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