No-apology chocolate cake

It hasn’t escaped my notice that I seem to post rather a lot about chocolate and cakes, and often both at the same time. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. World peace could probably be achieved if only there was enough chocolate and cake to go around, but that’s another discussion entirely.

So, because I firmly believe in not fixing something if it’s working perfectly well, I hereby bring you yet another chocolate and cake post. It will add inches to your waistline, up your cholesterol levels, stoke up your blood sugar and, most of all, do wonders for your soul.

This particular creation of chocolate joy is all the more delectable for its idiot-proof simplicity and use of store cupboard ingredients. You don’t need a kilo of chocolate or tons of butter to make it, and nor do you need any fancy gadgets or trickery. You just mix everything together, slap it in the tin, and wait for it to emerge from the oven some time later. Even I can do that.



I first came across this recipe a few years ago, when moneysavingexpert.com was a relative novelty (and when Twitter had barely even got going), and I was drawn to the site for its gathering together of food-loving wallet-watchers. As Frugal Cook would surely agree, some extraordinarily good recipes can spring from straitened times.

You can either read the original post, recipe, and commentary here, or read on for my ever-so-slightly edited and tweaked version.

Chocolate yogurt cake
5 fl oz vegetable oil
5 fl oz natural yoghurt
4 level tbsp golden syrup
6 oz caster sugar
3 eggs
8 oz self-raising flour
3 rounded tbsp cocoa
½ level tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ level tsp salt

1. Heat your oven to 325°F/160°C/gas mark 3. Grease and line an 8" round cake tin.

2. Place oil, yoghurt, syrup, caster sugar and eggs in a bowl; beat with a wooden spoon until well mixed. Sift flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt into bowl and mix well.

3. Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake in centre of oven for 1hr 30 mins - 1hr 40 mins. Test with the fingers. If cooked, the cake should spring back and have begun to shrink away from the side of the tin.

4. Leave cake to cool in tin, then turn out and remove paper. EAT! (when cool, obviously... Patience is a virtue, remember.)



To store: wrap in foil; keep 2 to 3 days for full flavour (a cruel tease, I know), then up to 1 week in a tin.

If you want to create some additional interest, throw some ground cardamom and/or orange or lime zest into the mix. There’s no reason, either, why you shouldn’t smother the whole thing with ganache. But it really is perfectly good on its own, or else served with a dollop of crème fraiche.