Death by Chocolate cake

I got this recipe from Edna- May and I have to say that it is the best chocolate cake I have EVER eaten, never mind baked. I place the recipe below exactly like she gave it to me.

Just a few notes on the below: I did use butter, I do not have margarine in the house. It was delicious! Also I did not use one of the fillings she named. In stead I made the icing double and used half in the middle and half on the top. The cake is not sweet at all (despite the 2 cups of sugar in the recipe) - so do not expect a sweet cake. It's more like a dark chocolate cake with the texture of red velvet cake.

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE

¼ cup Cocoa }*

½ cup oil }* * Heat together in saucepan

125g Margarine }*

1 cup water }*

2 cups Flour }

2 cups Sugar } Mix together in a large bowl

2 Eggs }#

½ cup Buttermilk }# Beat together lightly

1 tsp Bicarb }#

½ tsp Vanilla Essence }#

Pour * mixture over sugar and flour – mix in gently.

Add # to full mixture. Mix gently.

Grease two 20cm pans and line the base with baking paper (very important). Divide mixture between the two pans.

Bake at 160 – 180 °C for approx. 25 minutes. Test before removing from oven.

Cool for about 5 minutes then turn out onto wire rack – take care not to break the cakes!!

ICING

60ml Cocoa 60g Margarine

½ cup icing sugar 15ml Milk

Bring nearly to boil, beat well. Allow to cool, beat well again before pouring over the cake.

A few tips from my experience with this cake!

I found the best margarine to use is Wooden Spoon. In this recipe, it must be margarine and not butter (for the purists).

* ingredients shouldn’t be too hot otherwise the flour and sugar become a gluey mess!

Watch the icing mixture when warming the ingredients as well – it can become fudge very quickly.!

The fillings for this cake are endless:

Marmalade for orange flavour;

Strawberry jam filling serviced with cream and fresh strawberries – yummy.

Caramel is quite decadent;

Mixed berry jam filling serviced with cream and fresh berries – to die for!

Have fun and enjoy!