Chocolate Cake

• 1 3/4 cups plain / all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder , unsweetened (Note 2)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda (bi-carb soda)
• 2 cups white sugar (Note 1)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs (~55-65g / 2 oz each)
• 1 cup milk (low or full fat)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (or canola)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C fan.
2. Grease 2 x 22cm cake pans with butter, then line the base. (see spring form pans note below).

Batter:

1. Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl. Add Sugar and salt. Whisk briefly to combine.
2. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Whisk well to combine until lump free - about 30 seconds.
3. Add boiling water and whisk to incorporate. The batter is VERY thin (see video).
4. Pour batter into cake pans.

Baking:

1. Bake for 35 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. See Note 4 regarding cook time if pans are on different shelves.
2. Cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks upside down (Note 5).
3. Cool completely before frosting. I frosted cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (scale recipe up by 50%).

OTHER PANS (use same oven temp per recipe):

1. bundt pan - 50 minutes
2. single 22cm/9” pan - 40 to 45 minutes
3. 2 x 20cm / 8” pans - 38 minutes
4. 3 x 20cm / 8” pans - 25 minutes
5. 33 x 22 x 5 cm / 13 x 9 x 2” rectangle pan - 35 - 40 minutes