Special Occasion Chocolate Cake!

This chocolate cake recipe is the one you really want to use if you are making it for a special occasion such as a birthday.  One of the key ingredients is hot water, which keeps it moist for longer!  This is very useful if you want to bake it in advance and decorate it nearer the time!

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I have been eating chocolate cakes made from this recipe for a very long time as this was the recipe my mum used when I was a child and now I use it to make cakes for my own children (when it works out – see the story below)!  It is just as great now as it was then!




Ingredients:
6oz vegetable spread
7oz sugar
7oz self raising flour
1oz cocoa
4 tablespoons hot water
3 eggs
Optional:  1 packet chocolate drops
Method:
  1. Line the bottom of a deep 8 inch cake tin (or an alternative tin, depending on the shape of the cake you want to make) with greaseproof paper (draw around the bottom of the tin and cut it to size) and grease the sides
  2. Preheat the oven gas mark 4, 180 degrees C or 350 degrees F
  3. Cream the vegetable spread and sugar and then beat in the eggs one at a time
  4. Fold in the sieved flour and cocoa alternately with the hot water.  Then add the optional chocolate drops.
  5. Pour into cake tin and smooth the top.  Bake for approx 1 hour.  Test to see if cooked with a skewer, if it needs longer than an hour turn the oven down to gas mark 3, 160 degrees C or 325 degrees F
  6. Leave to cool and once fully cooled decorate as required!
The last time I made this cake recipe for my son’s birthday I got the icing all wrong and actually admitted defeat and went out and bought a cake from the supermarket!  It cost me £10, wasn’t anything that special and definitely wasn’t full of carefully chosen organic ingredients.  The problem was although I made the cake in advance I found icing and decorating the cake last minute far too stressful, so I have asked (i.e. told) my mum who is an expert at decorating cakes, to be the official cake decorator in future for my children’s birthday parties – at least until I have had a bit more practice with icing and decorating!
If you find making a cake for your own child’s birthday party all a bit too much, why not ask a friend or family member to do it for you.  A cake could also make a lovely gift to take to a child’s birthday party!
Do you have a cake recipe you always use for special occasions?  I’d love to hear about your favourite birthday cake recipes in the comments below!
My mum tells me she adapted this recipe from one she found in Evelyn Rose’s The Complete International Jewish Cook Book.

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Comments

  1. Hi Zoe-Thank you for your submission on Seasonal Celebration Wedensday at Natural Mothers Network, your cake looks delicious!
    Check back tomorrow when the new link-up is running to see if you are the featured post!

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