Basic chocolate cake #1

by Ed Halmagyi

Ingredients

  • 240g dark chocolate
  • 220g unsalted butter
  • 1 ½ cups caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tsp natural vanilla extract
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • ½ cup hazelnut meal
  • ⅓ cup dark cocoa powder, dissolved in ⅔ cup hot water

Instructions

1 Preheat oven to 160°C. Combine the chocolate and 75g butter in a small saucepan and melt gently over a low heat. Set aside.
2 Put the remaining butter and caster sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat with the paddle attachment for 5 minutes, until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.
3 Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together, then fold into the butter mixture with the almond meal and cocoa mixture. Spoon into a lined 23cm cake tin and bake for 45 minutes, until a skewer can be inserted and removed cleanly.