​

Special Occasion Cake

 

Preheat oven to 180 Degrees Celsius

 

Cake Batter

 

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup cocoa

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon bi carb soda

1 cup brown sugar

Pinch salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

2 teaspoons decaf or regular coffee mixed with 1/2 cup water

 

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix on a low speed for a minute then increase to a faster speed for a minute, or mix by hand.

The batter should be quite wet so don't worry if it looks too wet.

Spray a springform cake tin with oil on the inside then line the bottom of the tin with baking paper.

Pour in the batter and bake on 180 for 25- 30 minutes or until cake is cooked in the center.

I either let the cake cool completely in the oven with the heat off after cooking time or alternatively you can remove the cake from the oven and cover with Alfoil until completely cooled. This helps keep moisture in the cake by cooling it down slowly.

Takes about 2 hours.

 

Chocolate Buttercream

 

125g butter softened

1 cup icing sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

3 tablespoons milk

​

Add butter to a mixing bowl and mix until butter is smooth and creamy.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix on low first otherwise you'll have icing sugar and cocoa everywhere.

Keep scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and continue mixing until buttercream is smooth.

Set buttercream aside and prepare whipped vanilla cream.

 

Whipped Vanilla Cream

 

300ml thickened cream

1/2 cup icing sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

​

Add all the whipped cream ingredients to a mixing bowl and whip until you have stiff peaks.

Place half the cream into a piping bag with the star nozzle and keep the rest in a bowl.

Keep refrigerated until ready to use.

 

Decorating The Cake

 

Few tablespoons strawberry jam

60g roughly Grated dark chocolate

​

Remove the cake carefully from the springform tin and put onto a large flat plate.

Spread the chocolate buttercream over the top and try your best to smooth it a bit around the edges of the top of the cake.

Using a spatula spread half the cream you had in a bowl over top then pipe the other half of the cream around the edge of the cake. Doesn't matter if it's not perfect as you can cover it up a bit with the grated chocolate.

Using a teaspoon, spoon a little bit of strawberry jam over the piped cream.

Finally sprinkle with lashings of grated chocolate onto the piped cream part.

Refridgerate for 1-2 hours to set the cream.

Then it's ready to serve enjoy!

 

 

 

​

​