h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For my benefit, I'm translating the recipe to metric.

Cake Ingredients

* 225 gram Butter (or unsalted butter and ¼tsp salt)
* 170 gram Plain chocolate
* 4 Eggs
* 1tsp Vanilla essence
* 225 gram Plain flour
* 1½tsp Baking powder
* 280 ml milk
* 570 gram Caster sugar

Method

1.

Heat the oven to Gas Mark 5 or 400°F or 200°C. Butter and line three 23 cm cake tins with baking parchment. (20 cm will do if you can't find 23 cm).
2.

Melt the chocolate (either in a bowl over boiling water or in the microwave).
3.

Warm a mixing bowl and make sure the butter is soft (otherwise the high proportion of sugar to fat makes creaming difficult). Cream together the butter and sugar.
4.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla essence and beat again.
5.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt (if using unsalted butter).
6.

Into the chocolate mixture, fold in the milk and flour alternately.
7.

Pour the mixture into the three cake tins. Bake roughly for 45 minutes, until the sponges are set and browned. (It's no good sticking in a skewer to see if it's cooked as the mixture remains gooey even when cooked.)

Icing Ingredients

* 5 x 110 gram Packets of dark chocolate polka dots (not Bourneville as this won't set)
* ¼tsp (0.25tsp) Salt
* 430 ml soured cream at room temperature (since the chocolate will seize if it is added straight from the fridge)

Method

1.

Melt the chocolate drops (either in a bowl over boiling water or in the microwave).
2.

Stir in the cream and salt.
3.

Cool until the icing is stiff enough to spread, (this can take some time - leave it overnight if you can).
4.

Spread between the layers of the cake and around the outside.

Enjoy!