Chocolate Buttons Cake

Hello! And welcome to my first blog post. Basically, I'm writing here because I'd like to share some of my cake tips and tricks with fellow internet-browsing amateur home bakers. As I said, this is my first ever blog, so please bear with me. And I hope you enjoy! 

Okay, so to make this scrumptious, as-good-as-it-looks chocolate cake... 

Things you will need: 

• 8oz/ 225g butter or margarine, softened
• 8oz/ 225g caster sugar (I've used granulated sugar before, but I just ended up with crunchy bits in my cake. Not nice!)
• 4 medium/large eggs
• 8oz/ 225g self-raising flour, sifted
• 2 or 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, according to taste
• 1 tablespoon whole fat milk. 
• An 8 inch round baking tin
• grease-proof paper or parchment paper (no need to grease!), for lining the tin.

The Method:

• Preheat oven to 180oC/ Gas mark 4 and line and grease tin.
• Cream the margarine and sugar on a medium to high speed, using an electric mixer. (I use a balloon whisk.)
• When the marg-sugar mixture is pale in colour, add the eggs, one at a time. Mix thoroughly between eggs. Don't worry if it may look 'curdled' at this point, this is normal and the flour will soon sort that out!
• Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the mixture, and carefully fold in. Take care not to mix too much - we don't want to lose any of that air that's going to make the cake nice and light and yummy!
• Add a tablespoon of milk. I find that this makes the cake really moist and counters some of the dryness of the cocoa+flour addition. Alternatively, or in addition, substitute 2 ounces of flour for cocoa, to make up the 8 ounce total.
• Bake in oven for about half an hour or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean, and the cake bounces when poked.
• Leave in tin for a few minutes after baking, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To decorate:

You will need:

• 200-250g chocolate, melted over a pan of boiling water.
• Milk and white chocolate buttons.
• Chocolate flakes.

Method:

• Transfer cooled cake to a cake stand or plate, then spread melted chocolate over the top. Just let it drip down the sides as it pleases. It's a cake, not a masterpiece!
• Decorate with the chocolate buttons and flakes however you wish. I've just done a very basic design, as shown above.

And you're done! Trust me, it's delicious.