Chocolate Madeira Mini Cakes

Madeira cakes are very easy to prepare and their buttery texture makes them perfect for every occasion. This version, instead of lemon zest, flavour the cakes with cocoa and vanilla making them really luscious.

Since I baked my Choco Madeira Mini Cakes for a special occasion I decided to serve them with whipped cream and heart shaped strawberries, but they are delicious also on their own.

Chocolate Madeira Mini Cakes

Ingredients for 8 mini cakes (or one 22 cm diameter cake)

175g butter, at room temperature

175g sugar

3 eggs

250g flour

3-4 tbsp milk

2 tbsb cocoa powder

1 tsp rising powder

5 drops of vanilla essence

For serving:

whipped cream

strawberries

How to prepare:

Preheat the oven at 180° C.

Put the butter and the sugar in a big bowl and with a mixer whisk them until you will obtain a creamy and fluffy mixture. Then add the eggs one by one whisking all the time and the vanilla essence. Now gently fold in the flour, the cocoa powder and the rising powder. If the mixture becomes too hard add a little bit of milk just to make it fall from the spoon.

Grease your moulds (or your baking tin) with some butter. Now put the mixture in the moulds leaving 2-3 cm to the border to allow the cakes growing. Put the cakes in the oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes (40 minutes if you make one big cake).

When the cakes are baked take them from the oven. Let them cool and then take them out from the mould.

Serve with whipped cream and strawberries.

Suggestion: if you prepare the cakes in advance, before serving put them in the preheated oven for a couple of minutes; this will melt the butter again and make the cakes soft and perfumed as just baked.