Recipes from professional Chef Tallyrand:

CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE

The ultimate chocolate cake recipe!
In my nearly three years of being associated with the great website Hub-UK, many of my weekly recipes have been ones that have been requested by regular readers. Many of these have been for basic recipes that can be used as a springboard - by that I mean recipes that can then be added to or used as part of a whole dish.

Great cuisine is always about getting the basics correct, be that a recipe, technique or method, in fact the basics in many cases also mean starting with not only the correct ingredients but good quality ones also. A phrase my trainee chefs will be or are no doubt sick of hearing, but the facts are the facts. Without a stable base to build from the final top stone in a pyramid cannot be achieved. Get the basics right and greater success is sure to follow.

This week then, I would like to share with you one of these basics, a recipe for a truly magical chocolate cake. What makes this so magical?

• The correct ingredients are easily and readily available
• The techniques and methods used are very simple. There is no complicated whisking over bain maries, there is no doubling of volume through aeration . . . in fact this is a no fuss, no nonsense recipe
• The final cake is soft and moist in texture, and that texture will hold for at least two weeks! Not that I can imagine anyone wanting to hold a cake for that long. But it does mean if you make up a batch for the family's lunch boxes etc you know its going to be there when you need it.
• The flavour is just so decadently chocolate and rich
• The end result is all but guaranteed with no complicated techniques to master

As daft as it sounds I often like to take recipes to extremes to test them out. I have kept this Chocolate Cake wrapped in the fridge for nearly four weeks and it was as good as when it first came out of the oven. You have heard of the expression I could do that with one hand behind my back? I also tested its ease in production by doing it totally one handed!

This Chocolate Cake is great eaten as is, but you could also ice it, glaze it, frost it or make this part of a larger dessert for a dinner party. Maybe a small slice served with a raspberry sorbet and a white chocolate sauce or, as I did here lately, serve it with passionfruit pulp, crème fraiche and plain yoghurt combined (half of each) and drizzled the plate with Baileys.

My thanks and gratitude to my friend Chef Marilyn R who gave me this Chocolate Cake recipe. Marilyn is a chef in California, who for many years worked with Wolfgang Puck and until this year was part of the team who cooked the dishes for the Oscar ceremonies. After discovering this great recipe, I have now discarded all other chocolate cake recipes from my files . . . why have the rest when you have the best?

Chocolate Cake for a wedding: Geraldine Heeley from Deal in Kent made this Chocolate Cake for her daughter Jenny's wedding to Dom which was held at the fabulous location of Walmer Castle. Geraldine said, "Many thanks for the amazing chocolate cake recipe, I made it for my daughter's wedding cake covered in white chocolate icing, also made six extra cakes, as we used it for pudding. I doubled the mixture which is great for a ten inch cake, and froze them. They were great." July 2006

Chocolate Cake for a wedding: Fiona Freshwater made this Chocolate Cake for the wedding of a friend's daughter. They were very lucky to have a wonderful sunny day as it was between floods in Scotland. The wedding was held in two marquees at Arnot Tower, a ruin situated in Fife. Fiona said, "I had a lot of trouble getting dry fresh redcurrants but as we are surrounded by berry farmers there were no problems with the rest. Most people thought it was pretty amazing and Jenny and Luke, the bride and groom, were thrilled." August 2004

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Ingredients for Chocolate Cake

castor sugar	300	gm
flour - soft (hi-ratio)	175	gm
cocoa powder - Dutched	50	gm
baking powder	5	gm
baking soda	5	gm
salt	1/2	tsp
eggs - small	2	pc
olive oil	100	ml
vanilla essence	2	tsp
milk	165	ml
water - boiling	165	ml

How to make Chocolate Cake

1. Combine dry wet ingredients and sieve at least three times (to evenly distribute ingredients)
2. Combine all wet ingredients (omit the water)
3. Pour the wet onto the dry and combine together thoroughly using a balloon whisk
4. Add the boiling water and combine
5. Pour into a prepared cake tin (22cm round)
6. Bake at 160°C for 75 to 90 minutes approximately

Chef's Tip for making Chocolate Cake:

All cooking times are approximate only and variables will always have to be factored in. No two ovens are the same so the temperature will vary slightly form oven to oven.

Individual tube moulds will take approximately 25 - 35 minutes

Enjoy your Chocolate Cake and bon appetit . . . . .

Published 26 May 2003