One of my good friends has a saying: ‘Baking is science. But cooking is art’. If she’s right, and I’m pretty sure she is, I’m definitely an artsy type of girl. I love cooking. I thing its the freedom of cooking I love. Baking on the other hand I find more tricky, I guess it’s because there are so many rules and you have to stick to them. So just to make it clear: I’m not much of a baker. Whatever I bake it has to be easy and flop-proof. That’s why I love baking my mom’s ‘Casserole dish’ chocolate cake. It’s delicious, easy to make and very forgiving. And the silky, glossy chocolate sauce-icing is to die for.
This what you will need:
50 gr (125ml) Cocoa
250 ml boiling water
4 large eggs, separated
300 gr (375ml) sugar
125 ml cooking oil
5 ml vanilla essence
250 gr (450ml) cake flour (weigh unsifted)
15 ml baking powder
2 ml salt
This is how:
- Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Grease or spray you casserole dish or baking tin.
- Sieve the cocoa and add to the boiling water, make sure all the lumps are dissolved. Let the mixture cool.
- Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until the mixture becomes thick with a creamy colour. Add the cocoa mixture, cooking oil and vanilla essence to the egg yoke mixture and stir well.
- Beat egg whites until stiff and fold carefully into the other mixture with a metal spoon.
- Pour into your dish and bake for 25-40 minutes depending on your oven and the size of your casserole dish. The thicker the cake is the longer it will need to bake. Test every five minutes from 25 minutes onward.
- Leave to cool.
To make the chocolate sauce-icing
Pour all the ingredients into a 1 litre deep microwave safe bowl and cook on 100% power for 5-6 minutes until the sauce thickens. Stir well every minute. Let the mixture cool for a while before pouring it over the cake.
You will need
375 ml Water
200 gr (250ml) white sugar
40 gr (50ml) butter/margarine
25 gr (50ml) cornflour (Mazina)
20 gr (50ml) cocoa
5 ml vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
Enjoy!
xxx
