Help me with a chocolate cake recipe!

[Honeymoonmummy]

Hi all,

I am a virtual novice when it comes to baking cakes so can I plead to you for help. I know there will be loads of threads on this but I'm short of time.

My DD's birthday is next week and she's having a party. I have seen a birthday cake I want to make and have bought the pack of icing to roll out and cover the cake and I know the design I want on it, it's pretty simple so hopefully no problems there. It has 3 layers.

However, I need a chocolate cake recipe - a foolproof one which requires simply things to be thrown in a food processor if possible. I have 2 nine inch cake tins and a fan electric oven if that is important! [clueless]

Also, when using roll out icing, do you cut out a circle for the top and then a long bit for the sides or just mould it over the sides?

Also, any other tips to stop me making a complete arse of this cake would be much appreciated! I'm going to do a trial run tonight and ice it tomorrow, hence the haste.

TIA.

7oz each of butter and caster sugar. 3 large eggs. 5 oz self raising flour, 2oz coco powder. Teaspoon of baking powder. You can bung it a all in together a nd whisk it up. Pour into the two tins evenly and bake at 180 for about 30 mins. Or until a sharp knife of skewer comes out of the cake clean

Thanks Choude. I've decided to leave it until tomorrow to bake the trial run so I will give your recipe a go

What about the icing?

Good food ultimate chocolate cake is a very good recipe and reliable

Roll out the icing so it covers the whole cake. Brush the cake with something wet, I find vodka works best, lay icing over cake and gently mould it to the cake.

Have a look on you tube, there are some good step by step guides (search for sugar paste or fondant icing)

Do not use a food processor. Use an electric whisk or beat by hand. If you use a processor it will knock any air out of the mixture and overmix the ingredients and your cake won't rise.

This Mary Berry recipe is a good one.

Thanks all. I may leave the vodka due to the large number of 5 year olds who will be consuming the cake

Hi all, just a quick update, I used the good food link above and bought 2 20cm tins for it, it turned out lovely! My icing cracked a little when I moulded it over the sides of the cake and was a bit messy where there was an overlap, any further tips??

Bump

put some icing sugar or cornflour on your hands and rub them over the icing that's covering the cake. This will smooth out the cracks and give an even surface.