Chocolate Gateau

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line the base of an 8 in round spring form cake tin with baking parchment
2. Break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of gently simmering water and stir until it melts. (or melt in the microwave for 2-3 mins stirring occasionally)
   2–3 minutes
3. Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream together with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little flour if the mixture begins to curdle. Fold in the remaining flour with the cooled, melted chocolate and milk. Mix until smooth.
4. Spread the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 50-55 mins or until firm in the centre and a skewer comes out cleanly. Cool for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely.
   50–55 minutes10 minutes

Cooking notes

Baked goods are unforgiving with rounding — use weights rather than volumes whenever possible, and verify pan capacity if you scale up or down significantly.

For volume-to-weight conversions of any ingredient — flour, sugar, butter, salts — use the ingredient converter. To translate the recipe's oven temperature between °C, °F and gas mark, see the temperature converter.

When you scale this recipe up or down, remember that cooking time does not scale linearly. A doubled cake takes longer, but not twice as long; a doubled soup takes roughly twice as long. The cooking-time guide gives sensible starting estimates by dish geometry.