Ingredients

Cake:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks soft unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon good-quality vanilla extract
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or morsels

Syrup:
1 teaspoon cocoa
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

1-ounce dark chocolate (from a thick bar if possible), cut into splinters of varying
thickness, for garnish

Special equipment: 2-pound loaf tin (approximately 9 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 3 inches deep), lined
with greased foil, pressed into the corners and with some overhang at the top.
Alternatively, substitute a silicon loaf tin, no foil lining necessary.

Instructions

Take whatever you need out of the refrigerator so that all
ingredients can come room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, putting in a baking sheet as you do so.

Put the flour, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream into the
processor and blitz until a smooth, satiny brown batter. Scrape down with a rubber spatula
and process again while pouring the boiling water down the funnel. Switch it off, then
remove the lid and the well-scraped double-bladed knife and, still using your rubber
spatula, stir in the chocolate chips or morsels.

Scrape and pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and put into the oven, cooking for
about 1 hour. When ready, the loaf will be risen and split down the middle and a
cake-tester will pretty well come out clean.

Not long before the cake is due out of the oven (when it has had about 45 to 50 minutes),
put the syrup ingredients of cocoa, water and sugar into a small saucepan and boil for
about 5 minutes, to give a thick syrup.

Take the cake out of the oven and sit it on a cooling rack, still in the tin, and pierce

here and there with a cake tester. Pour the syrup over the cake.

Let the cake become completely cold and then slip out of its tin, removing the foil as you
do so. Sit on an oblong or other plate. Sprinkle the chocolate splinters over the top of
the sticky surface of the cake