Without wanting to sound arrogant, I'm known for making extremely good, high calorie and often diet busting cakes, and it seems every time anyone I know is about to complete another orbit of an otherwise insignificant yellow star, through virtue of orbiting it on a big hunk of rock that may or may not be a little blue type 13 planet in the final stages of development, I end up going shopping for vast amounts of chocolate. I use a chocolate brownie derived base that's reasonably simple to make.

Ingredients

• 120ml Sunflower oil (best for brownies, doesn't keep so well, olive oil can be used if it's not strongly flavoured) or
  150g Soft Margarine (keeps better than olive oil, produces a fairly soft cake) or
  150g Butter (keeps really well, makes a firm rich cake that's suitable for random sculpting, and is least likely to dsintegrate when you slice it) Anchor jersey butter gives me the best results.
• 150g Plain chocolate. Cadbury's Bournville chocolate works really well, but is a bit on the expensive side and can be hard to find. I've had good results with the reasonably priced stuff you find the the baking section of supermarkets, Tesco's own brand and Supercook Belgian Plain chocolate give decent results. Avoid plain chocolate flavour cake coverings such as Scotblock, yeah, it melts really easily and is great for covering things and difficult to ruin by overheating, but it just isn't chocolatey enough. It's a waste of money going for premium brands like Green and Blacks and Lindt, they're far better consumed on their own :-). Don't attempt to use Dairy Milk, Galaxy or similar, using milk chocolate produces a golden brown product that doesn't look so good and tastes pretty boring.
• 2 Eggs. Preferably large and free-range or organic. I prefer the ones from Morissons in the green boxes, they have a really rich golden yolk. Don't ruin a cake by using cheap eggs, you can taste the difference. Ok I've not double blind tested this assertion or anything, but I know what I like.
• 115g self-raising flour. I use BeRo or Homepride most of the time, but I've used cheap stuff from time to time, and it works ok as long as you sieve it.
• 115g caster sugar, or if you prefer muscovado, although you need to make sure it is lump free, a sieve works most of the time but if you've got hard lumps then try it in the blender with a little flour. If you have a cheap plastic blender then this will leave a lot of fine scratches and make the blender look cloudy.
• 5ml vanilla extract. Don't get the cheap fake stuff, it's foul.

The above makes enough for a 9 (23cm) inch brownie tray, or a 7 inch (18cm) diameter cake tin. Yes I'm using imperial because my cake tins are old. When making a celebration cake I will make a double quantity and split between 2 7 inch tins, or 3 or 4 times the quantity above an split it between two 9 inch diameter cake tins.

Equipment

• A reasonably accurate way of measuring everything. A cheap spring balance is your worst enemy. An old fashioned mass balance is best, but reasonably priced digital scales are ok. I've got away with using a jug with flour and sugar volumes graduations, but the variation between the 2 batches I made on the same day was noticeable.
• Some form of powered mixing equipment or some serious arm power. I have a 1970s Kenwood Chef and they're brilliant at this kind of thing. I also have a tesco value power-whisk. I think I paid £1.99 for it and it does the job.
• Some form of bain marie. It's really easy to burn or destroy the texture of chocolate if you use a direct heat. I use a few centimetres of water in a pan and a Pyrex glass or stainless steel bowl held above the water by virtue of being larger than the pan. It's really important that the water doesn't touch the bowl above it.
• An oven.
• Some appropriate sized cake tins. Springform style is handy, if you're going huh then I mean the cake tins with the clasp at the side that allows the sides of the tin to expand, dropping out the base and hopefully the cake. Regular tins are ok but gettin the cake out is trickier.
• Greasproof paper or baking parchment (optional)

Procedure

• Preheat the oven 200C (gas 6)
• Grease your cake tins with a little butter marge or vegetable oil. If using a springform tin with a decent non-stick coating then I just line the base by placing the paper over the base, then putting the ring on top, and carefully closing the ring to avoid tearing the paper. If using a regular tin then I line the sides and the base.
• Break the chocolate up into small chinks, and do the same with the butter or marge (frozen butter can be used easily if you put it in a plastic bag and beat it with a rolling pin so it shatters into nice small chunks), and add put the chocolate and butter/marge/oil into the bowl of the bain marie, and put over a gentle heat, stirring regularly. Do not let the water boil. Everything is metled leave on a gentle heat whilst you weigh out the sugar and flour.
• Beat the eggs lightly, this can be done in a mug with a fork, or in the bowl you are using with your powered mixing device if you're not using the same bowl to melt the chocolate.
• Take the bowl with the melted chocloate mixture and combine it with the eggs. Whisk like crazy. After about 30 seconds the mixture will darken slightly and thicken significantly as the eggs cook. Immediately add the sugar and flour and continue to whisk / stir like crazy until it's mixed well. Add the vanilla essence and whisk some more.
• Put the mixture into the cake tin(s) making sure the mixture is level and spread right across the cake tin(s).
• Put the tin(s) in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes. This time does vary, and it's difficult to get it right. If you have a glass window in the oven, you can keep on cooking until the cakes are on the verge of burning. Other methods of telling whether the cake is done insclude stabbing it with a small knife or skewer in the centre, if it comes out clean it's overdone. Firm bus slightly gooey is the target, as the mixture will continue to cook once out of the oven. Of course if you're just making brownies and not planning on assembling this into a cake, you can take the mixture out eariler for a classic gooey brownie texture.
• Leave the cakes to cool before removing from the tins.
• Remove from tins and either eat, or assemble into some kind of cake of death.

Filling and Frosting

If you're making a proper cake rather than brownies then read on :-). It's best to put the cake in the fridge whilst you prepare the filling and frosting. I like to sandwich 2 cakes together with some whipped cream. About 300ml / half a pint is about right. I tend to use Elmlea Double Light as lip-service to the calorie concious. That and unopened it keeps for ages. A splash of vanilla essence or a shot of Amaretto (I am a huge fan of Disaronno Originale) enhances the flavour, and an overly heaped tablespoon of icing sugar can be added as well, but remember to sieve it first. Whisk the cream untill it's so stiff you can turn the bowl upside down and not have everything fall out. I suggest trying that test very slowly and carefully. It takes a while with a hand whisk, so a Kenwood or a power whisk is handy, just don't overwhisk it or you might end up with butter.

Stirring a can of drained chopped and pitted cherries into the whipped cream is my current favourite thing to do. Then spoon the whipped cream onto the top of one of the cakes, but don't spread it right to the edge. Put the other cake on top and carefully press downuntill the cream gets close to the edges. If it gets right to the edge you'll have difficulty putting the frosting on.

I've not found a frosting recipe I'm totally happy with, but 25g of butter or marge (marge is much easier to use here and much softer. I use Utterly Butterly or I Can't Believe It's Not Butter or similar) to100g of icing sugar and a large tablespoon of cocoa is about the right proportions. You'll need to use about 300-400g of icing sugar to completely cover a 7 inch pair of cakes.