impromptu baking: berry chocolate cake

Hey guys, it seems like its been forever since I've posted. Well, there's nothing really new to report on my side of the screen. Same old, same old - procrastination. Today, I had this urge to bake something however searching the pantry, I found that there was barely anything in suitable quantities. However there seemed to be a lot of chocolate and cocoa powder - so I figured something chocolate-y was called for. Using the cake recipe from The Family Circle's Crazy for Chocolate cookbook's "Moist Chocolate Jam Cake with Spotted Collar", and an improvised version of a simple chocolate icing found on COOKS.COM I created something which apparently tasted good according to my mother. As usual, this is posted here because I need a place to make my notes of the different things I bake or cook, and whatever amendments I made to the recipes.

INGREDIENTS.

makes a 23cm round cake

Cake:

• 125g butter
  
• 1/2 cup caster sugar of sugar (it was a mix of different kinds of sugar coz I only had about a 1/4 cup of caster sugar)
• 1 teaspoon tablespoon of vanilla essence (I read the recipe wrong XD)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup of strawberry jam cranberry, raspberry & strawberry jam
• 1/3 cup of self raising flour & 1 cup of plain flour 1 cup of self raising flour (I didn't read the size of the measuring cup properly, nor did I have any plain flour)
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 cup of baking cocoa
• 3/4 cup of buttermilk low fat vanilla yoghurt (I didn't have any buttermilk lying around the house)

Icing:

• 1/4 cup of cubed butter
  
• 1/4 cup of cocoa
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 teaspoon 1 tablespoon of vanilla essence (I read the measurement wrong XD)
• Squares of milk chocolate (to taste for extra chocolate-y-ness)
• Condensed milk (to taste)
  
  

PUTTING IT TOGETHER.

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 180C
  
• Line & grease cake tin

Cake:

• Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla essence using electric beaters until light and creamy
• Add the eggs gradually, beating the mixture well every time the eggs are added
• Put in the jam, and beat everything together until smooth
• Sift in flour and cocoa and fold it into the mixture
• Next fold in the yoghurt
• Stir until smooth
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin
• Bake it for about 45 minutes, or until when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean
• Allow the cake to cool as you prepare the icing

Icing:

• Melt the butter in a saucepan (medium heat)
• Pour in the milk, cocoa and sugar
• Boil for 1 minute
• Have a taste and if it's not to your liking, add condensed milk and chocolate until the flavour suits you and add the vanilla essence
• Stir the mixture until it reaches the desired, smooth consistency
• Allow the icing to cool
• Spread the icing onto a cooled cake
  
  

THE VERDICT.

For an impromptu baking session, the cake actually turned out alright. My mother snagged the first slice and said it was yum (I don't know if she was just lying to make me happy XD), but when I tried it, I found it wasn't too bad. Slightly dry due to the measurement mix up of the yoghurt, but fine all the same.

The jam leaves some seedy remnants in the finished product, which is odd if you're not expecting it, bur delicious all the same.