Ready...steady...BAKE! #2 Chocolate Celebration Cake ^^

Hey everyone! It's been a long time and I'm really sorry but I have had ALL of my coursework deadlines in this week (upon reflecion doing double english at A Level's was probably not the best idea for my sanity O.o) Anyway today was my friend Zoe's birthday and I decided to bake her a cake I'd seen on Mary Berry's latest television series- for those who do not know, Mary Berry is the British Queen of Baking (seriously :D).

(P.S. These baking posts will always be quite picture heavy..I get a bit carried away)

Nom :3

Ingredients
For cake-
190g/6 1/2oz Self-raising flour
150g/5oz Caster sugar
2 level tbsp Cocoa powder
2 level tsp Baking powder
2 tbsp Golden syrup
2 Free-range eggs
150ml/1/4 pint Sunflower oil
150ml/1/4 pint Milk


For icing (ganache)-
200g/7oz White chocolate
150ml/1/4 pint Double cream
125g/4 1/2oz full fat cream cheese (yeah...this isn't the most healthy cake on the planet. But SO GOOD)

1. Heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius/Gas mark 4 and grease and line two sandwich tins with greaseproof paper

Whoops...

2. Sift all the dry ingredients (the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and baking powder) into a large mixing bowl. Stir the ingredients until combined and make a well in the centre.

3. Add the syrup, eggs, oil and milk and mix with a hand whisk until fully mixed together, then pour into your two cake tins ^^

Ooooooooo...

4. Bake in the oven for around 25-30 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed with your fingertips. Turn out onto a wire rack, remove the paper and leave to cool (you can't ice your cake until it's completely cool).

I made extra batter so I could make some cupcakes as well (my friends are greedy xD)

I didn't burn them! YAY! :D

5. For the icing, break the white chocolate into a bowl. Heat the double cream in a pan, until very hot but not boiling. Pour the cream over the white chocolate and stir until it is completely melted. Once melted set aside to cool.

6. Spoon the cream cheese into a bowl and gradually pour the chocolate mixture in until combined. Set aside to cool until it's thick enough to use as icing.

7. Spread some of the icing on top of one of your cakes. Then assemble your "sandwich" and put the rest of the icing on the top. I used a spatula to smooth the icing and create a nice swirly finish.

8. As a finishing touch I sifted a bit of cocoa powder over the top and then grated some white chocolate to create decorative "curls" on the top. And viola!! :)

This cake was SO NICE. My friends loved it! Definitely a winner :) I hope you liked this post and perhaps feel inspired to try it out. I promise more posts will be coming soon, including some reviews and looks. I also really want to do monthly favourites so look out for those. Please feel free to leave me some love in the form of a comment, I read and reply to every single one. See you soon!

Lots of love, Laura xx





This recipe can be found on the BBC website also here.