Chocolate Pie

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter
• 0.75 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 0.5 cup milk
• 1.33 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

Method

Cream this cake using the baking reverse-creaming method: the flour coats the fat particles and prevents overdevelopment of gluten, yielding a tender crumb rather than the tough, dense result you'd get from creaming butter and sugar first. Weigh your ingredients — 56g butter, 170g caster sugar, 160g plain flour, 10g baking powder — and sift the flour and baking powder together twice to distribute the leavening evenly. Add the flour mixture to the softened butter, then work in the caster sugar until the mixture resembles damp breadcrumbs. This takes two to three minutes of vigorous beating; stop when you hear the texture change from gritty to creamy. Crack the egg into a bowl, whisk lightly, then add it to the batter in three additions, beating well between each addition. Fold in the dairy|milk last — 120ml — until just combined; overmixing now activates the gluten you've worked to protect.

Divide the batter between two 20cm cake tins lined with baking parchment and bake at 180°C for 18–22 minutes. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the surface springs back when pressed gently at the edges; the centres may feel fractionally yielding, but they'll firm as they cool. Turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely — at least one hour — before splitting. A serrated knife works better than a chef's knife here; position it at the equator of each cake and use a gentle sawing motion rather than downward pressure to split horizontally without cracking the layers.

Once cool, assemble: place the bottom layer on a cake stand or plate, spread a thin, even layer of chocolate frosting across the top — no more than 3mm thick — and set the second layer directly on top. Crumb-coat the entire cake with another thin layer of frosting (this seals loose crumbs), chill for 15 minutes, then apply a final coat. The chocolate frosting should be at room temperature: too cold and it tears the cake; too warm and it slides off the sides. Serve at room temperature to let the cocoa flavour develop fully; cold chocolate tastes flat and waxy.