Quick Chocolate Cake

  From:           Char Rice
  Subject:        Quick Chocolate Cake
  To:             Cooking
  
Quick Chocolate Cake
Chef: Alicia Parmiter

INGREDIENTS (1 cake)
 CAKE MIXTURE
1 3/4-2 cups self-raising flour
1 1/4 cups caster sugar, or white sugar chopped in the blender
6 Tbsp cocoa, (Use more if you like)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp  salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
4 oz butter or margarine
1/2 Tsp   vanilla

TOPPING
1 cup cream, whipped with a little icing sugar
3 oz cooking chocolate
1/2 oz copha nuts

PROCEDURE
1)  Sift the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.  Soften the butter and add with the
milk and vanilla to dry ingredients.

2)  Beat for 2 mins with a wooden spoon or until smooth.  Add eggs and beat another 2
mins.

3)  Pour into an 8 inch round cake tin (I find the  collapsible type best).  Cook in a
moderate 350-375 deg. F oven for 1 hour.

4)  Turn the cooled cake over, slice into two layers and fill with cream.  Melt chocolate
with copha do not burn) and pour over cake, dribbling it down the side. Decorate with
almonds, pecans or walnuts.

NOTES
Self-raising flour is popular in Britain and Australia, and hard to find in North
America. Substitute 2 cups of ordinary all-purpose flour with 1/2 tsp of salt and 3 tsp of
baking powder mixed in.  The North American equivalent of caster sugar is "granulated
sugar".  There is no equivalent of copha, but a mixture of butter and coconut is better
than nothing. Crisco has the right cooking properties to substitute for copha, but the
wrong flavor.

You can pour a little Grand Marnier into the cake before spreading the cream in the
middle, but it doesn't need it.

RATING
Difficulty: moderate.  Time: 10 minutes preparation, 1 hour cooking, 1 hour to cool and
5 minutes decorating. 5 minutes to eat.  Precision: Measure the ingredients, though the
cocoa and cream are not critical.