As a teacher of English as a Foreign Language I'm constantly on the lookout for ways of stimulating the students. God bless Sinead and all who sail in her. During this year's Summer School I came across Sinead's recipe as I browsed the Net looking for something on scones. I was at first a bit doubtful about the recipe, but, having tried it within my own four walls on a Wednesday, those doubts disappeared as swiftly as chocolate buns at a children's party. The next day I told my students we'd be making scones on Friday. They had no idea what scones were, so I enlightened them. I also told them that they, personally, would be making the scones under my supervision. Thus, on the Friday they cast aside their continental patina of fashionable boredom and got down and dirty using Sinead's recipe. On the succeeding Fridays the making of scones was all the rage, so you lot and Sinead are responsible for the spreading of the fame of the scone
far beyond our native shore! Three cheers, i say!
Kevin N. Power

Thanks for all the great recipes,..im new to cooking and have tried lots,..all are delicious ( I still buy your products for lunch times in work though so im a bit of a cheater) regarding this recipe,..does it need "normal" sugar or caster sugar? should the butter be normal salted butter or unsalted (actually should it be salted or unsalted for ALL baking??). also is the vanilla needed like vanilla essence? or actual vanilla pods ground down or something else? sorry for the questions and thanks in advance.

Hello Mysterious Critic. I've just emailed Bree to find out. I would have thought caster sugar and salted butter. Vanilla essence is grand, but again I'll leave Bree put you straight.

Sully

Hi. Thanks for your message. I have updated the recipe and hopefully all your questions have been answered. I would always use unsalted butter in baking sweet things and then add salt if it is needed, I think a little salt with chocolate can work really well, but not with many other things.
Good luck and let me know how you go.

Opps

Not oops at all. Most of the time I only have salted butter in the fridge, so that is what gets used.

Hi guys,

I am perusing your site for ideas for my daughters birthdays this year and found your choc cake recipe. However I would be grateful if you could clarify 2 things for me.

I am looking at the various cups I have and they vary in size and as the chocolate cake recipe specifies some of the ingredients in cups, it also specifies 200g of soft butter so roughly how many grams does your cup hold???

Secondly, is the oven temperature you stipulate for a convection oven or a fan oven?

Tks

Hi there,

I'm not sure of the exact measurements but I've just emailed Bree and I'm sure she will respond. To me a cup is about 250mls. If I like the ingredient I add a bit more and if I don't I add a bit less. It doesn't always work out so for a cake you are better to be on the safe side. I think we'll stay away from cups in future.

Thanks and Happy Cooking.

Sully

I will make this cake in the next day or two and update the recipe. Cully will be delighted as I so rarely make cakes xxx Bree

As a child we always made Cynthia's Cake. I've just noticed it's not up here and it should be so I'll put it up in a minute.

The recipe was always in cups and the thing that always amazed me was that when it comes to Chocolate cake it always tastes good, no matter what size the cup is!!

A cup is now an actual measure, it's 250ml or 8 fluid ounces.

Cheers,

Cullen

I've just put a picture of a cup up in the Diary section!