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1
Take whatever you need out of the refrigerator so that all ingredients can come room temperature.
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2
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, putting in a baking sheet as you do so.
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3
Put the flour, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream into the processor and blitz until a smooth, satiny brown batter.
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4
Scrape down with a rubber spatula and process again while pouring the boiling water down the funnel.
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5
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.
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6
Scrape and pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and put into the oven, cooking for about 1 hour.
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7
When ready, the loaf will be risen and split down the middle and a cake-tester will pretty well come out clean.
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8
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.
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9
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.
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10
Pour the syrup over the cake.
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11
Let the cake become completely cold and then slip out of its tin, removing the foil as you do so.
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12
Sit on an oblong or other plate.
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13
Sprinkle the chocolate splinters over the top of the sticky surface of the cake
