Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

After the success of the brownies made with mayonnaise, I thought it was time to try one of the cake recipes which I've had in my folder for years. The copy of this recipe from Sue Lawrence, which I have, dates from 1997, when it appeared in Sainsbury's magazine. In that recipe there was no egg and 50ml more water, but I preferred the idea of adding an egg. This was a very simple recipe to follow and gave me no problems. The only change I needed to make was to use 160g white caster sugar and 40g light muscovado sugar, as I didn't have any golden caster sugar.

I didn't want to add the lemon topping used in the recipe, so used my old stand-by for a fudgy frosting - in a bowl over hot water, melt 175g plain chocolate (I used 60%) with 30g butter, stirring occasionally. When melted, remove from the heat and beat in 2 tablespoons of golden syrup and 3 tablespoons milk. Cool until just spreadable before using, although the original Mary Berry recipe says it can be used warm as a covering glaze, when it should cling to the sides of the cake. I've never been brave enough to try this, as I picture it all running offf, leaving the cake sitting in a puddle of chocolate.

This wasn't a very deep cake, and wasn't very strongly chocolate flavoured, but it was moist, dense and had a good close texture. With a cheaper buttercream frosting or a glacé icing, it would be a good everyday cake. As it's quite firm and not oversweet, I think it would also make a good cake for novelty cakes which need cutting to shape before covering with fondant or buttercream icing.

Mayonnaise is certainly a good way to reduce the saturated fat content of a cake!