The Chococo Surprise Cake
Posted:
September 24, 2020
Categories:
Recipes
Serves6-8
Minutes60
Difficulty5/10
Ingredients
- 260g unsalted butter, soft at room temperature
- 260g golden caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 260g self-raising flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon milk, if required
- Food colourings of your choice
Chocolate ganache:
- 200g dark chocolate, chopped
- 250ml double cream
- 25g unsalted butter softened
Decoration idea (optional):
- A bar of good quality milk chocolate to make curls (the simplest way to create little curls is to use a cheese grater or drag a knife across the back of the bar for thin shards – get an adult to do this for you!)
- Sifted icing sugar to dust
- Decorations of your choice
Equipment
- x2 20cm round cake tins, lightly greased and dusted in cocoa powder
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 C, 350 F, Gas Mark 4
- Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric hand whisk until creamy & light in colour. Gradually add the beaten eggs and vanilla extract to the sugar & butter mixture
- Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in gently with a tablespoon. If the mixture feels very stiff, add the milk to loosen it slightly.
- Split the mixture into 3 portions in 3 separate bowls. Add a touch of colouring to 2 of the bowls, leaving one plain.
- I like to add just a little colouring (max 1/4 of a tsp) to make my colours, but your call if you want them more vibrant!
- Stir in the colourings gently. You do not want to overwork the cake mixture at this point as it will make your cake heavy.
- Put small dollops of each of the colours around the tins in a random pattern & then smooth the top with a palette knife.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the sponge springs back when lightly pressed and a skewer comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning the cakes out on a cake rack to cool completely.
- To make the ganache, put the chopped chocolate and cream and butter in a heavy-based pan and warm gently. Stir until the chocolate melts and blends into the cream.
- Remove from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes to thicken slightly before decorating your cake.
- Spread one half of the cooled cake with 5 heaped tablespoons of ganache and sandwich together with the other half.
- This is best done while the cake is still on the wire rack and with a sheet of baking parchment underneath to catch any drips.
- Working quickly, pour the rest of the ganache over the top of the cake and smooth it over the top and sides with a palette knife.
- To finish it, I like to arrange chocolate curls in the middle of the cake, dusted through a sieve with a touch of icing sugar, but you could decorate it however appeals to you, or leave it plain – it is still just as stunning.