Olivia Potts

How to bake a no-chocolate chocolate cake

  • From Spectator Life

This week’s recipe is for a chocolate cake that is not a terribly traditional chocolate cake. But that is its charm. It uses only one egg, no butter and, most magically, absolutely no chocolate. Instead, it uses cocoa powder and boiling water: the boiling water releases a deeper, rounder flavour from the cocoa, which is enhanced by vanilla, a little strong coffee, and a pinch of salt. The cake’s flavour is a little like that of a packet mix of brownies – which is not to diminish it, but to signal its fudgy darkness. Feel free to swap the sugar for whatever you have: caster, granulated, even dark brown sugar would work here, or a mixture of whatever’s in your cupboards. The flour can be swapped for plain flour with an additional two teaspoons of baking powder, and the cocoa powder can be reduced as low as 50g.

Unsurprisingly, given the 485ml of combined milk, oil and boiling,the batter is extremely liquid. Don’t be disconcerted by this, it will bake into a wonderful, tender, springy sponge. But, thanks to the thinness of the batter, you can’t make this cake with a loose-based cake tin, as the batter will slip out and coat the bottom of your oven. Instead you need either a fixed-base cake tin, or a cake tin which has suction between its base and sides. You could also use two 8 inch sandwich tins, divide the mixture between the two, and reduce the cooking time to 25 minutes.

This cake is delightful naked: almost black in colour, squidgy, and fragrant. But an iced cake is an inherently cheering thing – and there are a bunch of options for decorations. Make a simple buttercream with two parts icing sugar and one part butter. Flavour that with orange zest or rum, or fold through peanut butter, Nutella, or a shot of really strong coffee.

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Olivia Potts
Written by
Olivia Potts
Olivia Potts is a former criminal barrister who retrained as a pastry chef. She co-hosts The Spectator’s Table Talk podcast and writes Spectator Life's The Vintage Chef column. A chef and food writer, she was winner of the Fortnum and Mason's debut food book award in 2020 for her memoir A Half Baked Idea.

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