Uber gooey, moist, rich, dark chocolate loaf cake

It's high time that something sweet made an appearance on this blog, so here's desert number one: my favourite chocolate cake - it is pure, unadulterated gooey chocolate goodness, despite being made from simple storecupboard ingredients.

Ingredients:

225g stork

375g dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

3 desert spoons cocoa (or more - you want it to go a lovely dark chocolate colour)

200g plain flour

1 tsp bicarb of soda

250ml boiling water

Plus: loaf tin and baking paper

Preheat oven to 190c.

Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs.

Mix the flour, cocoa and bicarb, alternating spoon by spoon with the hot water until you have a smooth and fairly liquid batter. It might seem weird to be adding so much water to a cake but the more you add, the gooier the results. Don't feel like you have to add all the water - the more times you make this cake the more you'll get a feel for how it works.

Pour into the loaf tin and bake for 30mins then turn the oven down to 170 and continue to cook for another 15minutes. Test with a piece of spaghetti but don't worry if it doesn't come out clean - you want a gooey middle so don't be afraid of it being under cooked.

Leave to cool completely before taking out of the tin. Alternately, attack with a fork immediately. If you manage to save any, it gets better every day. And it is very tasty with raspberries and creme fraiche.

NB If you like a poem with your cake, this one goes perfectly.

You may find yourself unwittingly re-enacting it...

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/chocolate-cake/