A moist and richly flavoured chocolate loaf cake, dotted with delectable, luscious lumps of chocolate hidden, like a delicious secret, throughout the sponge.
Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
Preheat oven to Fan Oven 150°C/170°C/325°F/Gas 3
Chop the chocolate into small chunks.
Mix boiling water with the coffee and set aside to cool.
Beat the butter to make sure it is soft.
Weigh the sugar, salt, flour, drinking chocolate and baking powder to your mixing bowl. Then add the eggs, coffee mixed with water and the milk.
Beat with an electric mixer until nearly mixed and then scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Beat again until thoroughly mixed. You should not beat the batter for more than a minute in total. Do not over-mix.
Add the chocolate and fold in with a spatula or spoon. Again, do not over-mix.
Transfer to a 900g/2lb loaf tin or 2 x 450g/1lb loaf tins, greased and lined or lined with a cake tin liner
Cook in the centre of a pre-heated oven until cooked. The larger cake will take around 1 hour and 10 – 20 minutes and the smaller cakes around 1 hour and 5 – 15 minutes. It is cooked when:
- the centre feels springy when lightly touched with your finger and no imprint remains
- a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean
- the cake is beginning to come away from the sides of the tin/dish.
Leave in the tin for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
Equipment:
I like to double the quantities and make either 2 large or 4 smaller loaves.