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This family weekend cake has a nice texture and looks spectacular, marbled with white and brown. It must be eaten fresh.
225 g (8 oz) softened butter
225 g (8 oz) caster sugar
4 large eggs
225 g (8 oz) self-raising flour
2 level teaspoons baking powder
1½ level tablespoons cocoa powder
1½ tablespoons hot water
FOR THE ICING
150 g (5 oz) plain chocolate (39 per cent cocoa solids)
2 tablespoons water
100g (4 oz) butter
50 g (2 oz) Belgian milk chocolate
1 Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4. Grease a 1.75 litre (3 pint) ring mould then line with strips of baking parchment.
2 Measure all the cake ingredients, except the cocoa and water, into a large bowl. Beat until thoroughly blended. Dot about half of this mixture, in teaspoons, into the base of the prepared tin.
3 Mix the cocoa and hot water together in a small bowl and then mix into the remaining cake mixture. Dot this mixture over and between the plain mixture in the tin until all is used up. Swirl a little with a knife, then carefully level the surface.
4 Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes or until well risen and the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed with a finger. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack.
5 To make the icing, break the plain chocolate into pieces, then melt it gently with the water and the butter in a bowl set over a pan of hot water, stirring occasionally. Pour over the cake and then leave to set for about 1 hour. Break the milk chocolate into pieces then melt it in a small bowl set over a pan of hot water. Spoon into a paper piping bag, cut off the tip of the bag and drizzle the chocolate over the top of the plain chocolate icing. Leave to set.
TIP
If you don’t have a piping bag, use two plastic food bags, which have been put inside each other for strength and snip off one corner to create a funnel.
