Baking for Nightshift- Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake

Hmmm I cut this while it was still warm and the chocolate still gooey

So tonight I start back on 3 night shifts. I usually try to take something to work for my first shift so as I had some spare time today, and I wanted to do something relaxing, thought it was a good chance to whip something up. I have made this recipe before but that was a long time ago. It comes from Nigella Lawson's book 'Feast'. I remembered it as being a bit of a dessert cake particularly nice with cream...hmmm that reminds me that I must buy some on my way to work tonight! It is called a quadruple chocolate loaf cake because it has cocoa in the basic mix, then it has chocolate stirred in to it, then is is drenched in a cocoa/sugar syrup and finally has some more chocolate grated over the top. Mine is there but because it is still warm, the grated chocolate melted. Oh well just a wee excuse to grate more over it before I leave for work...


Nigella says that this is easy to make and she is not wrong. All you need is a food processor and that is it. She recommends making the chocolate syrup really thick so that the sugar almost caramelises. I did this but I found that all the syrup-now-gone-like-fudge did, was to sit on top of the loaf and form a layer. So I quickly whipped up some more and poured this over the cake again so it would sink into it. I love syrupy, moist cakes so I think this will add to it even more. This is a rich, decadent tasting loaf/cake. The photos don't really do it any justice but then again I did cut it a bit early so I could photograph it before I forgot. As well as that Harry was looking forward to trying it and well it gave me a reason to sneak some too...well it has to pass the taste test! So I hope the girls like it tonight, I know it will at least give us all a bit of a sugar hit when we need it the most in the middle of the night.


Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake


200 gm flour
1/2 baking soda
50 gm cocoa
275 gm caster sugar
175 gm soft butter
2 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/3 c sour cream
125 ml boiling water
175 gm chocolate chips (I used a mix of dark and milk)


Syrup
1 tsp cocoa
125 ml water
100 gm caster sugar


Oven to 170 C. Line a large loaf tin with baking paper.


Put the flour, soda, cocoa, sugar, butter, sour cream, vanilla and eggs into a food processor and blitz until you get a smooth batter. Scrape down the sides and pour in the boiling water while it is processing again. Stir in the chocolate chips.


Bake about an hour. This is a damp cake so the skewer won't be totally clean. 


Make the syrup about 10 mins before the cake comes out of the oven. Pour over the cake and leave in the tin until it goes cold. Grate over more chocolate and enjoy.