Simplicity Chocloate Cake (not so simple!)

My family recently got together for Grandma's birthday and it was my job to take afternoon tea and cake. I cheated a bit. Afternoon tea was store bought dips and biscuits as well as super simple tomato, cheese and kabana bites. I also made a beetroot dip using baby beets (from a can), 200g chickpeas, lemon juice and cottage cheese. It sure didn't look pretty but it was healthy and well received.

I put all my effort into the cake. Simplicity Chocolate Cake was the recipe name. Simple it was. Cake, not so much; it was more crumble. As the picture suggests, it didn't turn out so great!

It was Friday night and the last thing I wanted to do was bake, but I couldn't let Grandma down so I tried a different cake recipe. Nigella's Old Fashion Chocolate Cake was perfect because I needed to use some sour cream I had in the fridge. My luck was not so good this Friday night. Cake number two turned out quite flat. I cannot quite convey just how frustrated I was with my cooking but I chose to stick it out and do what I could with my two 'cakes.'
I covered Nigella's cake with Nutella and salvaged what I could of the Simple cake to make a top layer.

The layered cakes

Next I made the frosting. I didn't have quite enough icing sugar so the icing was runny. Atleast it tasted nice. I stuck a few TV Snack biscuits on top. I was so embarrassed by the cake but at least Grandma would know lots of love went into the preparation

My brother said it looked like a cow pat. He's not wrong!

Any way, I apologised to my family, we sung Happy Birthday and then served up the cake. I held my breath while waiting for a response and I guess the saying is true; don't judge a book by it's cover (or a cake by it's cow pat appearance).
This is what the layers looked like once cut into.

Simplicity Chocolate Cake

• 2 eggs
• 75g butter, melted
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 150g milk chocolate, melted
• 1/2 cup milk
• Nutella for icing

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees C. Thoroughly grease 20cm round cake tin.
2. Beat all ingredients together by hand for 3mins. Spread into tin.
3. Bake for about 45mins or until cooked. Allow to cool in tin before turning out.
4. When cold spread Nutella over cake. Serve with Cream.

Nigella's Old-fashioned Chocolate Cake

Follow this link for the cake recipe