The Ultimate Easter Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
Cake
300g plain flour (sieved)
400g caster sugar (sieved)
100g cocoa powder (sieved)
2 tsp baking powder (sieved)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda (sieved)
1 tsp salt
225g of buttermilk
2 large eggs
150g vegetable oil
1 tsp espresso coffee powder + 250g cup of boiling water + 2 tsp vanilla extract
Extra butter and flour to dust the cake tins
Buttercream
250g of salted butter softened
500g icing sugar (sieved)
50g-100g cocoa powder (sieved)
1-2 tbsp of whole milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate shards
200g milk chocolate chopped up (divide up 120g and 80g)
200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) (divide up 120g and 80g)
200g white chocolate (divide up 120g and 80g)
Method:
1. Preheat oven at 180.C, grease and dust with flour the 3 tins x 8 inches wide.
2. Sieve into a bowl – plain flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt.
3. Beat buttermilk, oil and egg together in a jug and whisk into dry ingredients.
4. Add the coffee, boiling water and vanilla to the rest of the ingredients using hand whisk
5. Pour into the 3 prepared tins– bake for approx. 25 min and checking every couple of minutes till skewer comes out clean.
6. For buttercream – cream butter, sieve icing sugar and add 50g of the cocoa powder and beat in vanilla, taste and add more cocoa if needed and then milk to make the correct texture and taste.
7. Check the cakes at 25 min, if still slightly raw in the middle cook for another 5 minutes or so. If ready, run a knife around the edge of the tin and flip out onto a cooling rack.
8. Set up 3 baking trays lined with baking parchment paper.
9. To make the chocolate shards put in 120g of the white chocolate into a heat proof bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water, watch the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl, once it has been simmering for a couple of minutes turn off the heat, allow the 120g to melt through by stirring it around in the bowl over the hot water. Then add the other 80g and allow that to melt through as well. Pour half of this over 1 of the baking trays lined with parchment paper and spread thinly with a palette knife.
10. To make the chocolate shards put in 120g of the milk chocolate into a heat proof bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water, watch the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl, once it has been simmering for a couple of minutes turn off the heat, allow the 120g to melt through by stirring it around in the bowl over the hot water. Then add the other 80g and allow that to melt through as well. Pour half of this over 1 of the baking trays lined with parchment paper and spread thinly with a palette knife.
11. To make the chocolate shards put in 120g of the dark chocolate into a heat proof bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water, watch the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl, once it has been simmering for a couple of minutes turn off the heat, allow the 120g to melt through by stirring it around in the bowl over the hot water. Then add the other 80g and allow that to melt through as well. Pour half of this over 1 of the baking trays lined with parchment paper and spread thinly with a palette knife.
12. Now use the rest of the melted chocolate bowls to drizzle over the other sheets of chocolate – make up whatever design you like!
13. Once cooled, put a blob of buttercream on the cake board in the middle – place on top of the cake turn table. Then stack the 1st layer on and spread some buttercream on top, then repeat till all 3 are stacked on top of each other and now start spreading buttercream around the edges with the palette knife and then to get really smooth edge use the scrapper and spin the cake round on the turn table as you hold the scrapper steady forming a 90-degree angle to the cake board.
14. Tidy up.
15. Leave these sheets of chocolate to cool, once firm then cut up into shards with a shape knife.
16. You can also put some of the buttercream into a piping bag with a nozzle to decorate as elaborately as you want and adding the chocolate shards.
