One of the earliest printed recipes for chocolate cake came from the cookbook The Hostess of T-o-Day by Linda Larned (1899) and although it is a cake made with cocoa, it is different from modern chocolate cakes

Early chocolate cakes were much lighter because they used significantly smaller amounts of sugar and cocoa. They also used more flour than what we are accustomed to making them fluffier and more like what we would today call a breakfast bread

“Chocolate cake” was a white or yellow cake to be eaten while drinking a chocolate beverage. It wasn’t until 1940 that chocolate cake recipes became more rich and decadent, calling for larger quantities of cocoa and sugar than previously.

An awesome Chocolate recipe:

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 250 g Butter (softened – refer to method below;
• 2 cups brown sugar;
• 1 cup caster sugar;
• 6 eggs;
• 4 cups plain flour;
• 180 ml cocoa powder;
• 2 tsp. bicarbonate of soda;
• 500ml sour cream;
• Crushed Oreo biscuits; and
• 1 cup water

Glaze:

• 100g dark chocolate (70% Lindt), chopped coarsely
• 60 g butter (not included in ingredients;
• ½ cup (icing sugar- sifted);
• ¼ cup sour cream;
• Any fresh berries and fruit (optional); and
• Whole Oreo biscuits.

Filling:

• 250g mascarpone;
• 250ml cream; and
• Drop of vanilla extract

Method

Cake:

• Set your NeoChef to normal ‘microwave’ mode, soften the butter;
• Put your NeoChef on the ‘Convection’ setting and preheat oven to 180° C;
• Line a round cake pan with Glad Bake & Cooking Paper (cake pan & Glad Bake, Cooking;
• Suggested width of pan: 20 cm;

• In a large bowl sieve all the dry ingredients (brown sugar, caster sugar, plain flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and crushed Oreos);
• Add all the remaining ingredients and mix on a low speed with an electric mixer until ingredients have combined (butter, 6 eggs, sour cream, water);
• Increase speed and mix for 3 min or until mixture is smooth;
• Halve the mixture and spread into your cake pan – bake for 40 minutes;
• Allow the cake to cool down for 10 min before turning out onto a wire rack;
• Remove Glad baking & cooking paper and allow to cool; and
• Repeat the process for a second layer of cake.

Filling:

• In a medium sized bowl, mix the mascarpone, cream and vanilla extract with an electric mixer;
• Cover one layer with the filling once cake layers are cooled;
• Place second layer on top;
• Glaze the top layer and decorate with desired fruit and chocolate and Oreo biscuits; and
• Dust some icing sugar over.

Goes down perfectly with a hot cup of tea or coffee!!!