Ridiculously Large Chocolate Cake. Farm Style.

I am a huge fan of Sydney Shop Girl.  She made one of my casseroles the other day and now says I am The Source for country cooking. While I think she is flattering me, I am secretly pleased because she is a fashion guru in Sydney, a mecca for style.  Whereas I am a farmer's wife in the Western Australian Wheatbelt, a mecca for dust.

Anyway, given my new found status as "The Source", I decided to get all adventurous and experimental and try a new recipe.  I know, living on the edge here people.  My Mum was given a recipe for a chocolate cake that was made in a baking dish.  Given that I have a baking dish and an oven, I thought "Why not?"

So, without further ado, here is the resulting adventure.

To start with I ventured into my pantry.  I dodged the many bristling mouse traps (I am ever vigilant in The War On Rodents) and came out with these ingredients.  Except the eggs, I got those by braving the snake ridden chook pen (OK - the snakes should be hibernating so this was not as risky as I am trying to make it sound).

Ingredients

Ingredients:

• 3 cups SR flour
• 2 & 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 2 & 1/4 teaspoons bicarb
• 250g butter, melted
• 2 cups milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 6 eggs (that's a lot, isn't it? - oh well, I have chooks and I am not afraid to use them)

To start with I needed to sift the flour.  This is when I got really reckless.  I let Farmgirl do the sifting....

Almost 4 Year Old With Sieve, Don't Try This At Home

Then I added the sugar, cocoa and bicarb.  I was too traumatised after the flour sifting to sift these,, so I just whisked through all the dry ingredients in the bowl a few times.

Slack Sifting

Then the eggs needed to be whisked and added.  After that I poured in the milk, vanilla and melted butter.  As my bowl was almost overflowing I tipped the whole lot into my super glamourous pistachio KitchenAid and gave it a whirl.

Looking Good

I wasn't sure how "mixed up" it was supposed to be but thought the above looked about right.

The next step involved lining a baking dish with baking paper.  So I did. Then I tipped the cake mixture in and had second thoughts.  Because the dish was this full.

Uh Oh

Although I am all for exciting kitchen adventures, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour.  To avoid spending the rest of the day cleaning burnt cake mix off the oven shelves, I quickly lined another dish and put some of the mixture in there.  So there was a big cake and a baby cake.

Cakes Breed In The Farm Kitchen

The whole lot then went in a moderate oven.  The recipe said the cake should take an hour and a half.  I think if I had made it in my big, whopper baking dish then this would have been about right.  As it was, I took the little cake out after an hour and ten minutes.  The big one took about an hour and twenty minutes.

The cake(s) turned out really well.  Light and yummy.  I may or may not ice them.  Apparently they freeze well.  This can only be a good thing as I seem to have an awful lot of chocolate cake here...

Cake, With A Light Dusting Of Icing Sugar For Styling Purposes

This would be a great recipe for a cake stall or if catering for workers.

So there you go.  Have a good day, wherever you are.