The All In One Method
The all in one chocolate cake method is exactly what it sounds like. You dump everything into a single bowl and beat it. No creaming butter and sugar separately, no folding egg whites into the batter. For a Mary Berry chocolate cake, this means flour, sugar, cocoa, eggs, milk, oil or melted butter, and raising agents all go in at once. I learned this through making about forty failed cakes before my first proper one came out of the oven looking half decent. The trick is getting the order roughly right so the dry ingredients don't clump at the bottom.
Mary Berry All In One Chocolate Cake
Start with a large mixing bowl. Put the self-raising flour, baking powder if the recipe calls for it, caster sugar, and cocoa powder in first. Make a well in the middle, crack the eggs directly into it, then pour over the milk and add the melted butter or vegetable oil. Beat with a wooden spoon or electric whisk until smooth. That is it. The mixture should look slightly glossy and thick. If it looks dry and crumbly, you have not added enough liquid. If it looks like paint, add a splash more milk. The goal is a dropping consistency that falls slowly off the spoon. Line your tin with parchment. I use a 20 centimetre round tin for most cake recipes because it gives good height without taking forever to bake. Pour the batter in, smooth the top, and pop it into the oven straight away. Preheat to 160 degrees Celsius fan or 180 conventional. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes.
Here is where people go wrong. They open the oven door to check at 25 minutes and let the heat escape. The cake collapses in the middle because the structure has not set yet. Trust the timer. Test with a skewer at 35 minutes instead. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. If wet batter sticks to it, give it another five minutes. The all in one method cuts the preparation time to roughly three minutes. That is the main advantage. Most creaming methods take eight to ten minutes just for the butter and sugar stage, plus another five for folding in the eggs gradually. For a chocolate cake where you want a rich, dense crumb, the all in one approach actually works better than creaming because you do not incorporate extra air that makes the cake too light. Chocolate cake behaves differently from vanilla. The cocoa powder absorbs moisture as it sits. If you leave the batter in the bowl for ten minutes before baking, it thickens and may need a splash more milk. I learned this the hard way when I made the batter, went to wash the dishes, and came back to a bowl that looked like solid mud. Added milk fixed it, but the cake was slightly denser than usual.
Another issue specific to chocolate cake is the cocoa quality. Cheap cocoa powder leaves a gritty texture because the particles are not finely milled. Use a good Dutch process cocoa if you can find it. The colour will be deeper and the chocolate flavour more pronounced. Cheap supermarket cocoa sometimes tastes flat even when the recipe says it should be chocolatey. For the icing, a simple chocolate ganache works better than buttercream for this type of cake. Heat double cream until it just about boils, pour over chopped dark chocolate in a bowl, leave it for two minutes, then stir until smooth. Pour over the cooled cake. The ganache sets into a thin shell as it cools, which complements the soft crumb underneath. There are limitations to the all in one method. It does not work well for sponge cakes where you need volume from beaten eggs. Creaming butter and sugar creates tiny air pockets that expand in the oven. Without that process, chocolate cake stays fairly dense. Some people mistake density for failure. It is not. Chocolate cake is supposed to be moist and substantial, not light and airy like a Victoria sponge.
If your cake cracks on top, do not panic. This is normal for all in one chocolate cakes. The surface sets faster than the centre, so it splits as the cake rises. Fill the crack with a bit of extra ganache and carry on. No one will know. Storage is straightforward. Keep the cake in an airtight tin at room temperature for up to three days. It actually improves on day two as the chocolate flavour mellows. Do not refrigerate it unless your kitchen is very hot, because the fridge dries out the crumb faster than anything else. Freezing works well too. Wrap the whole cake tightly in cling film and then foil. It keeps for three months. Thaw at room temperature without unwrapping, otherwise condensation makes the surface soggy. I have done this with leftover Christmas cake and it tastes nearly as good as fresh.
The original Mary Berry all in one chocolate cake recipe from her television appearances uses a ratio that roughly equals one egg per 25 grams of flour. If you want to adjust the sweetness, reduce the sugar by a quarter. The cake will still rise properly because the raising agents depend on the flour and liquid, not the sugar content. One last thing about the tin size. If you use an 18 centimetre tin instead of 20, the cake will be taller and take longer to bake. Expect an extra ten minutes minimum. If you use a loaf tin, the centre may stay undercooked while the edges burn. Stick to the recommended tin or adjust the time carefully.
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