~Recipe Credit: Zah & Zee~

Ingredients 

• 8 oz salted butter (preferably left at room temperature overnight / few hours)
• 8 oz sugar  (preferably caster sugar)
• 4 medium/large eggs (preferably left at room temperature overnight / few hours)
• 6 oz self raising flour
• 2 oz cocoa powder
• 1tsp baking powder

Method

1. Recite Bismillah
2. Preheat oven to 170c fan. (Ovens may vary from 160-180)
3. Beat sugar & butter till light & creamy. This will take a while & is the key to a fluffy & airy cake. (We recommend taking out the stand mixer for this)
4. Meanwhile flour in a bowl & set aside.
5. Grease a two 8″ round baking tins with a generous amount of butter, including the sides. Then sprinkle some self raising flour & shake & tilt the tin around so it is thinly coated with flour. Shake off any excess flour. Set aside.
6. Add in one egg at a time with a tbsp of flour to the mixture until well combined. Be careful not to over beat at this stage!
7. Then add remaining flour & cocoa & mix.
8. Finally fold in the baking powder. Do not beat on a high speed at this stage! You don’t want to over beat it.
9. Divide mixture into two 8″ round greased pans & bake at 170c for 20 mins. You will know the cake is done when you press the centre & it springs back. Do not rely on the clean toothpick!
10. Run a knife all around the sides of the pan, this will help release the cakes from the pan.
11. Remove the cake from pan by placing a tray on top of the cake. Flip the tin over so that the top of the cake with the tray is now facing down. Pat the back of the tin all around. The cake should release from the bottom. Lift the tin gently.
12. Allow to cool, preferably on a cooling rack .
13. Fill & frost! (Click to view our frosting recipes)

Tips:

• If you do not have a stand mixer, have all the ingredients weighed out & ready so all you are focusing on is the making the cake batter!
• If you think your batter looks very doughy like add a few tbsps of water.
• If you do not have caster sugar, you can make some at home yourself! Simply blitz granulated sugar in a food processor / chopper, till the grains look like caster sugar, be careful not to blitz it too much & turn it into icing sugar!