The world’s cookbooks (and the internet) are awash with recipes for complicated cakes that look stunning and will take a good couple of hours to put together.

Those cakes are fantastic for events where you might want to showcase some baking talent but they won’t do if you want a slice of cake to take for lunch, or if you need to whip up a cake quickly without a trip to the supermarket.

This cake fills that slot perfectly.  It’s quick and if you cook or bake regularly you should have the ingredients to hand.  The recipe comes from a friend of my grandmother and this was the first cake I ever made ‘on my own’.   It is my contribution to this month’s Family Recipes hosted by the Life and Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch.

I always bake the cake in a kugelhopf tin but I’m sure a 20cm springform tin would do just as well.

Preheat the oven to 180C bake and grease your tin well.

Cream 50g of butter and 1 cup of caster sugar.  When well combined, add 2 eggs and beat well.  Then add 1 1/2 cups of self raising flour and 2 tbsp of cocoa.  The mixture will be quite stiff.  Mix 1/2 tsp of baking powder (or bicarb) with 1/2 cup of milk and add to the batter.  Beat until combined and finish by beating in 2 tbsp of boiling water.

Pour into your cake tin and bake for about half an hour – the cake should be well risen and a skewer should come out clean.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 5 or so minutes before tipping out on a rack.  When the cake is completely cool ice with your favourite icing or just dust with icing sugar.

If you’re lazy (like me!) and use a food processor like a Magimix the whole process, including the cleaning up, will take under an hour.  To me, that is the perfect emergency cake!