Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• 200 g self raising flour
• 25 g cocoa powder
• 175 g butter
• 175 g soft brown sugar
• 1 orange, rind of, grated
• 100 g dark chocolate
• 3 tablespoons boiling water
• 3 eggs
• apricot jam
• 100 g icing sugar
• 25 g cocoa powder
• 37 g butter
• 2 tablespoons water
• 50 g caster sugar

Recipe

• 1 for the cake:.
• 2 sieve the flour and cocoa powder and set aside.
• 3 cream the butter and sugar together until soft and light, stir in the orange rind.
• 4 break chocolate into a bowl (i recommend that you use 70% cocoa solid minimum), add boiling water and stir until the chocolate is melted and well blended.
• 5 lightly whisk the eggs and gradually beat into the butter and sugar mixture.
• 6 beat in the melted chocolate, and then fold in the flour/cocoa mixture with a metal spoon.
• 7 spoon the mixture into two greased and lined tins and bake at 180/350/gas 4 for 25-30 minutes, until cake shrinks away from the sides of the tin.
• 8 allow to cool slightly in tins, and then turn out on wire rack. when cold, slice each cake horizontally to make 4 layers. using a thin layer of jam, sandwich all layers of the cake together.
• 9 fudge coating:.
• 10 sift icing sugar and cocoa and set aside.
• 11 put the butter, water and caster sugar into a saucepan and heat gently, stirring to dissolve the sugar. bring to a simmer.
• 12 pour the hot mixture into the sieved icing sugar/cocoa mixture; mix together until its thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
• 13 pour coating quickly over the cake; smooth over the sides. leave to set before serving.