Last week, out of the blue, I received an unexpected Facebook message from someone who had been in my PGCE seminar group all those years ago. He was planning a 60th birthday party, had been let down last minute with the cake and wanted to know whether I could pitch in and make him something. I always put my cakes up on Facebook/ Instagram and wonder whether anybody even sees them so it was amazing to get a message from someone who had seen them, liked them and thought of me when the need for cake arose! *Note to self to definitely keep posting cake pics*
Initially, my customer was after a giant, fondant covered Toblerone shaped cake (presumably for a fan of them...yuck!), so I did some googling, found some images, and quite frankly panicked. I have worked with fondant to make novelty cakes in the past (have a look at my pictures page and you'll see a fair few) but honestly its not something I particularly enjoy or have done in ages. That coupled with the fact that the cake needed to feed up to 60 people within a budget of £70 seemed a bit daunting. I decided to accept my limitations (a paying customer isnt the time for playing around with giant, triangular novelty cakes) and offer him something that was still Toblerone themed, but a bit more 'me'. I sketched up a few quick ideas, sent them over and luckily he was happy to go with them (phew). I made two GIANT layers of rich chocolate cake, sandwiched them with chocolate ganache buttercream and lots of bashed up Toblerone rubble. I finished the cake off with mini meringues, mini Toblerones, malteasers, Toblerone rubble and fresh strawberries.
Chocolate is probably the most requested flavour by my customers so it makes sense for me to have a trusty (and delicious) version up my sleeve that I can whip up whenever I need to. When it comes to chocolate cake my personal preference is the richer and darker the better, so this recipe uses 70% cocoa which results in a bittersweet, intensely chocolatey flavour. I like to pair it with chocolate ganache buttercream (basically my standard buttercream recipe combined with huge dollops of dark chocolate ganache) but it works well with loads of other flavours too. Its particularly nice paired with raspberries or cherries!
This recipe makes a 10" cake or two smaller layers.
Rich Chocolate Cake
INGREDIENTS
225g Unsalted Butter
2 1/2 cups Caster Sugar
4 eggs (at room temperature or your cake will split!)
1 cup 70% or above Cocoa
2 cups boiling water (about 470ml)
2 3/4 cups Plain Flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (sounds weird but super important, chocolate tastes more chocolatey when seasoned)
METHOD
Sift the flour, baking soda and baking powder together. Add the salt and combine.
Add the boiling water to the cocoa powder and whisk to remove lumps. You should end up with a smooth liquid. Leave this to cool to room temperature or the heat will melt the butter later on.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (about 8 minutes)
Add the eggs one at a time, combining well after each.
Alternately add the cooled cocoa mixture and flour mixture. Start with the flour (add in 3 parts), then the liquid (add in 4).
Pour (it is quite liquidy don't panic) into a greased and lined tin and bake at 170c for 40 minutes. Test with a skewer and continue to bake in 5/10 minute intervals until the skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool then sandwich with chocolate ganache, buttercream or even fresh cream.
Whats your favourite chocolate cake recipe? What cakes would you like to see/ read about next? Let me know in the comments :)