I have been making chocolate cake for quite a few years now – as a mother of 3 a great chocolate cake is almost a badge of honour! As there are only 3 of us at home regularly these days I have not been baking as often as I used too, so when my eldest daughter came home for the weekend and invited a few friends around for afternoon tea I jumped at the chance to have a homemade cake in the house again.
With Easter just around the corner and a houseful of guests to feed on Easter Sunday it seemed like a good excuse to practice an easter themed cake.
My recipe is a very straight forward Victoria sandwich cake mix, with a buttercream filling and a chocolate ganache icing. The easter flourish is the bag of mini eggs that my daughter used to decorate the cake. A large supply of mini eggs is an easter necessity in our house and I have been very sad over the last few years to see the size of those bags shrinking – this year they are tiny. The same thing has happened with Quality Street chocolates at Christmas – does anyone remember how big the tins used to be in the eighties? My mother still uses an eighties tin to store the Christmas cake she makes every year and it is huge!
Anyway I digress, so back to the recipe:
- 225g self raising flour
- 225g caster sugar
- 225g soft margarine
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 4 eggs
- 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder dissolved in 3 tablespoons of hot water
Preheat the oven to 190C and grease and line 2 8inch round cake tins with baking parchment. Beat the sugar and soft margarine together and then add the eggs, beating each one in separately with a spoonful of flour to stop the mixture curdling. Finally fold in the remaining flour and baking powder and then thoroughly mix in the chocolate liquid. Divide between the two tins and bake for around 20 minutes until the sponge is just coming away from the sides of the tin. Remove and turn out the cakes onto a wire rack to cool. Adding four eggs and the chocolate dissolved in water ensures a very moist cake which I think is essential for a chocolate cake – often they are far too dry. You will notice that I use soft margarine in preference to butter – this is purely personal taste. Cakes in my family have always been made with margarine and I find it bakes a more moist cake.
Whilst the cake is cooking make the filling and topping:
Chocolate Buttercream Filling:
- 85g unsalted butter
- 175g icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon of good quality cocoa powder dissolved in 2 tablespoons of hot water
Cream together the butter and chocolate mixture and then slowly add the icing sugar until the mixture is to your taste. I always cover my mixer with a clean tea towel whilst doing this to stop the icing sugar floating all over the kitchen!
Chocolate Ganache Topping
- 125g dark chocolate
- 125g milk chocolate
- 235ml double cream
Chop the chocolate finely and place in a bowl. Heat the cream until it comes to the boil and then pour over the chocolate. Leave for a few minutes to let the chocolate melt and then mix well. Cool the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes to make it easier to spread.
Now all you have to do is sandwich the two cakes together with the chocolate butter cream and ice the cake with the yummy ganache. We decorated the cake with mini eggs, but you could use anything that takes your fancy.
Of course my best cakes are made with lovely fresh eggs from my brood of Buff Orpington chickens, but my ladies seem reluctant to get back into the habit of laying this year. Hopefully the warmer temperatures to come will tempt them into the chicken coop to lay a few eggs in time for Easter!
Now just sit back and watch the cake disappear!
I mentioned my eldest daughter was home for the weekend – she has started her own blog called Butterfly Becca and I am sure she would be delighted if you paid her a visit. You can also catch her on Instagram at @butterflybecca. Do let me know if you have enjoyed this post – I tend to keep my blog to all things flowery, but sometimes it is nice to branch out a bit and include something different.
Insert your profile info here, by going to Users -> Your Profile -> Biographical Info. Profile image (avatar) comes from gravatar.com. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam faucibus ornare lectus nec cursus.
Loved the Post and will def try making the cake. It looks gorgeous.
Ps just had a quick look at your daughter’s blog. I have the same wonderful camera. Love the look of the blog so I will definitely have a closer look.
This is just fabby! I wish I could have a piece just about now, myself.
Gorgeous looking cake and I’ll try making it this Easter.
No doubt it has all gone now! I have to ‘confess’ I have never bothered with chocolate ganache in my baking before but perhaps I will give it a go for the purposes of experimentation! And what a good idea to dissolve cocoa powder, again something I will try if I make a Victoria sandwich baked chocolate cake – the recipe I usually use has ‘secret’ ingredients to keep it rich and moist!! Thanks for sharing your tips Julie
A beautiful treat for your family. I see a chocolate cake in my future.
Its lovely that you have baked such a delicious cake for your family to enjoy. Your chickens look really happy and healthy. Chickens by and large have such lovely characters. At one time and in a different house I kept little bantams and joined a superb club: Cotswold pheasant and poultry club…there a world leader mentioned a very tonic for chickens to help them come in lay: organic cider vinegar in their drinking water. However you may already know this.
Ooo Julie! I’ve just got back from holiday and now you are tempting me with a chocolate cake, it looks delicious. I have enjoyed this post and started following Butterfly Becca, both her lovely blog and instagram, after reading about your photography course. I won’t share a recipe but will share a happy memory of my chickens Spencer and Tracey (White Cochins – we brought back from Bovey Tracey in Devon many years ago) they loved crushed oyster shells, sold by the bag in a local shop here and cuttle fish which I would pick up from the beach. Spencer also loved eating the catkins from our Black Poplar which was above his run. I still miss them so it is great to enjoy seeing what your chickens are getting up to in your posts.