Recipe || Chocoholics Chocolate Cake

It was my lovely Dad’s birthday on Friday (21 yet again funnily enough!) and to celebrate I wanted to make him the mother of all chocolate cakes as he’s a complete chocoholic (I wonder where I get it from…!!) As this was going to be a mammoth bake and I’ve had a busy week, I decided to craft it over 2 nights, using a brand new recipe for the cake part which could have been a disaster, but was a fab gamble as it was delicious!. I was so pleased with how it looked, it’s not often you bake something and it all goes well – especially after a baking break post Bake Off Bake Along! In advance, I apologise it’s a recipe in mixed measures, I found the recipe online and simply added to it myself, but it’s the first cake I’ve ever made using cups rather than grams or ounces!

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated white sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk (or substitute by putting 1 tbsp white vinegar in a cup then filling the rest up with milk; let stand 5 minutes until thickened)
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot coffee (or 2 tsp instant coffee in 1 cup boiling water)

• 300ml fresh double cream
• 300g good quality dark chocolate
• A decent splash of rum

• 4 boxes of Cadbury’s chocolate fingers
• 4 x 2 finger kitkats
• 6 x bags of sweets or chocolate of your choice

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 180C/ 350F degrees. Grease and flour a large rectangular baking tin (or line with parchment) and set aside.

2) In the large bowl of a standing mixer, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract and beat until smooth (about 3 minutes). Remove bowl from mixer and stir in hot coffee with a rubber spatula. Batter will be very runny.

3) Pour batter into your tin and bake on middle rack of oven for about 35-45 minutes, until a knife inserted in centre comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs attached.

4) Allow to cool 15 minutes in pan, then remove onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely (overnight is how long I left mine!)

5) To make your ganache, break your chocolate up and place in a heat proof bowl. Pour your cream into a small pan and add your rum, then gently simmer until just boiling. Remove as soon as it starts to boil and pour onto the chocolate. Using a large spoon, stir together until combined completely and all chocolate has melted – it should make a thick chocolatey delicious ganache. You can either pour straight onto your cake whilst still runny or set aside until cool and whip up using a mixer to make it fluffier.

6) Cover your cake in ganache – tops and sides, then line up chocolate fingers alternately. (by alternately I mean one for the cake, one for you…and so on!) Before the sides (or as mum liked to put it – the “picket fence”) starts to collapse, tie a ribbon around it until it has set.

7) Divide the cake into sections using kit kat fingers and then fill each section with a chocolate or sweet of your choice! For mine I used cadbury buttons, mini cookies, peanut M&Ms, white chocolate buttons, aero bubbles and malteasers!

I was seriously impressed with this new cake recipe and how delicious and moist it came out, with the addition of the ganache and a serious amount of sweeties, it is surely a chocoholic’s chocolate cake dream!