Just Have to Share – Gran’s Flop Proof Chocolate Cake

I had a proper old fashioned kitchen tea when I got married, with broom dancing and games and so on. All the older ladies gave me their ‘life saving’ recipes to take forward with my own family. I put them in a folder and never looked at them again for years, until recently.

I came across the folder and found this recipe. Since then, I have made it in to cupcakes, individual sized mini cakes, a single layer cake, a double layer cake with jam and icing in the middle and a marbled cake. I am notoriously bad for flopping cakes, and this one, I never have.

So, here’s my gran’s flop proof cake recipe:

1 cup sugar
1 cup self raising flour
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
½ cup oil
½ cup boiling water

Sift together the sugar, flour, salt and cocoa. Mix.
In a separate bowl, add vanilla essence to the egg yolks and stir together
In a third bowl, add baking powder to the egg whites. Beat well to a froth.
Add boiling water to oil and stir vigorously into dry ingredients.
Add in egg yolk mixture and stir
Fold in egg white mixture.
Pour in to a cake tin
Bake at  180C (350F) for approximately 30 minutes

For icing:

1 cup of icing sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Options:
For a layered cake double the recipe and spread icing sugar or jam between the layers
For a marbled cake, don’t add the cocoa in the first step. After everything is mixed in, pour ¾ of the mixture in to the cake tin, then mix cocoa in to remaining ¼. Drizzle that in to the cake tin in a pattern  or zigzag, then bake as normal.