his birthday cake. (I normally use a chocolate mud-cake recipe for that kind of thing, but this batter is so much easier.) 

Chocolate Not-Quite-a-Pound Cake Recipe
Recipe by Tea, Cake and Create


Pre-heat oven to 180'C
Grease and line 3 x 6inch round cake pans or 2x 8inch round cake pans
(I made two batches for this tall cake - 4 layers.)

Ingredients
320g cake flour, sifted
60g cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
400g caster sugar
4 XL eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
250ml sour cream
250ml vegetable oil (canola)
100ml boiling water

Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder.

Using an electric mixer, beat together the sugar and eggs until pale and fluffy.
Mix in the vanilla extract, followed by the oil.

With the mixer on low speed, add a third of the dry ingredients, followed by half the sour cream.
Repeat;  end with the last third of the dry ingredients.

Pour in the water, and beat just until the batter consistency is uniform.
Divide evenly between the prepared cake pans.
Bake at 180'C for 35-40minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.
(Baking time also depends on how many tins you've divided your batter into.)

Allow to cool in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.


Happy baking!

xxM