Auntie Roma's Chocolate Cake

This cake was often made by my aunt Roma at the family’s South Morang farm. We all loved it and it was one of the first cake recipes I can remember using. In later years I adapted it for restaurant use. It has been admired by many famous people. Stephanie Alexander has borrowed it for her books. It was served by Lady Viola Tait at a supper for Katherine Hepburn during the star’s Melbourne visit . Apparently she ‘just adored it’.

Ingredients

250 grams butter
175 grams caster sugar
250 grams drinking chocolate, dissolved in a little warm water
4 egg yolks
a little milk
125 grms self raising flour
50 grams ground rice

Method

Grease and flour a square baking tin, approx 17x7 cm

Beat butter and sugar together till white add the dissolved chocolate and the egg yolks, then the flour and rice. If mixture is too thick, add a little milk. Beat egg whites till stiff and then fold through carefully.

Tip into the tin and bake in moderate oven for 40 minutes. Let the cake rest in the tin before turning out.