GARDEN ROUTE | KAROO NEWS - Tomorrow, Friday 26 November, millions of cake loving people across the globe will gather to bake and eat cake in celebration of International Cake Day.
According to food historians, the ancient Egyptians were the first culture to show evidence of advanced baking skills.
The Oxford English Dictionary traces the English word 'cake' back to the 13th century. It is a derivation of 'kaka', an Old Norse word. Thankfully the word has changed! Medieval European bakers often made fruitcakes and gingerbread.
In honour of International Cake Day, George Herald asked famous local chef, Francois Ferreira, to share his favourite cake recipe with our readers.
Francois says he loves baking bread, but baking cake has never been one of his favourite pass times.
"This changed when a colleague gave me this recipe many years ago. It's easy and extremely versatile - my go-to recipe when I'm called on to bake a cake. As mentioned in the notes, you can use this recipe for cupcakes as well. Decorated with a decadent chocolate butter icing, this cake will make you most popular! And don’t wait until it’s too late. Eat that slice of cake..."
Francois Ferreira
EASY & VERSATILE CHOCOLATE CAKE
Makes: 2 x 23cm cakes
Ingredients
- 8 eggs
- 600 g castor sugar
- 500 g cake flour
- 20 ml baking powder
- 130 g cacao powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 500 ml milk
- 500 ml vegetable oil
- 10 ml vanilla essence
Method
- Preheat oven to 180C and line 2x 23cm cake tins (or make 48 cupcakes.)
- Beat the eggs and sugar together with a mixer until light and fluffy.
- In a large bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder, cacao, and salt together.
- Heat the milk, oil and vanilla together until lukewarm.
- Add the egg and sugar mixture to the large bowl and fold in the flour mixture, then fold in the milk and oil.
- Pour cake mixture into prepared cake tins.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the pans for 5 minutes, and then invert cakes onto a wire rack.
- Cool cakes completely before filling and decorating.
Notes
- Use a good quality cacao powder.
- I like using strong black coffee instead of the vanilla.
- This recipe is ideal for cupcakes as well.
Millions of cake loving people across the globe will gather to bake and eat cake in celebration of International Cake Day.
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