BUTTERMILK CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE - The Gardening Foodie

Ingredients

For the Cake
250 ml water
250 g butter or margarine
¼ cup / 60 ml cocoa powder
1 tablespoon / 15ml instant coffee
2 cups white sugar
2 cups cake flour / all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon / 5ml bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs lightly whisked
½ cup / 125ml buttermilk
1 teaspoon / 5ml vanilla essence
For the Icing
3 cups sifted icing sugar (yes it is a good idea to sift the icing sugar otherwise there would be these little white lumps in the chocolate icing,and this will spoil the silky look of your icing.
½ cup cocoa powder
90 ml melted butter or margarine

Instructions

For the Cake:
Start by preheating the oven to 180°C
In a medium sizes saucepan, add the water, butter or margarine, cocoa powder and coffee and bring to the boil.
Remove the saucepan from the heat once the mixture is boiling and add the sugar, flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and mix until all the ingredients are well combined, making sure that you do not overmix.
To this mixture,add the whisked eggs,buttermilk and vanilla essence. Mix until smooth and creamy
Pour the mixture into a greased, baking dish and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
For the Icing:
Once the cake has cooled, mix all the icing ingredients together until smooth and creamy
Pour the icing evenly over the cake.
NOTES

Recipe Notes

If you have a crazy oven like mine, which brownsthe top of the cake too quickly before the inside is done, then simply shape some heavyweight foil into a dome and place over the cake 10 minutes into baking. The dome shape ensures that the cake does not touch the foil while rising. Then when you feel that the cake is almost baked, remove the foil and let the top brown a bit more.

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