Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

This deliciously decadent dessert from Geoff Jansz serves 8 people, and it only takes about 30 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
pinch salt
125g softened butter
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 tspn vanilla extract
2 eggs
100g couverture or unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
125ml sour cream
125 - 250ml cold water (make sure the mixture doesn't get too runny)

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C, grease and flour 2 x 23cm cake tins.
2. Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, on high speed, cream butter until light. Add sugar and vanilla, mix until light and fluffy. Beating slowly, add the eggs, one at a time, then mix on high speed until combined.
3. Slowly add the cooled, melted chocolate mixture and the sour cream. Then alternately add the flour and then water, bit by bit in small amounts, mixing slowly after each addition until it's all just mixed.
(Tip: To melt the chocolate, chop it into a clean glass bowl and place the bowl over a pot of simmering water which has just been switched off.)
4. Pour mixture into cake tins, bake for 30 minutes (check after 20 minutes, if top looks brown turn oven down 10°). Allow the cakes to cool in the tins. Serve cakes drizzled with Geoff's Easy Chocolate Sauce (see recipe below).

Easy Chocolate Sauce
4 cups best quality chocolate
250g butter
2 tspns vanilla extract
2 cups pure icing sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups corn syrup
2 cups hot water

Method

1. Gently heat the chocolate, butter and vanilla in a bowl until the chocolate has melted.
2. In a separate bowl, add icing sugar, cocoa powder, corn syrup and hot water. Mix together then slowly pour this into the chocolate mix, whisking until combined. Cool, then refrigerate. Pour over the cakes to serve.

Copyright CTC Productions 2001