Chocolate and Lemon Cake

I get the odd question about food recipes. I recently wrote one down for one of my friends and thought I’d publish it here. (This is just ripped right out of the mail). Next time I can be like: “Oooh well, just check my link!”

200 gr. butter
200 gr. sugar
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200 gr. flour
1 topped teaspoon of baking soda
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3 Eggs.
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Stir sugar and butter well together so it looks white-ish and the sugar is starting to dissolve (can also use some honey to substitute sugar.) Keep the butter in room temperature for a while so it’s not rock hard.
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Stir in eggs in the mix.
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Sprinkle mixed flour and baking soda into the mix while stirring to avoid lumps (you don't have to be very careful, just a little.)
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3 to 4 tablespoons of cocoa stirred out in water. I used quite a bit of Cognac last time and it was totally not worth it because the cake had practically no taste of it after it was baked. When you stir out raw cocoa-powder you just add a few tablespoons of water at the time, don't pour in too much. I also had one lemon and I squeezed out all the liquid from this to stir into the cocoa.
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Usually you would grater in a bit of the outside of a lemon or similar. I just used up the whole damn thing to get more taste into the cake. Not one yellow spot left. But that was on a doubled recipe though.
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(You can also break some whole chocolate pieces and stir into the dough to melt when baked if you'd like. I did not do this the last time.)
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The recipe usually says 180 degrees Celsius, 25-30 minutes in the oven. But I sometimes keep it in around an hour. (Especially if you substitute some of the sugar with honey).
If you have a long wooden stick like a bamboo skewer or similar you can do a simple test to check if the cake is finished. Stick the stick into the cake and if there's dough left on it when you pull it out it's not done yet. I usually check it after 25-ish minutes and then subsequently as often as I feel I need to. The form needs a layer of butter to cover the inside, and over this you sprinkle white flour to keep the cake from sticking to the form.
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For presentation:
-Whipped cream with a few tablespoons of a decent Cognac (or other Brandy). If you have any home made (or even a pinch of bought) vanilla sugar you can put some of that in the cream.
-A selection of berries
-Some good half dark chocolate. Take a whole plate, melt it very slowly in a saucepan (don't burn it!) and add some milk or single cream. The milk keeps it from going stiff again and turns the chocolate into a smooth cream to top the cake with.
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Works well with dark coffee roasts and Cognac.
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This is how it looks:


Right out of the oven.


Ready to be served.