My Favourite Chocolate Tray Bake

Ingredients

Cooks in:20–25 minutes        Serves:8

Chocolate Cake

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup cake flour, sifted
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 heaped tsp instant coffee granules (optional)
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 Tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup boiling water

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

• 2–3 heaped Tbsp smooth peanut butter
• 100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 3–4 Tbsp cream

What to do

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C and grease your favourite cake tin or roasting tin (I like to use an old battered 15 x 20 cm roasting tin and then just serve the cake straight from that for a rustic effect).

2. Add all of the cake ingredients, except the boiling water, to a large mixing bowl.

3. Slowly add the boiling water, whisking as you pour it in, and mix until everything is just combined.

4. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 20–25 minutes, or until the cake is just cooked through and a skewer inserted into its centre comes out clean.

5. To make the icing, add the ingredients to a double boiler, heat until the chocolate has melted, stir together until smooth and glossy.

6. Ice the cake and serve as soon as possible.

Notes: Because I serve my cake in the tray that I bake it in, I only need enough icing for the top. If you decide to bake your cake in a cake tin and remove it and ice properly, you will probably need about double the amount of icing that is given above.
I like to add all of the dry ingredients to a glass jar and store in my pantry, that way it’s extra quick to throw together when we need to, just add the wet ingredients at the last minute.
This also makes a pretty lovely little pud, served warm and with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream or double-thick cream.

Photo from 'Sarah Graham's Food Safari' by Ricardo de Leça.

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