Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 March 2006 12:14:37
Made this last week for my cousin M's birthday, and was asked for the recipe. Here is the recipe as it should be. Dry ingredients and wet alike are measured in cups, one cup being 8 fluid oz:
1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour (UK: plain flour)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa (cocoa powder, not drinking chocolate)
1 tsp. baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk (either use yoghurt or milk which has been left with a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice for five minutes, if you can't get buttermilk).
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
1-1/2 to 2 tsp. vanilla extract (just a few drops of UK strength)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F (170°C) . Butter and lightly flour a 8x11-inch pan. Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add the buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla, beating until smooth. Spread in the pan, and bake for 30-35 minutes. Test to see if a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a rack.
This recipe is, like many N. American cake recipes, about a million times easier than many of the UK cake recipes people give me, and also a lot nicer. No creaming etc., and a much lighter mix. Note this recipe is supposed to have no eggs. That is not an omission.
Accidental part: I didn't have enough cocoa powder but I did have some Mexican hot chocolate - drinking chocolate, with sugar in. In fact, given to us by M. So I added some of that and reduced the sugar. But it's also cinnamon flavoured. So the cake came out cinnamon flavoured. Since M and The Spouse™ are not huge icing fans, I didn't ice the cake, but melted some chocolate to put in the middle, and sprinkled some icing sugar, and some more cinnamon, on top.
I used part Green & Black's plain cooking chocolate and part Swiss Milk Chocolate from M&S for the middle, because that's what we had in the house, but I think it would have been better without the plain, as it was a bit bitter.