In a kitchen ruled by ​a t​iny, adorable dictator, even the most familiar recipe becomes an adventure – filled with dragons, sprinkles and unexpected wisdom

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Valentine’s is on the horizon, which means we are about to officially enter chocolate cake season – that soft-focus part of winter when confectionery and romance blur together. For our four-year-old goddaughter, it is always that time of year. Just hearing the two words together makes her roll her eyes and roll out her little tongue in anticipation of pleasure, like a cartoon kid. When we told her we would come and bake a chocolate cake with her, there were squeals of joy.

Settling on a recipe was the first challenge – Ravneet Gill’s fudgy one, Felicity Cloake’s perfect one and Benjamina Ebuehi’s traybaked one were all contenders. We eventually landed on Samin Nosrat’s much-loved, tried-and-tested midnight chocolate cake.