Chocolate Birthday Cake
A rich, moist chocolate cake layered with ganache buttercream and finished with a chocolate ganache glaze.
Ingredients
plain chocolate
200 g
unsalted butter
250 g
light brown sugar
350 g
medium eggs (at room temp, well beaten)
5
vanilla extract
1½ tsp
plain/all-purpose flour
140 g
unsalted butter (for buttercream)
250 g
icing sugar
500 g
vanilla extract (for buttercream)
1 tsp
dark chocolate (for buttercream)
175 g
fresh double cream (for buttercream)
125 ml
dark chocolate (for ganache icing)
500 g
unsalted butter (at room temp, for ganache icing)
250 g
double cream (for ganache icing)
125 ml
Instructions
1
Preheat and Melt Chocolate
Preheat your oven to 160°C, 325°F, gas mark 3 and grease and line two square or round 6inch sandwich tins. Break your chocolate into pieces and melt in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Allow to cool until you are ready to add it to the mixture, give it a stir now and again.
2
Make Cake Batter
Beat together the butter and sugar with a hand-held electric mixer for about 3 minutes until it is light in colour and fluffy in texture. Add a bit of the beaten egg and then whisk again with the mixer, adding a little of the egg each time and whisking each time until it is well mixed. Pour in the melted chocolate to this mixture and continue to whisk. Stir in the vanilla extract and then mix in the flour.
3
Bake
Halve the mixture between the two tins and bake in the centre of your oven for 45 minutes. Once cooled take the cakes out of the tins and place on a wire rack to cool completely and the crust will sink back down onto the cake.
4
Make Buttercream
To make the buttercream, firstly whisk the butter in a large bowl for at least two minutes with an electric mixer. You’ll then need to sieve the icing sugar in a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Whisk slowly then once all the icing sugar is in add the vanilla extract and continue to whisk on a higher speed until the whole mixture is light and fluffy.
5
Add Ganache to Buttercream
Break the chocolate into pieces and put them in a clean bowl. To make the chocolate ganache part of the buttercream, bring the cream to the boil in a pan. As soon as it boils take it off the heat and pour it over the broken chocolate pieces in the bowl and stir it until the chocolate is melted. This should look very glossy. Leave it to cool for 15 minutes then mix it in well to the buttercream with the electric whisk.
6
Assemble Cake
If you are using a cake base then spread a little of the buttercream on the cake base and stick the cake on top. Spread about a third of the mixture into the middle of the cooled cake and sandwich the two halves together. Then start to spread the rest of the buttercream over the top and the sides and smooth down.
7
Make Ganache Icing
Break the chocolate into pieces and cut the butter into small chunks and put them together into a bowl. Bring the cream to the boil in a small saucepan, as soon as it boils take it off the heat and pour it over the chocolate and butter in the bowl and stir it until the chocolate and the butter is melted. It should look dark, shiny and be of a pourable consistency.
8
Ice the Cake
Make sure the cake is on a wire rack with lots of greaseproof paper spread liberally underneath to catch any excess. Pour the ganache over the cake with a ladle. Spread it gently over the whole of the top and the sides with either a palette knife or the back of the ladle and spoon any excess back onto the cake.
