World's Best Chocolate Cake - baked and sewn

When I was a child my Grandma used to make my birthday cake every single year. And it was the same every time. I still use her recipe to make it for my daughters' birthdays (as one year the carrot cake wasn't a success...).

Ingredients:

for the cream:

200g sugar

227g butter

30g cocoa powder

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp strong coffee

 Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time.

 While your food processor is at work line a round spring form with baking parchment. Ahem, I still need to practice this...

 Add the cocoa powder, coffeee, vanilla essence to the mixture and beat until smooth. Put in a bowl and put in the fridge while you make the sponge.

 for the sponge:

250g sugar (icing is the best, sifted)

4 eggs, separated

1 lemon, zest and juice

200g flour

4 tbsp hot water

1 heaped tsp baking powder

 First, beat the eggwhites in a bowl until stiff and doesn't fall out when you upturn the bowl.
In a separate bowl beat the yolks, sugar and lemon juice until white. Add the hot water, one tbsp at a tim e and beat well.

Stir in the zest.

 Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold.

 Gently fold in the egg white.

 Pour into your neatly lined form. :D Place in a pre-heated (180 C) oven and bake for 20 mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Do not open the oven in the first 15 mins, or your cake will collapse.

 While it's baking you can sew a chocolate-strawberry cake! :D :D

 Leave the sponge to cool on a wire rack. When cooled slice in half horizontally and spread with half of the chocolate cream. Place the other half on top and spread the top as well.

 Spread the sides with the remaining cream and decorate with walnuts, or chocolate pieces or whatever you have at hand.

It's best if you can leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours, but alas, sometimes it disappears too quick.

As the recipe uses raw eggs the cake can't be stored for more than a day in the fridge.

Enjoy!