A relative requested for a chocolate cake for a special occasion about a month away, so to experiment with whatever I have, decided to try baking a cake with my small toaster oven. This was my first time baking a chocolate cake and making icing.

Making this cake was more challenging than any of the muffins posted earlier. The most challenging part was the chocolate icing where the icing sugar had to be sifted, did not fancy that too much. Perhaps the next time I try to perfect this recipe, I’ll replace the icing with ganache.

Ingredients:
Plain flour 200g
Caster sugar 150g
Baking powder 1 tsp
Bicarbonate of soda 1/2 tsp
Dark chocolate chip 75g (used Ghirardelli 60% choc chip)
Unsalted butter 125g
Eggs 2 beaten
Vanilla extract 2 tsp
Sour cream 100ml

For the icing:
Unsalted butter 50g
Dark chocolate chip 150g (used Ghirardelli 60% choc chip)
Icing sugar 200g
Golden syrup 100ml
Sour cream 100ml
Vanilla extract 1 tsp

Directions:
1. Preheat toaster oven to 180°c, line an 8inch cake tin with removable base with grease proof or parchment paper (I used Saga cooking paper, no need to spray oil or butter. Worked wonders as cake did not stick at all, and removes easily)
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, no sifting required
3. Using a warm bath, melt the chocolate chips and butter (microwave can be used to do this), leave to cool
4. In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients (eggs, vanilla extract, sour cream)
5. When the chocolate mixture cools, combine with wet ingredients and pour all into the dry ingredients. Hand whisk till smooth (or a blender may be used)
6. Pour the final mixture into the lined baking tin and bake for about 30 – 35min
7. Let the cake cool for 10min in the tin and turn out after. If there are cracks, no worries, the icing will cover them.

Preparing the icing:
1. Using a warm bath, melt the chocolate chips and butter (microwave can be used to do this)
2. While the chocolate cools, sieve icing sugar into another bowl (not sifting may result in lumpy icing).
3. Add golden syrup into the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by sour cream and vanilla. When all are combined, whisk in the icing sugar. If you need thicker icing, add more icing sugar. I like mine runny.
4. Line the cooling rack with parchment paper, I used the saga cooking paper which was used leftover from baking the cake.
5. Spread the icing on the cake in any way you like, leave to set for about 30min (for thicker icing, shorter setting time)
6. Lift the cake from the paper and place onto a serving plate
7. Decorate as desired. I left mine as is, no decoration

As I used a toaster oven, as the cake rises, it got too close to the heating element, resulting in a burnt top. Therefore, baking will need to take place twice to prevent this the next time. I had to cut off the burnt area before applying the icing. After covering the flattened top, I left the icing to set for about 30min (photo 3) before covering the entire cake. Thank goodness the icing covered it perfectly!

The cake was served with some sour morello cherries, worked perfectly and balanced the sweetness.