Donal Skehan's Naughty Chocolate Fudge Cake

Last week I got the opportunity to interview Donal Skehan. He was filming one of the programmes for his new series, Kitchen Hero, in the Beautiful Grouse Lodge and as this is only a few minutes from Moate I met him for a chat. I will post this interview later in the week but first I want to share with you a totally delicious and moist Chocolate Cake. As it was Millie's 1st Birthday this week I baked one of Donal's recipes as the cake.

In place of the cocoa powder, I substituted it with melted chocolate - 125g bar of 46% cocoa which I picked up in Lidl and added this along with the milk and oil. Similarly for the topping, I substituted the cocoa with 100g of the same chocolate(melted) -What can I say I can't resist adding a little extra chocolate! I served the cake with a little whipped cream and some fresh berries. This recipe comes together very quickly and the result is heavenly!

Naughty Chocolate Fudge Cake

Makes 1 cake
Ingredients

175g self-raising flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

150g caster sugar

2 eggs beaten

150 ml (1/4 pint) sunflower oil

150 ml (1/4 pint) semi skimmed milk

2 Tbsp golden syrup

For the Coating and filling

75g unsalted butter

175g icing sugar

3 tablespoon cocoa powder

A drop of milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C(fan)/390f/gas mark 6. Grease and line two 18cm (7 inch) sandwich tins.
2. Sieve the flour, cocoa and Bicarbonate of Soda into a bowl. Add the sugar and mix well.
3. Make a well in the centre and add the syrup, eggs, oil and milk. Beat well with an electric whisk until smooth.
4. Spoon the mixture into the two tins and bake for 25 – 30 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Remove from oven, leave to cool before turning out onto a cooling rack.
5. To make your butter icing, place the butter in a bowl and beat until soft. Gradually sift and beat in the icing sugar and cocoa powder then add enough milk to make the icing fluffy and spreadable.
6. If the cake has risen a little too high then use a serrated knife to even off the top, now sandwich the two cakes together with the butter icing and cover the sides and the top of the cake with more butter icing.