The perfect chocolate cake recipe for lazy people – The Independent
For your eating pleasure, I spent weeks testing different variations of chocolate cake. I knew what I wanted: something wonderfully moist, a touch bitter, light, quick to make and beautiful,” says chef and food writer Ravneet Gill.
“The perfect lazy person’s cake. It had to be a gleaming beauty that looked like you’d spent forever on it, when in reality it involved very little effort. We make this cake for people we care about, but don’t have much time for. Fringe friends, you might say.”
LPC (Lazy Person’s Cake)
Makes: a 20cm cake
Ingredients:
For the wet cake mix:
175ml olive oil, not overly strong, plus extra for the tins
2 eggs
175ml buttermilk
170ml boiling water
5g/1 tsp instant coffee
For the dry cake mix:
125g caster sugar
125g light brown sugar
80g cocoa powder
230g plain flour
5g/1 tsp sea salt flakes
10g/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
5g/1 tsp baking powder
For the malt chocolate ganache:
150g 70% cocoa solids chocolate, chopped
50g 55 % cocoa solids chocolate, chopped
Pinch of sea salt flakes
300g double cream
1tbsp malt extract (alternatively use black treacle, maple syrup or honey)
Method:
1. I want to blaze through this recipe as quick as you, so here we go! Preheat the oven to 160C fan/180C/gas mark 4. Grease two 20cm cake tins with oil, then line with baking paper.
2. Weigh all the dry cake mix ingredients into a large bowl and stir together with a whisk to fully combine (if the sugar is lumpy, you will have to sift it).
3. Weigh all the wet cake mix ingredients, except the water and coffee, into a large bowl and whisk together. Make the coffee in a cup with the measured boiling water and instant coffee, pour it into the wet ingredients bowl and stir well.
4. Add the dry mix to the wet mix and stir well with a whisk to combine. Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared tins (if you want to be precise, you can weigh the total batter, then divide it exactly in half). Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before flipping onto a wire rack (allow to cool …….