Sift the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Soften the butter and add with the milk and vanilla to dry ingredients. Beat for 2 mins with a wooden spoon or until smooth. Add eggs and beat another 2 mins. Pour into an 8-inch round cake tin (I find the collapsible type best). Cook in a moderate 350-375 degree F. oven for 1 hour.

Turn the cooled cake over, slice into two layers and fill with cream. Melt chocolate with copha (do not burn) and pour over cake, dribbling it down the side. Decorate with almonds, pecans or walnuts.

* Dangerously delicious chocolate cake.

* Self-raising flour is popular in Britain and Australia, and hard to find in North America. Substitute about 2 cups of ordinary flour, all-purpose with about 1/2 t of salt and about 3 t of baking powder mixed in.

* The North American equivalent of caster sugar is "granulated sugar." There is no equivalent of copha, but a mixture of butter and coconut is better than nothing. Crisco has the right cooking properties to substitute for copha, but the wrong flavor.

* You can pour a little Grand Marnier into the cake before spreading the cream in the middle, but it doesn't need it.

minutes decorating. 5 minutes to eat.

not critical.

alicia@agsm. Unsw. Oz seismo!munnari!agsm. Unsw. Oz!alicia