Moist Chocolate Cake

I used to bake with mum quite often when I was little. Of course, all I did then was the finishing touches ( nuts, chocolate chips, sprinkles...) and sift flour. I never baked anything from scratch until I moved to The Netherlands.

I was craving for chocolate cake today and it's not something you can buy from bakeries here so I decided to bake one!

This cake is extremely easy to make and the ingredients can be easily found at your local supermarket. I used grass butter (in other words, made with milk from cows fed with fresh grass) because I like it but normal butter is fine as well.

What I used:

150g grass butter (unsalted)
60g cocoa powder
3 eggs
40g castor sugar
180g powdered or confection sugar
125ml hot water
150g self-rising flour
a pinch of salt
1 tbs vanilla essence

* Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius*
i) Combine cocoa powder, powdered sugar and hot water.
ii) In a separate bowl, cream butter with sugar until fluffy.
iii) Add vanilla essence and salt and stir until combined.
iv) Add one egg at a time,stirring after each addition until combined.
v) Add cocoa mixture into the batter.
vi) Add 1/3rd of the self-rising flour and combine. Repeat until there is none left.
vii) Pour batter into pan and bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. Decrease heat to 160 degrees and bake for an additional 20 minutes or so.

I didn't use a recipe for the frosting. I have a simple chocolate fondue set (bought for like 2.50 euro). I threw a 100g bar of 72% Swiss Chocolate into it and when it had melted, I poured about 75ml of whipping cream into it. I blew out the tealight (heating the chocolate) and scooped a tiny amount of butter (maybe 10g? ) into the mixture. Mix until combined and frost cake.

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Haven't cooked much lately because I've been so busy with school (Monday), work (Wednesday), Integration exam (Thursday) and shopping in Rotterdam (yesterday). Nicola and I went to an all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant yesterday and stuffed ourselves senseless for just 20 euro per person and tonight, the Dutchman and I had Indonesian at a restaurant down the street.

We have never been there before. I ordered rendang, he had babi ketjap. I was disappointed because it didn't taste anything like rendang. Where are the spices? Where is the coconut milk?! It was tender and quite delicious but is definitely not rendang. In fact, it tasted more like a brown-sauced stew. Dinner was cheap though (32 euro) and we will probably get take-aways every once in a while ( only 5 euro per person!).

Dinner on Tuesday:

Pork Schnitzel (only 1.80 euro after discount), red cabbage braised with apples and cajun potatoes.