An extra large birthday cake was needed recently for a combined birthday and house warming celebration. I was so impressed with the sponge that I made for the Chocolate Mocha Layer Cake earlier on this year, that I was determined to make it once again. It is also quite a large cake. The dilemma was what to sandwich and top it with. As I was a bit unsure of the audience involved, I thought a general crowd pleaser would be the best option, so chocolate fudge icing it had to be. This is what I did:
- Melted 200g 70% dark chocolate and left to cool slightly.
- Creamed 170g unsalted butter with 350g soft brown sugar until my arm was incapable of beating any more and the mixture was light and creamy.
- Beat in the chocolate.
- Beat in eggs yolks from 3 large eggs (reserving the whites for later use).
- Sifted in 370g flour (20g quinoa, 175g wholemeal, 175g white), 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda and 1/2 tsp salt.
- Stirred in 250g Greek yogurt and 250g water.
- Whisked eggs whites until soft peaks formed then folded into the batter with a metal spoon.
- Divided between two 22cm cake thingies and baked at 180C for 30 mins.
- Melted 100g 70% dark chocolate and 100g 35% milk chocolate with 30g unsalted butter then stirred until smooth.
- Put 50ml water, 2 tbsp golden syrup and 1 tbsp cocoa in a pan. Gently heated and stirred until mixture was smooth.
- Stirred this into the chocolate together with 100ml double cream.
- Left to cool completely then used half of the mixture to sandwich the two cakes together and spreading the remainder on top.
- Decorated with little gold stars.
For once nothing went wrong with this cake and with four bars of chocolate in it, I was mightily relieved. It turned out as good as I could have wished for – in fact I was particularly proud of this one. The cake disappeared as soon as it was cut into and I only just managed to save a couple of pieces for the host and hostess – it obviously wasn’t big enough after all. Luckily, a friend saved me a bit of her slice or I would not have been able to verify that it was indeed as good as it looked.
Maya Russell says
I like the stars too – sparkling!
Tracy K Nixon says
Tis is my dream birthday cake – loving the stars!
Maya Russell says
That’s a lot of chocolate that goes into the cake. Looks nice.
Choclette says
Thanks Foodycat
Foodycat says
That icing is amazingly fudgy! So beautiful.
Choclette says
Oxslip – now that was a bit mean – cardamom and saffron would have got along fine together! Maybe you need to live in a poorer part of the country – we get loads of jumble sales down here.
Thank you Indie Tea
Jac – I do know the feeling about cupboard space, in fact space in general – sigh
Jacqueline says
What a good idea. I never go on the search in charity shops cause I have no cupboard space to spare, but it is a great idea for gifts 🙂
Indie.Tea says
Looks like your cake and the frosting turned out beautifully 🙂 And I love the star decoration.
oxslip says
Cake perfection.
I made your choc and cardamom shortbread dough btw, only to be upstaged by a visiting saffron bread. So it’s in the freezer waiting for another time (much to my husband’s chagrin who doesn’t see why we can’t have both and he’s probably right)
And speaking of charity shop buys, why don’t you get jumble sales anymore? Is it the car boot that has done for them?
Choclette says
Raffaella – Let me know how you get on if you do make it.
Maria – thank you. A slice now would be very nice indeed.
CC – thanks. Just wish I’d bought more of those stars when I had the chance.
The Caked Crusader says
That icing looks awesome and the stars are so pretty – elevates it to a special cake!
Maria♥ says
That chocolate cake looks so delish. I would love a huge slice now.
Maria
x
Рафаэлла says
It looks so tasty! I’d like to make it. Thank you for the recipe.
Choclette says
Danielle – thank you, it was a good one.
Les reves – I’ve labelled all the best ones I’ve made “delicious” if you want to have a look at those. Keep thinking I should be a bit more methodical in my rating and do a star system of something.
Les rêves d'une boulangère (Brittany) says
I love the little stars on top! I’m very interested in chocolate cake recipes because I’m seraching for the best version at the moment.
Danielle says
What a wonderful cake! It’s looks so chocolatey and delicious.
Choclette says
Sushma – thank you, it sounds pretty much like clotted cream, which I used to make but now take the lazy way out and buy.
Anon – If I had a name I would – glad you liked them.
Janice – good to hear from you. This cake was not for the faint hearted.
Janice says
4 bars!!! I’m not surprised it was delicious, the stars are so pretty too.
Anonymous says
Add my name to list list of people who *LOVE* the stars!
Sushma Mallya says
Hi,For home made cream v need to use full fat milk, then boil it and allow it to cool,a thick layer of fat or cream will be formed,take out that layer and store it, repeat the same twice or thrice….and store it in the refrigerator..for one litre milk you get around 1/4 cup cream…
Choclette says
Gill – a tea party with bread and jam from you and cake from me – yum!
Celia – thanks. No room for a full on mixer in our kitchen, but I do have an electric hand held beater – just don’t find it’s very good at creaming butter and sugar. Very good at beating eggs & sugar though.
Thanks Sushma, this icing was a very good one.
MaryHoh – thanks for your comments, I was pleased with the stars.
MaryMoh says
I love chocolate cake…any time. Love all those starts on the frosting…simple and nice.
Sushma Mallya says
wow what a beautiful frosting,yum and chocolaty…
figjamandlimecordial.com says
It’s a work of art, Choc! (And you know how much I love those little gold stars!). One thing, buy yourself a mixer, girlfriend. 🙂
Choclette says
Wendy – I was a little surprised how quickly it was pounced on given that there were a massive pile of cupcakes lying around untouched – home made v brought I guess.
Kath, a remiss blogger perhaps, but never a bad mother. Keeping your poor daughter waiting whilst you take the perfect picture is perhaps not the way to go. I had a look at the BBC cake before making the one I did and decided I preferred MangoCheeks’ version.
Ananda – glad you liked it.
Dom – I think it might be one of them
FreeRangeGirl – I seem to be quite good at finding excuses to make cake and if I really can’t find an excuse, I’ll make one anyway.
Kitchenmaid – I’ve only just started doing this from a recent CityHippy tip, so haven’t acquired much to get attached to yet, but that plate was rather a special one. I buy quinoa flour, already ground, though I have seen recipes where people use it whole.
CityHippy – I did give you credit for the charity shop tip in an earlier post. It was such a good idea. Haven’t found much yet suitable for cakes, but did find the plate I used here and a couple of round silver trays. Perhaps I should take your new tip on mother’s cupboards 🙂
Gill the Painter says
Oh how I wish it was my birthday in your house, Choclette!
cityhippyfarmgirl says
Choc just reading your comment about the charity shop plates. Like you I frequently get plates to present food on for people (but you knew that), if I like it a little too much, than I swap it for one I already have. I’m getting an assorted batch of awesome plates 🙂 Scored an art deco green one recently…but that was ‘found’ in my mums cupboard.
Perfect looking cake!
The KitchenMaid says
Lovely! Nice idea about giving the plate away too, but I’d find that pretty hard as I get ridiculously attached to kitchen kit, even if it’s of the charity shop variety (which most of mine is!)Still bit confused about the quinoa… do you grind it up or just use it as is?
Dom at Belleau Kitchen says
this is the cake x
Ananda Rajashekar says
oh can i have piece of it, drool worthy cake, loving those little stars ..cute 🙂
freerangegirl says
Yum – I definitely need to find a reason for a celebration cake so that I can try this out. The stars look great x
Kath says
Oh no, do you know with the excitement of the day I forgot to take a pic of her cake – that makes me quite a bad mother and a very bad blogger I realise. It was a great cake though. No the courgette cake was inspired by yours and Mangocheeks but I didn’t have the necessary ingredients so got one off the BBC recipe website. Others said they liked it, but I have a feeling they may have been comforting me after a bad baking day. I wasn’t keen on the mixed spice with the chocolate and the fudge icing was a disaster that I just about managed to salvage – but only just.
Wendy@The Omnivorous Bear says
Oh, so pretty! It sounds truly delicious… and it must have been if you had to fight for scraps! There’s no better recommendation than that.
Choclette says
Jac – thanks, I was rather taken with the plate and am trying not feel too sorry that I sent it off with the cake. Am now trawling charity shops for nice things to present cakes on, but sort of wished I’d hung onto that one.
Tamanna – glad you liked it.
Tamanna says
the word lava makes me melt. melt with love for the cake off course. that cake looks like it can top off my stressful day! great recipe thanks
Choclette says
Joanna – Thank you for the kind words. I’ve rather taken to those stars too, but when I went to stock up from the place I’d originally bought them from, they had none in and said they never had! As for the quinoa, I just like to substitute it or buckwheat or some other flour for some of the wheat flour so I can kid myself my cakes are healthy.
LilaVanilla – thank you. The egg whites are meant to give a lighter texture and they probably do but I’m convinced it’s the yogurt that makes the real difference.
Lucie – thank you, I’m quite keen on those stars too.
Johanna – the stars seem to be winning this show. Amazing what useful things can be found at the back of cupboards.
Kath – I do know you made it and I’m still waiting to see it appear on your blog or at least a picture??? Sorry to hear about your courgette cake, now worrying that it came from me – hoping to hear more about that one too.
Kate – Just repeating what I said above about the quinoa. I just like to substitute it or buckwheat or some other flour for some of the wheat flour so I can kid myself my cakes are healthy. It’s certainly not essential – any flour can be used instead. Hopefully you built up a good appetite for supper.
Chele – thanks. So wish I was around to sample your creations.
Jacqueline says
It looks gorgeous and very droolworthy. Wish I had been there to enjoy a slice. Love the plate too 🙂
Grazing Kate says
is that quinoa flour or just quinoa? I haven’t seen quinoa flour for sale and would it be ok to sub it with a different one or is it essential?
Bad idea to look at your blog at 5:30 when I’m not having dinner till 8pm this evening….
Chele says
That is a wonderful looking cake – wish I had been there ;0)
Kath says
As you know I made this cake the other week for my daughter’s birthday and it is lovely. I am definitely going to use your fudge icing recipe next time I make a chocolate cake as I tried a chocolate courgette cake with choc fudge icing at the weekend but neither the cake or the icing were a complete success. The stars do look very elegant.
Johanna GGG says
cute stars – just the sort of thing I never think of – must seek them out and then make sure they don’t linger at the back of the pantry
LilaVanilla says
Gorgeous! The chocolate and gold really work well together. Does whisking the egg whites leave you with a much lighter cake? 🙂
Lucie says
Loving this Chocolette! The stars are a lovely touch. x
zebbakes says
Those little gold stars are so pretty Choclette and the cake looks magnificent! Another winner!
Does the quinoa do something special or is it for nutritional reasons? I am not familiar with it.