After shipping a few batches of my yummy cupcakes with Boyfriend to work every now and then, I was tasked with baking a cake for Boyfriend’s friend-from-work surprise birthday party.


Not something I was unfamiliar with as I had baked simple cakes before with icing made from sugar-and-water, but I decided to roll up my sleeves and go out with a bang.  The result: a two tiered chocolate cake with a very complicated recipe and Buttercream Icing I had not yet perfected.


Obviously I love a challenge.


This is a recipe my Uncle John baked one afternoon while I was visiting that I knew I had to make (again and again and again and again)!  It is a very moist chocolate sponge cake that comes out looking quite dark and moist.


It makes quite a large amount of mixture, so if you only want to make one round cake (10″ diameter) halve the ingredients.  I found the ingredients listed makes enough for two 10″ cakes or one large rectangular cake.


Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 3 cups caster sugar
• 250g chopped butter
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp bi-carb soda
• 3 cup Self Raising Flour
• 4 eggs (lightly beaten)

Method

1. In a large saucepan, combine the water, sugar, butter and bi-carb soda over medium heat. 
   1. It has taken me many, many attempts to get even close to perfecting this part of the recipe, particularly in finding the right temperature to cook at.
   2. Basically, you need to bring the mixture to just-before boiling point and leave it there for 5 minutes.  The butter will need to completely dissolve and the  mixture will double in size (hence the large saucepan) and this is when you can bring it off heat.
   3. Sometimes I have found that it forms a lighter chocolate coloured foamy head on top, but I haven’t yet decided if this is correct or if I am rising the temperature too high for too long.

1. THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP: Bring this mixture to room temperature!!!
   1. I have found the best way is to fill the sink with cold water and separate the mixture into smaller bowls (+ ice cubes & refrigerated water if your in a hurry) and leave it there for at least half an hour.
   2. This is important because if it forms a foamy head, it needs to cool down and incorporate back into the liquid mixture in order to get the dark chocolate-y colouring.
   3. If you don’t let it cool, when you bake the cake it turns out to be milk chocolate in colour.  The longer you leave it to cool, the darker it will look.

1. Pour into a bowl and add the flour and eggs.
   1. Stir until well combined

1. Pour into lined cake trays
2. Bake for 50 min until spongy on top or a skewer comes out clean.

This was the first time attempting this recipe, and it turned out pretty good, except I didn’t let the mixture cool to room temperature and it came out very light in colour.  It still tasted amazing, and we ate it so quickly we didn’t get a picture of inside.  I have used this recipe with a lot of success in both cake and cupcakes so it is pretty versatile.


Butter Cream Icing

1. See here: Buttercream Icing for the recipe itself
2. To decorate the cake I bought a Cadbury Flake from the supermarket, and crumbled it over the top and sides.

Ingredients

 

1 2/3 cups self raising flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
100g melted butter or margarine
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Method 

 

1. Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix
2. Pour into cake pan, I used a round one sprayed with cooking oil spray
3. Cook for 10-15 minutes at 180-200oC
4. Remove from tray and allow to cool before Icing

This made about 80 mini cupcakes. There were a lot. But so very delicious!