Dense chocolate loaf cake

Another treat - it seems to have been that kind of weekend. Also, I've got fed up with looking out sticky pieces of paper for the recipes that "don't go" on the blog - of course they go on the blog, it's what we eat. I make this for birthdays, cricket teas (it always disappears faster than anything else on offer), and occasionally for pudding (a very rare event in this house). It's Nigella (probably from the Domestic Goddess, although I can't be sure) - but with one crucial difference: I cook and serve it in much smaller portions. Two crucial differences - I'm not going to give you a food-porn photo, you'll just have to imagine the dense, almost toffee-ish, stickiness of this delicious cake.

The original is made in a large high-sided pan of the sort I don't possess, and of the sort I am not going out to buy on the off-chance that I'll be cooking this again. So the first time I made it, cooking for a crowd, as ever, I doubled the mixture & put it into two 2-lb loaf tins, and it rose up and made a mighty mess. What was left was good enough to make again, so next time I tried three 2lb loaf tins. Perfect. Great cakes, and some for the freezer. Yesterday, for the first time, I made the "normal" amount (outlined below), and cooked it in three one-pound loaf tins. Result.

Just one thing. It is REALLY important that you line the tins, otherwise you will never get this loaf out. It really is that sticky. I use pre-formed greaseproof liners, no bother at all. Except to remember to buy - that's why I made the smaller cakes this time: I'd run out of 2-lb liners!

Dense chocolate loaf cake

225g soft butter
375g dark muscovado sugar
2 large eggs
vanilla extract
100g dark chocolate
200g plain flour
1 tsp bicarb
250 ml boiling water

Oven Gas mark 5, 190C

Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and some vanilla essence. Melt the chocolate, and fold it into the mixture. Mix the bicarb with the flour, then add it to your mix, spoon by spoon, alternating with the boiling water. The result should be a smooth batter. Pour it into three 1-lb loaf tins, and bake for 30 minutes at 190C. The cake should be squidgy in the middle, so you can’t test it with a skewer.

As it cools it will sink in the middle, sometimes to the point of total collapse. It improves with keeping.

8-10 slices.