6 large eggs
1 ¾ cups sugar
¾ cup sunflower or other mild vegetable/seed oil
2 cups milk
2 cartons of plain yoghurt (each 6 oz)
300 cups organic semolina, sifted
2 heaping tablespoons of bitter cocoa powder, sifted
2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder, sifted
1 ¾ cups chopped, toasted, almonds Icing (confectioners, also known as powdered) sugar (as desired, to sprinkle)
Combine the eggs and sugar in a bowl and beat until the mixture is soft and fluffy. Mix in the oil and milk, and when mixed in, then add the yogurt and continue mixing.
Beat in the organic semolina, cocoa powder and baking powder, a little at a time. Finally, add the toasted, crushed almonds. Set aside while you prepare the pan.
Grease and flour a 10-inch cake pan.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40-45 minutes. Test it for doneness using a skewer.
Remove from the oven, let the cake cool a few minutes. When cool enough to handle, loosen with a knife all around between the pan edges and cake; turn it over and unmold on a wire cooling rack.
Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve warm or wait until it cools.
In the mid-1500s.Europe began to discover entirely new ingredients as expeditions set out to explore a here-to-fore unknown world, the Americas. Thus began a huge revolution of cooking, in which ingredients were discovered one place, transported to another, and in the process transformed complete cuisines. (Tomatoes to Italy, for example).
Then there was the bitter substance known as chocolate/cocoa, drunk as a liquid in The Americas, embraced by France, Spain, Italy, in fact, all of Europe and beyond. It was transformed into a powder, mixed with sugar, and discovered to be absolutely delicious! The discovery of chocolate helped Europe evolve a form of modern patisserie.
When sponge cakes—so perfect for layered with fruit, creams, frostings, and so forth– became favored for cake-cooking, among the flavoring ingredients was chocolate. In fact, today, chocolate sponge-cake, or just chocolate cake, is not only a childhood treat, but an adult one too. Frost it with chocolate icing, layer it with whipped cream, glaze it with a shiny chocolate covering…sprinkle it with cocoa and sugar, chocolate jimmies, or…why not add a handful of chocolate chips into the batter itself? Even just plain: there is no finer cake than this classic.
