Black Goodness

I lived in Lagos city for some time and while I did, my late uncle’s wife was a darling to me, she made sure her house felt like home to me and she made sure food was not a thing I had to worry about. Her generosity and love didn’t help when it came to my mental state of mind and she sensed it.  She once said; “Mimi bakes when she is depressed”. We laughed about it, but she was right.

Lagos is a tough city and isn’t for the faint hearted, whenever it took its toll on me, I would stop by the market, stock up on all the necessary ingredients, go home, bake, leave it in the kitchen for anyone who wanted to eat and then I would go upstairs and catch up on a TV series or watch a movie.

I used to love baking, not so much anymore, but I still enjoy it every now and again. For someone who loves to bake, you would expect that I eat a lot of cake. The reverse is the case; I could go months without eating cake. However, there’s one cake that I can never walk by without wanting to have a slice or two or maybe more. My blogtober challenge will not be complete if I do not use one of my days to share the recipe.

Black Midnight Cake.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of coffee
• 1 cup of milk
• ½ cup of vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 ¾ cups of plain flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 ½ tsp. baking soda
• ¾ cup dark cocoa powder

Note: you need extra flour or cocoa powder on the side to dust the pans after you have greased them with butter.

Method:

• In a bowl, combine all wet ingredients; coffee, milk, vegetable oil and eggs (beaten). Stir well till all ingredients blend together.
• In another bowl, combine all dry ingredients; sugar, flour (sieved), baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder. Mix all together till they are well blended.
• Make a well in your dry ingredients and begin to add the wet ingredients as you stir, stir till the mixture is smooth and there are no lumps.
• Pour in your greased and dusted pans and bake for 30 minutes. (2 pans preferably).
• Try not to over bake this cake, it is meant to be soft and moist. Insert a tooth pick in the middle of the cake to check, if it comes out clean and dry then your cake is ready.

As a coffee lover, I think the main thing that draws me to this cake is the rich aroma and taste of coffee. Whenever I bake a batch for myself, I love to enjoy it with a good cup of black coffee.

Do you like cake? What’s your favourite flavour?