Here, as promised, is a recipe for a very good chocolate birthday cake.
Ingredients
225g self-raising flour
20g cocoa powder
pinch of salt
250g unsalted butter, softened plus extra for the tins
250g caster sugar
4 large eggs, beaten
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170C or gas 5. brush two 20 x 3.5cm round cake tins with softened butter and line the bottom and sides with non-stick baking parchment.
2. sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a bowl. cream the sugar with the butter until light and fluffy. add the eggs a little at a time. fold in the flour and cocoa mixture until evenly incorporated.
3. divide the mixture equally between the tins. bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. leave in the tins to cool before removing and leave on a wire rack.
4. to make a filling for the cake, sift 200g icing sugar with 2 tbsp of cocoa powder and beat in 100g of softened butter to make a butter cream filling. sandwich the cakes together and then dust the top with icing sugar or decorate as you wish.
