Summertime Schoolteacher: Chocolate Cake and Chinese

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Yesterday was too busy to write up what I did so am catching up this morning.

I was in school at the beginning of the week moving classrooms and lugging furniture in 35oC heat. I couldn't face it the next day but all that tidying doesn't do itself so I went in yesterday morning. This time to lug filing cabinets and books around the office! Anyhoo, that all (technically) means I don't have to go back until the last week - Wahoo!!

Combine a busy school morning with a busy family visiting afternoon and a planned Chinese with friends in the evening and I very nearly didn't stick to THE PLAN. . .

BUT, with my Granny's chocolate cake recipe and half an hour to spare I wouldn't be going round to see my friends empty handed.

WHAT I DID:

My Granny's chocolate cake recipe is infamous in our family. I can't quite do it justice but I sometimes have a shot at it. None of the women in our family are what you'd call chef quality cooks but we can bake! Sadly I'm married to a wheat intolerant so if I bake it I eat it - very dangerous for the waistline.

THE RECIPE:

THE CAKE

3 medium eggs (weigh them with shells on to find out weight for all other ingredients)
same weight in flour
Same weight in sugar
large tablespoon of cocoa powder

My kitchen never ends as neat and tidy...

Preheat your oven to 150oC.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until fully combined.

Then beat the eggs up in another bowl and gradually add a little egg and a little flour and mix. Do this until everything is mixed up in the bowl. Add the cocoa powder and mix well.

How it should look halfway through mixing

(TOP TIP - If you want marbled cake just don't mix as well. Looks fancy but very easy!)

How it should look when fully combined with cocoa powder and all ingredients - you are now ready to dollop in tins.

In the mean time butter and flour your tins - sorry forgot to mention this bit! Rub butter into the sides and bottom of the tin and sprinkle flour on it. Tap out any excess flour. This stops the mixture sticking to the tin.

Then just dollop the mix into the tins and shove in the oven for 10-15 minutes for fairy cakes and about 20ish minutes for sandwich tinned cakes. If in doubt stab them with a knife; if it comes out clean the cakes are done.

BUTTER ICING

8 oz of butter
3 oz of icing sugar
tableish spoon of cocoa powder ( use your discretion for how dark you want it)

Just moosh together the icing mix and then bung it in the fridge to firm back up again so it doesn't drip down your arm when your icing!. I was a fancy pants this time and used a piping bag - not very successfully I might add but I was impressed with myself... And I forced my mates to eat them after a whale load of chinese so I was pleased!