Dear Husband's birthday cake

I finally have found the birthday cake of my husband's dreams! He had it for breakfast the next day, a good sign. It is shown pictured on our special birthday cake plate, a gift from my grandmother. It was the plate on which all the birthday cakes of my mother's childhood were served.

I found the recipe in Nigella Lawson's cookbook Feasts, in the chapter titled 'Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame' -- 14 chocolate cakes, count them! I chose the Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake:

200 g plain flour
200 g sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
40 g cocoa
175 g softened butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
150 ml sour cream

Bring all ingredients to room temperature. Whizz in food processor. Bake for 25-35 minutes in 22 cm pan at 180oC until toothpick comes out clean.

How easy is that! Sorry to the Americans for the metric measurements. That is part of the ease of this recipe to me anyway... I put the food processor container straight on the scales, then rezero it after each addition.

Nigella suggests an icing made with the remaining sour cream and dark chocolate, but DH wants just real whipped cream. Shown below is the banana that he ate alongside as well. A gift from the kids, their idea and money. Bananas are still very expensive and rare... this one was $2 !