Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake

Cook Time: 1 hr
Level: Easy
Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients

Cake:

* 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 cup cocoa
* 1 1/3 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 sticks soft unsalted butter
* 2 eggs
* 1 tablespoon good-quality vanilla extract
* 1/3 cup sour cream
* 1/2 cup boiling water
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or morsels

Syrup:

* 1 teaspoon cocoa
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1-ounce dark chocolate (from a thick bar if possible), cut into
splinters of varying thickness, for garnish
* Special equipment: 2-pound loaf tin (approximately 9 1/2 by 4
1/2 by 3 inches deep), lined with greased foil, pressed into the
corners and with some overhang at the top. Alternatively, substitute a
silicon loaf tin, no foil lining necessary.

Directions

Take whatever you need out of the refrigerator so that all ingredients
can come room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, putting in a baking sheet as you do so.

Put the flour, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, and
sour cream into the processor and blitz until a smooth, satiny brown
batter. Scrape down with a rubber spatula and process again while
pouring the boiling water down the funnel. Switch it off, then remove
the lid and the well-scraped double-bladed knife and, still using your
rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips or morsels.

Scrape and pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and put into the
oven, cooking for about 1 hour. When ready, the loaf will be risen and
split down the middle and a cake-tester will pretty well come out
clean.

Not long before the cake is due out of the oven (when it has had about
45 to 50 minutes), put the syrup ingredients of cocoa, water and sugar
into a small saucepan and boil for about 5 minutes, to give a thick
syrup.

Take the cake out of the oven and sit it on a cooling rack, still in
the tin, and pierce here and there with a cake tester. Pour the syrup
over the cake.

Let the cake become completely cold and then slip out of its tin,
removing the foil as you do so. Sit on an oblong or other plate.
Sprinkle the chocolate splinters over the top of the sticky surface of
the cake