Intense Chocolate Oreo Loaf Cake

I’m trying to get into the habit of baking once a week – I find it hugely relaxing and love getting the boys involved.

So when I spied Sarah’s Forever Nigella Blogging Event had a Seduced By Chocolate theme over on Maison Cupcake it got me in an inventive mood.

I’ve been asking around for people’s fave Nigella recipes, and my book group friend Kath recommended one with a certain Nigella-esque glint in her eye, so I couldn’t resist giving it a go.

There’s something about Nigella and her fruity approach that brings out the minx in people – I love the way that this translates to her cooking.

Nigella’s Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake recipe is from her book How To Be A Domestic Goddess.

I made a few tweaks from the master recipe: I put in a mix of half light and half dark brown sugar to lighten the taste.

However to further intensify the chocolateyness from the 100g of melted dark chocolate, I substituted 50g of the 200g of flour with cocoa powder. My husband is the BIGGEST fan of chocolate to walk the planet so I was eager to impress him with my efforts.

My final stamp on the recipe was to scatter a handful of miniature Oreo cookies on top of the cake before cooking. You could even stir another handful through the batter before pouring it in the tin, if you were feeling REALLY indulgent that is.

I think you’d definitely need to don your silk dressing gown and get the fairy lights on for that kind of behaviour in the kitchen though!

Intense Chocolate Oreo Loaf Cake

225g softened unsalted butter
325g soft muscavado sugar (half light half dark)
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g good quality dark chocolate, melted (I break it up into chunks and bung it in a bowl in the microwave on full power in short blasts of 20 seconds, stirring in between until all melted)
150g plain flour, sifted
50g cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp bicarb soda
250ml boiling water
handful mini Oreo cookies or regular sized broken into chunks

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175’C. Grease and line a 23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, then gradually beat in the eggs and vanilla.

2. Gently fold in the melted and cooled chocolate until combined.

3. In a separate bowl mix the sifted flour, cocoa and bicarb together. Then get your boiling water and alternately add a spoon of the dry mix and a slurp of the water to the chocolatey butter mix until you have a smooth and pretty runny batter.

4. Pour into your lined loaf tin, then scatter the top with you Oreo cookies, pushing them down a bit so they’re partly submerged. Bake for approx 50-60 minutes. The cake is one of those squidgy ones, so it’ll still wobble a bit in the middle when the time is up.

5. Put the tin on a wire rack and cool completely and then turn out. If you can possibly resist it’s best eaten the next day.

This cake is not all neat and perfect – it’s rustic and the middle will probably collapse a bit. HOWEVER it tastes out of this world and for an intense chocolateyness you really can’t beat it!

The crust on top of the cake, along with the Oreos, gives a satisfying chew, but underneath lies a sumptuous gooey wanton dark chocolate temptress that is impossible to resist.

You’re thinking, this is soooo rich I couldn’t eat more than a slice, but then find yourself reaching for another…