This recipe is from my Grade 8 Home Economics Teacher, Mrs Thompson. She was a great teacher and this recipe is a winner. I have been using it ever since. The secret is in the 3 sift process! Yes, it requires you to sift the dry ingredients 3 times, but that’s what makes it so light & airy!
Here we go:
You will need:
6 tablespoons of butter
1 cup of caster sugar
1 large egg
½ teaspoon of vanilla
1½ cups of self-raising flour
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons of cocoa
½ cup of milk
¼ cup of boiling water
Step One
Set your oven to 180°C (160°C for fan forced) and grease your cake tin.
Step Two
Beat butter and sugar to a cream. Add lightly beaten egg and vanilla. Beat well.
Step Three
Now this is the important part – sift the self-raising flour, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa 3 times!
I use 2 bowls for this part and go from one to the other and back again.
Step Four
Fold in dry ingredients, alternatively with milk. Add boiling water and mix thoroughly.
Step Five
Pour into your greased cake tin.
(I tend to use a ring cake tin because I like how they end up looking like a huge donut once iced. They also make it easy to cut up portions.)
Step Six
Bake in oven for 40 minutes.
Step Seven
Once cooked, remove from the oven but let it sit in the cake tin to cool for 5 minutes before inverting onto the wire cooling rack.
Step Eight
Ice with chocolate icing.
Enjoy!
