Quick Mix Chocolate Cake & Icing

This is a recipe that my family have used for years.  My mother and grandmother both made this for me and I've passed it onto Sous Chef J as a 'favourite' cake.  Seeing as being on a gluten free regime is relatively new in the life of the recipe we've only just tried it as a gluten free option.  It's been baked many, many times with gluten containing flour so, if you're not avoiding gluten do like I did in the days before going gluten free, and make two at a time; eating one and freezing one.

5 oz SR flour plus 1 level tsp baking powder (or 5oz Plain flour plus 2½level tsp) - these days we usually use Dove's Farm Gluten Free flour although making this cake we used Orgran.
¼ level tsp salt
1 oz cocoa
4½ oz caster sugar
3½ oz soft margarine (we used Pure)
2 eggs
4 Tbsp milk (we used almond milk)

Our family recipe says "Sift dry ingredients together.
Mix in margarine
Beat the eggs and add the milk to them.
Mix all ingredients thoroughly until smooth and creamy.
Turn into tins - 2 x 6" greased and lined ( or I use 1x8")
Cook in moderate oven (350F, 160C, Gas 6) for 30-45 mins.
Turn out to cool."  

My mother used to make hers in her trusty Kenwood Chef (which I remember had its own cupboard stand-type thing that would swing up, into place and was a proficient finger catcher if you happened to have a stray digit in the way!)  No such luck here... we don't have a stand mixer. So improvised using my braun multiquick hand processor.

What we did was to cream the butter and sugar in the large bowl.

Then we added the dried ingredients and lightly beaten eggs and whizzed them a bit.... 

 ... this was then added to two greased and lined 6" baking trays (when making this with gluten containing flour, I used to use one 8", deep, baking tin, cook for longer and cut in half when cooled - it won't work with gluten free flour.)  The mix was carefully 'encouraged' to cover the whole tin, before being placed in a 160ºC oven for 30 minutes.

This is what the cooked, cooling cakes looked like.

Whilst the cakes cooled properly, we made another long-standing recipe - very simple (as ever) and delicious too...

Recipe is as follows:-


Chocolate Fudge Icing

1½ oz soft margarine (we used Pure dairy free)
3 Tbsp Milk (we used rice or almond milk)
8 oz icing sugar
1 oz cocoa

Heat the milk and margarine gently in a pan until well mixed.
Sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl and add the cooled milk mixture.
Mix thoroughly until thick and creamy. 

We followed the recipe exactly and ended up with a fudgey icing, half of which was spread on one cake, the other cake was placed on top and the remainder of the icing use to 'decorate' the top.

Here's a slice to show how it looked when cooked - it didn't last long!




Incidentally, the cake fork is courtesy of Sous Chef J - he thinks it makes the cake look more 'fine dining'... can't say I agree but it was useful to keep his chocolatey face mess to a minimum.


This cake would be fab to make in a stand mixer... far less work than the way we did it. Perhaps, one day, we'll have the space and funds to justify us getting one?!