A few years ago I found a very easy, gorgeous chocolate fudge cake recipe online which I *think* was by Donal Skehan, however I can’t for the life of me remember and I ended up losing the recipe somewhere along the way. Anyway, after looking at a few others and trying some from different books and recipes online, I came up with this one, which is super easy, uses mostly store-cupboard ingredients and has a gorgeously light sponge a delicious chocolately, creamy frosting.
Here we go!
What you’ll need:
- 3 round sandwich tins (7inch/18cm), well buttered/greased
- 3 cut discs of baking parchment (NOT greaseproof paper) to fit into the bottom of the tins
- electric hand whisk
- kitchen scales
- spoon measures
- medium/large mixing bowl
- sieve
- measuring jug
- 2 wire racks for cooling the sponges
- butter knife or palette knife
Ingredients:
- 275g self raising flour
- 3 heaped tbsp good cocoa powder (NOT drinking chocolate)
- 1 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda/baking powder)
- pinch of salt
- 225g of caster sugar
- 200 ml milk
- 200 ml sunflower oil/vegetable oil/rapeseed oil
- 3 eggs
- 2 tbsp maple syrup or golden syrup
for the frosting:
- 150g soft butter
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp of cocoa powder
- 325g icing sugar
- 4 tbsp of milk
Method:
- Preheat oven to 190°C.
- Sieve the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, caster sugar and pinch of salt into the mixing bowl and whisk to combine the dry ingredients together.
- Measure the milk in the measuring jug to 200ml and add in the oil to 400ml with the milk, crack in the eggs and add the maple/golden syrup, and whisk together in the jug.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together using an electric hand whisk.
- Divide the mixture between the lined base 3 sandwich tins and spread evenly then place into the oven for 18 to 20 mins.
- Check they’re done by lightly pressing the centre of the sponge – it should be slightly springy.
- Remove from the oven and carefully run a knife around the egdes between the tin and the sponge, the turn out on to the wire racks, peel off the baking parchment immediately.and leave to cool.
- When they are completely cool (this can take 1 hour), make your frosting to use straight away.
- In a large bowl, using the clean electric hand mixer, whisk the butter with the vanilla extract until is is soft, pale and creamy.
- Add in the icing sugar, cocoa powder and milk and on a low speed, whisk with the electric hand mixer until combined.
- Put a teaspoon of the frosting onto the centre of a plate/cake-board and place the first sponge layer on top.
- Spread some of the frosting onto the first layer using a butter knife or palette knife if you have one, then top with the second layer, repeat and repeat again with the 3rd layer.
- Use the rest of the frosting to coat the whole cake, all around the sides too, smoothing it with the knife as you go.
- Use sprinkles or sweets to decorate if you wish and use a clean damp cloth or some damp kitchen paper to clean around the edges of the plate.
Enjoy straight away or store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Please let me know if you have any comments, questions or feedback in the comments section below or contact me on Facebook or Twitter.
Thanks,
Emma x
Hi, this recipe looks lovely and I really want to try! However, I’ve only got 2 cake tins, would this still work out okay if you just spilt the mixture in two?
Thank you!
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Hi Niamh, it absolutely would work between 2 tins yes, a friend tested this yesterday with great success ☺️
Emma x
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