Moist chocolate cake with a shiny glaze

Today I want to share a simple chocolate cake you can prepare without an electric mixer. We'll cover it with a beautiful, shiny glaze.

The cake comes out incredibly moist, pleasantly chocolate-y and it just melts in your mouth. Despite a generous amount of sugar, it won't turn out too sweet - I'd say it's closer to the more mature desserts. It's an easy way to impress your guests and family!

You'll find the list of ingredients, method and approximate nutritional value below.

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List of ingredients (18 x 28 cm baking tin)

Cake

•  225 g (~1.5 cup) wheat flour
• 85 g dark cocoa
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 250 g (~1.25 cup) sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 125 ml vegetable oil
• 100 g plum jam
• 2 eggs
• 250 ml kefir
• 250 ml hot water

Glaze

• 3 tbsp boiling water
• 1.5 tsp gelatine
• 150 g unsalted butter
• 150 g whipping cream
• 150 g (~1 heaped cup) icing sugar
• 60 g cocoa (~6 tbsp)

Method

1. Sift 225 g wheat flour, 85 g dark cocoa, 1.5 tsp baking powder and 1.5 tsp baking  soda into a large bowl. Once you get rid of all lumps add 250 g caster sugar and a small pinch of salt. Stir through the contents of the bowl shortly with a whisk, only until everything gets evenly distributed.
2. Add 250 ml kefir, 2 large eggs, 125 ml vegetable oil and 100 g plum jam to dry ingredients. If you don't have kefir at hand, you can replace it with buttermilk or natural yoghurt. All ingredients should be at room temperature, so take eggs and kefir out of a fridge at least one hour ahead of preparing the cake. Stir through the contents of the bowl with a solid whisk, until uniform batter forms. It shouldn't take long, 2 or 3 minutes will be enough.
3. Add 250 ml freshly boiled hot water to the batter. Add it in batches, mixing it in carefully each time until batter absorbs water. Hot water will help cocoa bloom, making its flavour more distinct. Once you add all of water, batter will become quite thin.
4.  Pour batter into a watertight baking tin lined with baking paper, 18 x 28 cm. Tap the baking tin a few times against the worktop to remove large air bubbles.
5. Bake the cake in an oven preheated to 180 deg C, no fan, for 50-60 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. The exact baking time will depend on your oven. If the cake browns too quickly, you can cover it with a piece of aluminum foil or baking paper.
6. Take ready cake out of the oven and set it aside for 30 minutes to cool slightly. Take it out of the tin onto a wire rack then and cool it completely. Be careful when you're taking the cake out of the tin, it will be quite tender at this stage.
7. Prepare the glaze. Put 1.5 tsp gelatine into a small bowl. Add 3 tbsp freshly boiled water and stir until dissolved. Set gelatine solution aside as you work on the remaining ingredients.
8. Put 150 g unsalted butter into a small pot. Add 150 ml whipping cream, 150 g icing sugar and 60 g dark cocoa. Heat up the contents of the pot over medium low heat, stirring, until uniform liquid forms and starts to simmer.
9. Once the glaze starts simmering, take pot off heat and pass the glaze through a fine sieve. Add dissolved gelatine to the glaze and stir it in. Set the glaze aside for 2-3 minutes, until it starts thickening.
10. Meanwhile put the cake onto a wire rack positioned over a baking tray lined with kitchen foil or baking paper. A quick glazing station like this will save you cleaning up and it will make it possible to reuse the excess glaze that flows off the cake. Once the glaze cools down slightly stir it shortly and pour it over the cake so that it will flow down the sides. After covering the whole cake with the glaze let it sit on the wire rack for 15 - 30 minutes, for glaze to set.
11. Enjoy!

Approximate nutritional value

100 g

• 341 kcal
• Carbs: 43 g
• Fat: 18 g
• Protein: 6 g
• Fibre: 3g

1 slice (recipe makes 15 slices)

• 297 kcal
• Carbs: 38 g 
• Fat: 15 g
• Protein: 5g
• Fibre: 2g