Today we have a yummy recipe from Alex who blogs at ComoManger. There is nothing quite like grandma’s cooking. Your grandma, my grandma or anyone’s, there just seems to be something special about it. Take a look at what Alex has and check out her foodie adventure at ComoManger…
Hello! My name is Alex and I am an English foodie with a particular passion for travelling and tasting my way around the world! I have recently ventured on a self-constructed Food and Wine Tour of France and Spain in search of new flavours and favourites! This was most certainly achieved and the most fantastic foodie experience gained… From dining in (and midnight tours of) restaurants of Michelin star chefs; to picking produce, cooking and dining with locals in their homes; to buying ingredients from the market and cooking up roadside in a storm; and even farm and vineyard visits learning to make cheese, wine and cider and meeting a giant pig called Mo!
Being a keen foodie traveller, always itching to get away and dreaming of far off lands, what I love most about exploring is actually the return home to comfort and culinary classics that have always been a part of my life.
Home for me is the picturesque green and pleasant land that is Yorkshire, North England. We have many a treasure to boast from the grand York Minster to the peaceful rolling hills and rambling streams of the Yorkshire Dales. The regional cooking, however, is what I love most; hearty stews, pies and puddings to warm up the local folk and farmers from the infamous cold weather. Yorkshire cooking plays a huge part in the local culture, with many a gathering of family and friends around steaming goodness. Recipes are passed down through families and help to celebrate birthdays, graduations, weddings and all sorts!
The recipe that I would like to share with you today has witnessed many a family celebration and is my Grandma’s Classic Chocolate Cake. This very traditional English recipe is one that may seem simple, but it is SO good. Although this cake has never been entered in to a formal competition, every time it is eaten it wins the hearts of those who are lucky enough to taste… the older ladies at church coffee mornings, Bonzai experts who come from all over the world to my Uncle Tony’s convention and friends of mine and all of Grandma’s grandchildren… it’s a cake for all generations and everybody wants a piece!
Grandma whips them up with the speed of a lady in-the-know, but with all of the care and love a Grandma can give. This extra sprinkle of love between the layers is the magic ingredient, and that is what makes Grandma’s the best chocolate cake in the world!
Grandma’s Classic Chocolate Cake with Layers of Love!
Ingredients:
– 6 oz (170g) flora
– 6 oz (170g) caster sugar
– 3 eggs
– 6 oz (170g) raising flour (including a’good tablespoon’ of cocoa powder in the measurement)
– 4 oz (115g) icing sugar (including another ‘good tablespoon’ of drinking chocolate in the measurement)
– 2 ½ oz (70g) butter (flora can be used as a substitute)
– A pinch of good will and a generous sprinkling of love!
Grandma’s Directions:
- Cream the flora and caster sugar together until consistent. Add one egg and a third (2oz) of the flour/cocoa powder mixture and gently fold in. Repeat this twice more until the eggs and flour are used up.
- Evenly split the mixture into two baking tins and bake in a fan oven at 150° for 25 minutes
- Allow to cool and then slice each ‘half’ in half again to produce 4 evenly sized cakes
- To create the butter cream, mix the icing sugar/drinking chocolate mixture through a sieve. Fold in the butter and add a touch more icing sugar/butter to create the correct fluffy butter consistency
- Lovingly create the layers using one of the ‘clean and smooth’ sides as the top of the cake and smothering butter cream on the three others, then stack like Jenga (don’t forget the ‘love’)!
- Melt some REAL milk chocolate (none of this baking ‘chocolate’) and evenly spread over the top of the cake and decorate however you may please.
Tip: Just before the milk chocolate sets, gently mark out the slices with a knife so as to facilitate cutting later and to avoid a cracked landslide of lovely decorations!
Et voila… spiffingly English chocolate layer cake from a real English grandma!
Rantings of an Amateur Chef 
This looks yummy! I wonder what would happen if I substituted carob. Unfortuntely carob doesn’t melt well for a frosting. I try to avoid chocolate because of its mold/fermented properties.
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Sorry to sound silly – is “flora” a vegetable shortening or margarine? I would prefer to use only butter… would that work?
And when you say “drinking chocolate” do you mean powdered mix? Could I just use more cocoa?
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It is a margarine! You could use butter as a substitute but the consistency may be a little different. And drinking chocolate is powdered mix but you can use cocoa. Happy baking 🙂
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I’m going to make a chocolate cake now. Just because I read this. Thanks!
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