very chocolate cake

Scrummy chocolate with chocolate icing, decorated with chocolate balls and chocolate shavings, oh and some morello cherry jam inside.

adapted a bit from Felicity Cloake's recipe

100g dark chocolate, melted and allowed to cool slightly
250g butter, at room temperature
250g light muscovado sugar
½ tsp salt
50g cocoa powder
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
150ml milk

half jar morello cherry jam
block of Silver Spoon dark chocolate cake covering
mixed chocolate balls

Grease and line the bases of 2 x 20cm loose bottom sandwich tins with greaseproof paper. Preheat the oven to 160c.

Cream together the butter and sugar with salt.

Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time to prevent the mixture from curdling (thank you Mary Berry) then add half the dry ingredients followed by the melted chocolate. Add the remaining dried ingredients, followed by enough milk to give a dropping consistency.  Divide between the two tins and bake for about 25–30 minutes until firm in the centre.


Wait for it to cool.  Add the jam and sandwich the two together.  Prepare the chocolate cake covering as directed on the packet and smear about 3/4 of it all over the cake.  Sprinkle with chocolate balls before the covering sets so they stick on.

With the remaining cake covering, pour over a chopping board and leave to set (I put it in the freezer for 5 minutes).  Once set, scrape the chocolate with a pallet knife to get shavings and stick to the outside of the cake.  I found that dipping a pallet knife in boiling water and holding it against the side of the cake was sufficient to melt the icing enough for the chocolate shavings to stick.

Find people to eat it.