Chocolate doughnut cake

As the majority of the cakes I make are, this cake was for a friend's birthday. I didn't have long to make it and knew that the doughnut cake is an easy cake to make that looks good! You'll be surprised as to what a few hundreds and thousands can do to a cake!

I use my doughnut shaped cake tin from Ikea - http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/10133047/ - which I have had for ages and although there are hearts on the base, they have never shown up on the cake!

For the cake:

The method for the chocolate cake I make can be found on a previous blog post - http://icingonthecakes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/essential-cake-recipes.html - but because the tin is bigger than the cakes I usually make, the recipe needs to be slightly altered.

The cake is iced with a chocolate buttercream in the middle and my favourite chocolate icing on the top.

Chocolate cake:

10oz (225g) Self Raising Flour
10oz Stork margarine
10oz Caster sugar
1tsp Baking powder
5 Large eggs

Note - remove one tablespoon of flour and replace with one and a half tablespoons of cocoa powder.

Follow the method from the blog posted above and bake at 170 degrees celcius for between 30 - 40 minutes - check by poking a skewer into the centre of the cake, if it comes out clean, the cake should be cooked!

Chocolate icing:

I use my favourite chocolate icing - http://icingonthecakes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-perfect-chocolate-icing_5.html - to ice the top of the doughnut cake.

Chocolate buttercream:

The buttercream in the centre of the cake is made from a recipe in the 'Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook'. I don't often use this recipe, but when I do I love it!

300g Icing sugar
100g Unsalted butter (soft)
40g Cocoa powder
40ml Milk

• Begin by beating the butter with an electric or free standing mixer until soft. 
• Gradually add half the icing sugar until combined. 
• Next, add the remaining icing sugar, cocoa and milk until all mixed together. 
• Once everything is combined, beat on a fast speed for about five minutes so that the buttercream is light and fluffy. 

Assembly of the cake:

Once the cake is out of the oven and cooled you need to cut it in half.

Next, spread the buttercream on the middle of the cake and make sure that it is even. 

Place the top of the cake onto the buttercream (I gave my mum this job and she very helpfully broke the top of the cake in half! Luckily the icing masked this!)

Pour the chocolate icing onto the top of the doughnut cake and allow to drop down the sides (this adds to the affect).

Finally, sprinkle hundreds and thousands onto the icing - go crazy, there's no limit! 

Your cake should now successfully look like a doughnut!