It is a real chocolate feast with three different types of chocolate cake all layered up, covered with a chocolate ganache and decorated with even more Chocolate!
The first thing I did was to make the patterned chocolate for the letters and the crumbled chocolate around the sides of the cake. The pattern was added to the chocolate with chocolate transfer sheets. This was the first time I have used them, and they pattern transferred very well, but you mustn't let the chocolate completely harden before you try to cut it or it will break. Here is a link to a video explaining how to use chocolate transfer sheets .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcHSqgIH4No
I cut out my letters then left them to harden further, then removed from sheet and left in the fridge overnight.
Today I got to work on my cakes. The bottom layer is a chocolate coca cola cake and this is the recipe
Ingredients
250g/9oz self-raising flour
300g/10½oz golden caster sugar
3 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
generous pinch bicarbonate of soda
250g/9oz butter
200ml of cola drink
75ml/4¼fl oz milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g/9oz self-raising flour
300g/10½oz golden caster sugar
3 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
generous pinch bicarbonate of soda
250g/9oz butter
200ml of cola drink
75ml/4¼fl oz milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1. Heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas4. and grease a 24cm loose bottomed cake tin
2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Melt
the butter and cola drink gently in a pan then add to the dry
ingredients, together with the milk, eggs and vanilla. Mix gently but thoroughly
3. Tip into the cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes or until a
skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove
from the oven and leave for about 15 minutes.
2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Melt
the butter and cola drink gently in a pan then add to the dry
ingredients, together with the milk, eggs and vanilla. Mix gently but thoroughly
3. Tip into the cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes or until a
skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove
from the oven and leave for about 15 minutes.
The other layers are a recipe split in two to make two different flavour cakes :
- 175g butter , softened, plus extra for greasing
- 100g white chocolate (we like M & S or Green & Black's with real vanilla)
- 100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
- 3 eggs
- 100ml whole or semi-skimmed milk
- 175g caster sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 200g self-raising flour
- 2 tbsp very strong coffee (instant is fine)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and bottom-line 2 x 20cm sandwich tins. For the cake, break the white and dark chocolate into two small bowls, then melt in the microwave on High for 1 min or over a pan of simmering water. Put everything else, except the coffee and vanilla, into a large bowl, then beat until creamy.
- Divide the mixture in two, then add the coffee and melted dark chocolate to one bowl, and the vanilla and melted white chocolate to the other. Stir until mixed through, then tip into the tins. Bake for 20-25 mins until risen and slightly shrunk from the sides of the tins. Cool in the tins for a few mins, then turn onto a wire rack.
- When the cakes were cooled I used a smaller tin to trim a rim of about 1cm off them as I felt they were a little big as they were.
- The next job was to make the ganache.
- Ingredients
- 430ml double cream
- 300g dark chocolate
- For the ganache, heat the cream in a pan, then break the dark chocolate into a large bowl. Once the cream is just boiling, pour it onto the chocolate, then leave for 5 mins. Stir until smooth, then leave until thickened and cool.
- I then started to assemble the cake. I used the cola cake for the bottom layer and topped the whole cake with ganache smmothing with a palette knife. The next layer was the white chocolate cake and Again I covered with ganache and smoothed out and finally did the same with the dark chocolate cake finishing with a final layer of ganache, I then used 5 boxes (!!) of chocolate fingers to encircle the inner and outer cakes, starting with the inner one - and I was very good because I only ate one or two :) I then filled the gap between the two with crumbled transfer decorated chocolate and crumbled flake. I then decorated the top with Maltesers (It took a full large bag) and stuck on the letters / numbers with some of the left over ganache. I added a ribbon to give a bit more stability to the chocolate fingers although it was not strictly neccesary
- Sorry blog is a funny layout today, am good with cakes, rubbish with computers : (
