Chocolate Sheet Cake

An incredibly delicious, ridiculously easy, super moist, one bowl chocolate sheet cake with sour cream chocolate ganache.

For the ganache, use any chocolate you prefer (dark, milk, white or caramelised white chocolate) - the lighter the chocolate, the softer the ganache will set. If you don’t have a 20cm square cake tin, use a rectangular or round tin of similar proportions (just remember to adjust the baking time).

Enough for a 20cm square cake (16 generous squares)

CHOCOLATE CAKE BATTER

sugar (brown), 330g (1 + 1/2 cup)

milk (full fat), 250ml (1 cup)

eggs, 2

oil, 125ml (1/2 cup) - use your preferrred neutral flavoured oil (I like grapeseed oil)

flour (plain/all-purpose flour), 225g (1 + 1/2 cup) - cake wheat flour in South Africa

cocoa powder, 100g (1 cup)

baking powder, 7.5ml (1 + 1/2 teaspoon)

bicarbonate of soda/baking soda, 7.5ml (1 + 1/2 teaspoon)

boiling water, 250ml (1 cup)

SOUR CREAM CHOCOLATE GANACHE

chocolate (dark/milk/white/caramelised white chocolate), 250g

butter (unsalted), 100g

sour cream, 250g (250ml or 1 cup)

icing sugar, 165g (250ml or 1 cup)

To start, preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan) and grease and/or line a baking tin (I use a 20cm square tin).

For the cake batter, place the sugar, milk, eggs and oil in a large bowl and whisk to combine.

Add the dry ingredients passing them through a sieve to avoid lumps. Whisk until smooth.

Add the boiling water and whisk again until uniform (the mixture will be runny).

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 45 - 55 minutes (or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out fairly clean - this cake is super moist, so a bit of cake mixture might stick to the skewer, as long as it isn’t raw cake batter).

Remove the baked cake from the oven, then cool in the tin covered with a clean tea towel.

For the ganache, break the chocolate into blocks and roughly chop the butter before placing it in a large heatproof bowl.

Add the sour cream to the mixing bowl and place it over a saucepan of gently simmering water (taking care not to allow the water to touch the bottom of the mixing bowl).

Stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter have melted (the mixture might look split as this stage).

Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk in the icing sugar until silky smooth.

Allow the ganache to cool at room temperature until a spreadable (or piping) consistency (you can make the ganache while the cake is in the oven baking).

Once the cake is completely cool and the ganache spreadable, top the cake with ganache by spreading it onto the cake with a knife or spoon or piping (I use a Wilton 789 piping tip for a squiggle effect).

Slice into squares before serving.

Store covered at room temperature for 2 - 3 days.