Chocolate fudge Cake

Chocolate fudge Cake

I ventured into my kitchen today to do a little light baking as I promised since my previous episode of acute back pain. I would like to thank you all for your kind wishes and thoughts, they are so greatly appreciated my ‘dear’ friends. I’m still taking life steady with Christmas not too far away; I need to be on top form with all the baking and cooking on the horizon! I have so much planned I want to bake and share with you in the lead up to Christmas, I hope I manage to cram it all in *giggle*.

Oooh naughty but very, very nice!!

I digress back to the Chocolate Fudge Cake. Well Mr R has been without any cake in the cake tin for days and like I he’s very fond of chocolate, I thought a nice choccie cake was an essential bake! This sponge cake has a gorgeous lightness to it and the chocolate flavour blends through perfectly to the icing. The icing to this cake gives a lovely fudge flavour and different from fudge icings I have made before, but having chilled in the fridge for an hour, it came out a superb consistency for spreading onto the cake and held the little swirls without any problems. I can’t see any difficulty in using double cream as a substitute for evaporated milk in the icing. I also prefer milk chocolate in my icings but being a fudgy icing I opted for a plain chocolate but not too high in cocoa solids, I dislike the bitter taste sometimes dark chocolate can give.

You don’t want to be on a diet when you bite into a piece of this cake but all I will say ~ it’s naughty but very, very nice!!

Chocolate fudge Cake

Makes 20cm (8 in) Cake

Ingredients
175g (6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
175g (6 oz) caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp golden syrup
40g (1½ oz) ground almonds
175g (6 oz) self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
40g (1½ oz) cocoa powder

Chocolate Fudge Icing
225g (8 oz) plain chocolate, broken into small pieces
50g (2 oz) soft brown sugar
225g (8 oz) unsalted butter, diced
5 tbsp evaporated milk

½ tsp vanilla extract
A few chocolate sprinkles (optional)

You will need 2 x20cm (8 in) cake tins at least 3cm (1¼ in) deep, greased with a little butter and base lined with baking paper.

Method

The chocolate fudge icings is made first to give it time to chill in the fridge for 1 hour after making. Place all the icing ingredients into a heavy based saucepan and gently heat through on a low heat stirring constantly until melted. Place the fudge icing into a bowl and leave to cool. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge for 1 hour to chill.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4. Place the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten eggs and beat until all incorporated. Stir in the syrup and ground almonds. Sift the flour, salt and cocoa powder into a separate bowl. Fold gently into the mixture and add a little milk if necessary to make a dropping consistency. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tins equally and smooth the tops over with a spatula. Place into the preheated oven and bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire to fully cool. When the sponges are cold, place one sponge onto a cake stand or plate and spread a quarter of the icing on top and then place the second sponge on top and sandwich together. Spread the remaining icing over the top and sides of the cakes in a swirly pattern. Sprinkle a few chocolate sprinkles on top if you wish.