Mexican Hot Chocolate Cake

At Casa Mexicana we are always in awe of the many uses for our products, inventing and experimenting in our kitchen is the way we innovate and are better able to bring you products you will love.

Talking about love, it is hard not to love our old time favorite hot chocolate tablets Chocolate Mexicano has been a staple in Mexican households for more than 70 years! Made of cacao, sugar and cinnamon, we melt into milk and froth it with our beautiful molinillos (soon to be found in Casa México!). As I was cooking our Christmas dinner this year I was inspired to look into Chocolate cakes using chocolate mexicano and couldn't find one! So I decided to invent our own, a truly Mexican chocolate cake!

Ingredients

For the cake

• 225g/8oz plain flour

• 350g/12½oz caster sugar

• 85g/3oz Mexican Chocolate made into powder

• 1½ tsp baking powder

• 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 2 free-range eggs

• 250ml/9fl oz milk

• 125ml/4½fl oz vegetable oil

• 2 tsp vanilla extract Anita

• 250ml/9fl oz boiling water

For the chocolate icing

• 200g/7oz dark chocolate bar

• 1/2 tsp ground chile de arból

• Optional: crushed chile de arbol flakes for decorating

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line two 20cm/8in sandwich tins.

2. For the chocolate powder, ground one full tablet into a fine powder.

3. For the cake, place all of the cake ingredients, except the boiling water, into a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, or electric whisk, beat the mixture until smooth and well combined.

4. Add the boiling water to the mixture, a little at a time, until smooth. (The cake mixture will now be very liquid.)

5. Divide the cake batter between the sandwich tins and bake in the oven for 25–35 minutes, or until the top is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

6. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool completely, still in their tins, before icing.

7. For the chocolate icing, ground the chile de arból to a fine dust, break the chocolate bar into small pieces and heat the chocolate in a saucepan over a low heat until the chocolate melts. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the ground chile de arból the mixture until smooth, glossy and thickened. Set aside to cool for 1–2 hours, or until thick enough to spread over the cake.

8. To assemble the cake, run a round-bladed knife around the inside of the cake tins to loosen the cakes. Carefully remove the cakes from the tins.

9. Spread a little chocolate icing over the top of one of the chocolate cakes, then carefully top with the other cake.

10. Transfer the cake to a serving plate and ice the cake all over with the chocolate icing, using a palette knife.

Recipes Tips:

The chocolate cake mixture is quite thin, so it's important to use sandwich tins rather than springform tins, which could leak.

*All products available for purchase are tagged in the recipe.