Cakes: Pound & Chocolate

As requested, cake recipes.

Please bear in mind I am a terrible cake baker! I am sure any halfway accomplished cake baker would be appalled at my cakes, but I really wanted CAKE and these do the trick for me.

Also note: these are SMALL cakes as I only want enough for a few portions.

Lastly: I use a sugar substitute that's 1:1 for sugar. I've tried a few, currently using "Nick's Use Like Sugar", but they all seem fairly similar. I have some fibersugar waiting to be tried. Pure erythritol or xylitol or whatever give things a weird and funky aftertaste (for me), but the ones I've used have a mixture of sweeteners and have no weird aftertaste or effects. They are slightly less sweet than Real Sugar but that's okay by me. Your mileage may vary!!

Pound cake: this is simply the old recipe that uses "same amounts of everything". I usually do 1 egg's worth.

1 egg - weigh it, shell and all

That much flour (ultrafine fiberflour)

That much butter

That much sugar (1:1 sugar sub of your preference)

a little milk, just in case

dash of vanilla

Oven to 180C.

Soften the butter (I cut in chunks, then 30s in microwave on 300) and beat it with the sugar. Ideally til fluffy and pale, but whatever works. (The more you beat, the lighter the cake will be. In theory.)

Beat the egg a little just to break up the yolk, and dribble it in alternating with a bit of flour, mixing until you have a thickish cake batter (blob & spread type, not pouring, hopefully..)

Don't forget to add the vanilla :)

If it's VERY thick, mix in dribbles of milk til it's soft and blobby.

If you have cake cases, put out two or three in a supportive tin and blob the batter in (no more than half full).

If you do not have cake cases, butter the heck out of whatever you do have and put in there instead. (Muffin pan, little tin, whatever).

Bake... until done. Keep an eye on it. (Golden brown and resistant to a pat; stab with cocktail stick, if it comes out clean it's done.)

Probably around 12 mins for cake case size, but more/smaller will be quicker than few/larger/single.

I usually do 2 big muffin cups, and they take about 16-17m with a turn halfway (my oven is uneven).

Doubled mix makes a fairly substantial cake that fills a 6" round silicon pan. (45m or so, 160C)

Comes out substantial and buttery, but a little boring? I like to add a little orange essence and a few sugar free chocolate chips, but you could do all kinds of things - citrus zest, ginger, anything you fancy.

Or, it's a good cake for putting in (sugar free) jelly for trifle, if you're that way inclined...

Little Chocolate Cake

Directly from the "BakeLikeAPro" youtube channel, "Easy Mini Chocolate Cake recipe". The guy uses a 4" springform pan (so cute) and I do too. This is a little, tall cake - four generous portions.

36g milk (45ml; 3tbl)

36g veg oil (45ml; 3tbl)

1 egg

21g cocoa or cacao powder (3tbl)

46g sugar (4 tbl) (sugar substitute)

33g flour (4 tbl) (ultrafine fiberflour)

1g salt (1/4 tsp)

5g baking powder (1 tsp)

Oven to 180C [160C fan]

Grease & flour whatever you're cooking your cake in. I recommend something narrower/deeper rather than flatter/shallower...?

Whisk milk with egg. Add in sugar + oil, whisk together well. Add salt & whisk again.

Doesn't need to be frothy, just well mixed together.

Sieve in rest of dry ingredients and whisk all together. It should be a pretty liquid batter.

Pour batter in to the tin (comes up about 3/4 of the way in mine).

Bake 25-30m, should rise high (domes up over my tin). Or, appropriate to your cooking tin - will be less for smaller cakes.

Stab with a cocktail stick to test for doneness - gooey is not done, but a few moist crumbs is okay.

Cool in tin for about half an hour or so, then it should be strong enough to turn out and let cool the rest of the way (on a rack, preferably).

Tall enough to slice in half to fill if desired! (Cream? Frosting?)

Intensely chocolately and very tender crumb; sturdier when all the way cooled, even denser next day.

My oven's a bit unreliable and occasionally the top will scorch - it doesn't seem to matter, the slight burned/bitter edge actually kind of goes with the chocolate! (For my taste, anyway!)