Ingredients

• 175 gm. or 6 oz. plain flour or maida

• 230 gm. or 7 oz. dark brown sugar. You can use other sugar, but dark brown gives the best flavour.

• 125 gm. or 4 oz. butter or margarine

• 2 standard eggs

• 150 ml. or 5 oz sour cream. You can use thick, Greek yoghurt, but cream gives best results.

• 75 gm. 2.5 oz. cocoa powder (I use Green & Blacks organic cocoa powder)

• 1 tsp. (5 ml.) baking powder

• 1/2 tsp. (2.5 ml.) bicarbonate of soda

• 8.5" x 4" x 2.75" deep or 21.25 cm x 10 cm x 6.8 cm. I use a silicone loaf tin

• Chocolate Icing:

• 175 gm icing sugar

• 2 full tablespoons of cocoa powder

• 1 teaspoon of soft butter or ghee

• 3 tablespoons of water

• Chocolate Sauce

• One 200 gm. bar of 75% chocolate, broken up

• 150 ml. or 5 oz double or whipping cream

• A Baine-marie*

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C or 350F or gas mark 4

2. Grease the cake tin with butter or line it with greaseproof paper.

3. Beat butter and sugar together until creamy.

4. Add one egg at a time and beat them in, until smooth and fluffy.

5. Add cream and beat it in.

6. In a separate bowl, sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda to remove any lumps.

7. Now fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients (butter/sugar/egg mix) gently, with a spatula, using figure of 8 movements.

8. Pour into the loaf tine, tap to even it out and bake in the centre of a pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes.

9. To test if it is done, insert a skewer or bamboo stick into the centre of the cake and pull it out. It should come out moist but clean. If some cake batter clings to it when you pull it out, bake for a further 10 minutes and test again.

10. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then gently ease it off onto a wire rack to cool.

11. I prefer to serve it as it is, but you can serve it with either of these

12. Chocolate Icing; Place icing sugar, cocoa powder, butter/ghee in a bowl. Add 3-4 tablespoons of water, a little at a time and mix. It should not be too watery, just custard like, pouring consistency. Pour over the cake, allowing a little to dribble over the sides. Let it cool, it will harden as it cools.

13. Chocolate sauce: To make it, melt broken up chocolate pieces in a Bain-Marie*. Turn heat off.

14. Whisk double cream until stiff. Fold it into the melted chocolate. Serve on top of the slices of chocolate cake.

Notes

• *A Bain-Marie is a bowl or a pan with food to be cooked sitting inside a large pan containing water simmering gently on low heat. It is often used to cook custards or to melt chocolate or to make sauces. The food cooks without direct contact to the source of heat.