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Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake

Servings:
Makes 10 generous slices, serves 10 to 12 Servings
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Ingredients

For the cake
  • 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened coca
  • 1 1/3 cup superfine sugar
  • 1 1/2 stick soft unsalted butter
  • 2 stick eggs
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup boiling water
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
For the syrup
  • 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened coca
  • 1 1/3 cup superfine sugar
  • 1 1/2 stick soft unsalted butter
  • 2 stick eggs
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup boiling water
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup superfine sugar
  • 1 ounce chocolate (from a thick bar if possible)

Preparation

Baking Directions:

Take whatever you need out of the fridge so that all the ingredients can come to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, putting in a baking sheet as you do so, and line a 2 pound loaf pan (mine measures 9-1/2 by 4-1/2 inches and 3-inches deep and the cooking times are based on that) with plastic wrap.

  I use two overlapping pieces and leave a little overhang all around — and don’t panic, it won’t melt.

Put the flour, soda, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream into the processor and blitz till a smooth, satiny brown batter.

  Scrape down with a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips or morsels.

Scrape and pour this beautiful batter into the prepared loaf pan and slide into the oven, cooking for about 1 hour.

  When it’s ready, the loaf will be risen and split down the middle and a cake-tester, or a fine skewer, will pretty well come out clean.

  But this is a damp cake so don’t be alarmed at a bit of stickiness in evidence; rather, greet it.

Not long before the cake is due out of the oven — say when it’s had about 45 to 50 minutes — put the syrup ingredients of cocoa, water and sugar into a small saucepan and boil for 5 minutes.

  You may find it needs a little longer, what you want is a reduced liquid, that’s to say a syrup, though I often take it a little further, so that the sugar caramelizes and the syrup has a really dark, smokey chocolate intensity.

Take the cake out of the oven and sit it on a cooling rack and, still in its pan, pierce here and there with the cake tester.

  Then pour the syrup as evenly as possible, which is not very, over the surface of the cake.

  It will run to the sides of the pan, but some will have been absorbed in the middle.

Let the cake become completely cold and then slip out of its pan, removing the plastic wrap as you do so.

  Sit on an oblong or other plate.

  Now take your bar of chocolate wrapped in foil and cut with a heavy sharp knife so it splinters and flakes and falls in slices of varying thickness and thinness.

  I’ve specified a weight, but really go by eye  — when you think you’ve got enough to scatter over the top of the loaf, stop slicing.

  Sprinkle these chocolate splinters over the top of the sticky surface of the cake.

Tips:

If you don’t have a cake tester, use a piece of spaghetti, or, failing that, a fine skewer.

  If you are making this by hand, cream butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs, fold in the dry ingredients followed by sour cream and vanilla.

Odd as it sounds, this loaf cake makes a very elegant birthday cake, and because it isn’t too fragile, is worth bearing in mind if you want to take something into the office to have a little party for a colleague.

  The 10 slices I’ve stipulated are generous and you could easily halve them to have enough cake — just to mark the occasion — for 20.