Rita's chocolate and honey cake

Name: Rita's chocolate and honey cake
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 10
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 2 eggs; 1/2 cup light oil (I used grapeseed); 3/4 cup honey; 1 cup sugar; grated rind of 1 orange; 1 cup self-raising flour; 1 cup plain flour; 2 tbsp cocoa; scant teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and mixed spice; 1/2 tsp ground cloves; 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 1 cup boiling water; 100g of 60 per cent dark chocolate, grated (optional)

Stephanie Alexander

October 19, 2011

Rita's chocolate and honey cakeMarina Oliphant

Time:1-2 hoursServes:10

I seem to have an insatiable need to collect recipes for chocolate cakes. I always intend to try them immediately but it doesn't usually happen and the cuttings end up in a series of shoe boxes. This recipe is from a yellowed January 1994 clipping from The Age in which various food writers recall their favourite chocolate cake. I couldn't resist patting on grated chocolate a la Paragon cafe. My hands were a sight, but the result was a success.

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/2 cup light oil (I used grapeseed)
3/4 cup honey
1 cup sugar
grated rind of 1 orange
1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa
scant teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup boiling water
100g of 60 per cent dark chocolate, grated (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. I used a 24-centimetre non-stick ring tin.
Grease tin and dust lightly with flour.
Mix together eggs, oil, honey, sugar and grated orange rind.
Sift together flour, spices and cocoa. Add to mixture and stir well.
Lastly, add bicarbonate of soda to the boiling water, add to mixture and stir in carefully.
Bake for about an hour (mine took 50 minutes in a fan-assisted oven), or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. When the cake is ready, the sides will have shrunk away from the edge of the tin.
Allow the cake to cool to faintly warm before patting on chocolate and stand the cake rack over a tray to catch the fallout.