Easy Black Forest Traybake

While I am not a hugely religious person, I am fairly certain that there is a special place in hell for those people who write vague cake recipes.  Yes, those who glibly say “whisk ingredients together” but don’t tell you what the end consistency should look like make me want to perpetrate extreme violence on their body.  This is probably because I’m not a sweets person – give me a nice desert liquor over a nasty sticky sweet concoction. 

Although I am not a fan of cakes, I do work with men who I’ve found work far better if they are rewarded with cake so I decided to make Black Forest Traybake as a thank you for looking after an intern!  So herewith the recipe for what is a simple, lovely sticky chocolate cake.

Cake Ingredients:

• 75g of cocoa powder (although I didn’t quite have enough so used a little drinking chocolate as well)
• ¾ tsp of bicarb
• 4 medium free Range Eggs
• 370g light muscavado sugar (again I underestimated my store cupboard so used a little castor sugar)
• 180ml groundnut oil
• 200g self-raising flour

Icing

• 100g dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp syrup
• 100ml cherry yoghurt

Dried cherries to garnish.

• Mix the cocoa powder and bicarb into 200ml boiling water.
• Set aside to cool for about 20 minutes

• Then start by greasing a 30cm x 24cm x 4cm tin (I used a disposable one as I’m lazy)
• Put the eggs into a mixing bowl with the sugar and oil.

• I whisked until fully combined and glossy
• Then sift in the flour before adding the cocoa mixture

• Mix and then pour into the tin
• This goes into the oven for 30 – 40 minutes or until the skewer comes clean.
• Let this cool!
• Add the dark chocolate, syrup and cherry yoghurt to a glass bowl
• Pop into a pan full over boiling water and melt the chocolate
• When it is glossy, artfully decorate the top of the cooled cake and sprinkle with cherries.

Personally, I think it looks beautiful  and I’m fairly certain that when I present it to the hungry actuaries they are likely to be pleased

L xx

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