Chocolaty Hen Party!

My dear friend was getting married by the end of the year and I was to host her hen party. And what is a hostess without a cake?

Since it would be a all-girls night, I decided to make what girls love - a chocolate cake! But this chocolate cake is a rich, deep chocolate cake that sends you to chocolate heaven!

It's a recipe from Angela Nilsen and I found it on the BBC Good Food website. I've made it twice already and each time it sends everyone's taste-buds through the roof!

Just a note - if you are intolerant or sensitive to coffee, you don't have to put that in, just omit it and the cake will do nicely without it. There's also Buttermilk in the recipe. I couldn't find it in the supermarkets so I just omitted that too and the cake turned out fine. So it's up to you! What I've learnt is that you can deviate away from the recipe and still come out with a pretty good cake!

        Photograph by Unique Muslimah

And this is how it turned out! Because of the moisture it created a delicious fudge texture which was a bonus for our hen night! The cake was a huge success- and I was quite happy about it because it was my first try at chocolate cake!

So what is the recipe? I'm sure you're dying to get your hands on it now!

Ingredients

• 200g good quality dark chocolate , about 60% cocoa solids
• 200g butter , cut in pieces
• 1 tbsp instant coffee granules
• 85g self-raising flour
• 85g plain flour
• 1⁄4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 200g golden caster sugar
• 25g cocoa powder
• 3 medium eggs
• 75ml buttermilk (5 tbsp)

Method

1. Butter a 20cm round cake tin (7.5cm deep) and line the base. Preheat the oven to fan 140C/conventional 160C/ gas 3. Break the chocolate in pieces into a medium, heavy-based pan. Tip in the butter, then mix the coffee granules into 125ml/4fl oz cold water and pour into the pan. Warm through over a low heat just until everything is melted - don't overheat. Or melt in the microwave on Medium for about 5 minutes, stirring half way through.
2. While the chocolate is melting, mix the two flours, bicarbonate of soda, sugars and cocoa in a big bowl, mixing with your hands to get rid of any lumps. Beat the eggs in a bowl and stir in the buttermilk.
3. Now pour the melted chocolate mixture and the egg mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just until everything is well blended and you have a smooth, quite runny consistency. Pour this into the tin and bake for 1 hour 25- 1 hour 30 minutes - if you push a skewer in the center it should come out clean and the top should feel firm (don't worry if it cracks a bit). Leave to cool in the tin (don't worry if it dips slightly), then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.  

And as the French say Bon Appetite, the Egyptians say, Bel Hana Wel Shefa!