This was a cake that I made for my friend Erin’s birthday- she is a big fan of all things chocolaty and therefore I felt obliged to try and make a cake where chocolate, chocolate and even more chocolate was the order of the day.
Now I’m usually a hardcore Mary Berry devotee (all hail the queen), but when it comes to chocolate I have to say that Nigella is my go to girl.
So I found the recipe for this cake on Nigella’s website, however during my search I also came across a few of her baking tutorials on youtube which where quite good once you get past all the seductive spoon licking and erotic ganache spreading!
Anyway, the end result was a true beast of a chocolate cake which I thoroughly enjoyed making. I would also like to point out that it even had fruit on it, so nobody had to feel guilty about being unhealthy… I mean the fruit may have been coated in chocolate before being placed on top but that is most definitely beside the point.
Prep Time:
It really does depend on how much you want to do and if you do it all at once. I would say a good 3 hours if you want to get everything done in a oner.
Serves:
This cake was HUGE! 14-16 I would say
Ingredients:
For the Cake…
400g Plain Flour
250g Golden Caster Sugar
100g Light Brown Muscovado Sugar
50g Cocoa Powder
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
½ Teaspoon Salt
3 Large Eggs
142 ml Sour Cream
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
175g Unsalted Butter (melted)
125 ml Vegetable Oil (Nigella’s recipe requires corn oil but I couldn’t find it in Tesco and apparently vegetable oil works just the same)
300 ml Chilled Water
For the Icing…
175g Dark Chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
250g Unsalted Butter (softened)
275g Icing Sugar (sifted)
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
For the Decoration…
2 Packets of Kitkats
Ribbon in any colour of your choice
A Box of Chocolates- I went for Guylian
A punnet of Strawberries
A punnet of Blueberries
A bar of white chocolate and a bar of dark chocolate
Method:
For the Cake…
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4/350ºF.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt.
3. In another bowl or measuring jug whisk together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla until blended.
4. Using a freestanding or handheld electric mixer, beat together the melted butter and corn oil until just blended then beat in the water.
5. Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix together on a slow speed.
6. Add the egg mixture, and mix again until everything is blended and then pour into two lined 8 inch cake tins.
7. Bake the cakes for 50-55 minutes, or until a cake-tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes in their tins on a wire rack for 15 minutes, and then turn the cakes out onto the rack to cool completely.
For the Icing…
1.Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl sitting over a pan of simmering water, and let cool slightly.
2. In another bowl beat the butter until it’s soft and creamy and then add the icing sugar and beat again. Then gently add the vanilla and chocolate and mix together until everything is glossy and smooth.
To Decorate…
1. Sandwich the middle of the cake with about a quarter of the icing, and then ice the top and sides too.
2. Stick the Kitkat fingers around the cake and then hold in place by tying a bow around the cake.
3. Melt your bar of white chocolate and dark chocolate in the microwave. Then dip your strawberries in the dark chocolate and then drizzle with the white chocolate.
4. You can fill a piping bag with either chocolate and make some shapes- I did some white chocolate butterfly wings.
TO FINISH… Stack the chocolates, strawberries, blueberries and chocolate shapes on top of the cake in any manner you please. You can also sprinkle with edible glitter if you have some!
Anyone for cake…?
Crumble and Crunch 