Hanwell Chocolate Cake

Seized by a desire to make chocolate cake today:

For the cake:
200g butter
200g flour
1 bar dark chocolate (half is for the icing)
2 tblspns cream
3 eggs
200g self raising flour
chocolate or vanilla essence

Melt the chocolate with the cream in the microwave, careful not to burn. Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy, beat in the eggs one at a time. Fold in the flour and half the melted chocolate plus essences. Grease and line two 8in sandwich tins. Divide the mixture between them and bang on the table to even out. Cook at 180C for about 25 minutes - check to see if they are cooked by gently pressing with your finger in the middle. Also the cakes should have shrunk away from the sides of the pans slightly.

Turn out and remove baking paper. Cool completely.

Icing:
Rest of melted chocolate
200g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter

Now I made a mistake and tried to soften the butter in the microwave, where it promptly melted. So I beat in the sugar and chocolate regardless - the result being rather oily - and put it in the freezer to chill and set. Then when thoroughly chilled, I took it out and beat it with the electric whisk until it became paler and fluffy. Perfect chocolate butter icing in fact.

When the cake was completely cold, I sandwiched it with the icing and whirled the rest of the icing around on the top. The result was a light rich delicious cake.