Brother's 18th birthday cake
On Wednesday we celebrated my brother's 18th birthday. There was lots of excitement in the lead up to his birthday so I knew that I had to make a cake to match the occasion, I had been given specific instructions from Joe which meant that there was a lot of pressure to match his exact requirements (it was his birthday after all!).
I concluded that I should start the cake on the Monday to ensure I had enough time to bake, cool and ice it before Wednesday – working under pressure never ends up well!
The tin I used is a favourite that I got from IKEA, it has two bases – one flat and one that makes a doughnut cake – but I used the flat one to make a classic shaped cake. The tin can be ordered from their website (http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/10133047/) and I would definitely recommend it.
I used an 8Oz mixture – I'll post the ingredients below – and the method can be found in my Essential cake recipe post (http://icingonthecakes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/essential-cake-recipes.html).
Ingredients:
7.5Oz Self raising flour
0.5Oz Cocoa powder *
8Oz Stork margarine
8Oz Caster sugar
4 Eggs
1tsp Baking powder
This tin can't really be lined so it's easiest to grease with butter and lightly flour (be sure to give it a good few taps on the counter to loosen any excess flour – the cake can get a funny coating if too much flour is left in the tin.).
Joe had given me strict instructions and told me that he wanted a very, very thick layer of chocolate fudge icing sandwiching the cake together. I had to search the internet for what felt like hours in order to find a recipe that I thought would be accepted by my brother.
It was a Woman and Home recipe that I settled on but I doubled the quantities to make sure that their would be enough icing to fill the 9inch cake and give a thick enough layer to meet Joe's standards.
The icing:
200g Dark chocolate
100g Unsalted butter
400g Icing sugar
Because I baked the cake on Monday, by the time I came to ice it on Tuesday it was completely cool and ready to cut in half and sandwiched with the fudge icing but if you are baking the cake on the same day as icing then allow it to cool in the tin slightly before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
I iced the top and the side of this cake with my favourite chocolate icing (Joe's too!) which I wrote about on my Perfect chocolate icing post (http://icingonthecakes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-perfect-chocolate-icing_5.html).
To make the cake have a special finished, I stuck white and milk chocolate fingers around the edge and drizzled melted white chocolate over the top. Two packs of each of the chocolate fingers should be enough to go round the whole cake. I ran out half way through (I only had one pack of each) which meant an emergency trip to Sainsburys was needed...thanks Mum!
The cake went down very well and is perfect served with cream and raspberries. Joe loved it!
Happy baking!
*If you'd like to make a plain sponge cake as opposed to a chocolate sponge cake use 8Oz self raising flour and don't use the cocoa powder.
**At this stage the chocolate split so I added a little cream to bring the icing back to how it should be.
I concluded that I should start the cake on the Monday to ensure I had enough time to bake, cool and ice it before Wednesday – working under pressure never ends up well!
The tin I used is a favourite that I got from IKEA, it has two bases – one flat and one that makes a doughnut cake – but I used the flat one to make a classic shaped cake. The tin can be ordered from their website (http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/10133047/) and I would definitely recommend it.
I used an 8Oz mixture – I'll post the ingredients below – and the method can be found in my Essential cake recipe post (http://icingonthecakes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/essential-cake-recipes.html).
Ingredients:
7.5Oz Self raising flour
0.5Oz Cocoa powder *
8Oz Stork margarine
8Oz Caster sugar
4 Eggs
1tsp Baking powder
This tin can't really be lined so it's easiest to grease with butter and lightly flour (be sure to give it a good few taps on the counter to loosen any excess flour – the cake can get a funny coating if too much flour is left in the tin.).
Joe had given me strict instructions and told me that he wanted a very, very thick layer of chocolate fudge icing sandwiching the cake together. I had to search the internet for what felt like hours in order to find a recipe that I thought would be accepted by my brother.
It was a Woman and Home recipe that I settled on but I doubled the quantities to make sure that their would be enough icing to fill the 9inch cake and give a thick enough layer to meet Joe's standards.
The icing:
200g Dark chocolate
100g Unsalted butter
400g Icing sugar
- Firstly, melt the chocolate until completely smooth. You can either do this in the microwave (for about a minute and a half but do it in 20 second blasts and stir in between in order to ensure it doesn't burn) or in a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water.
- Next, beat the butter until soft and creamy using an electric mixer and then beat in the melted chocolate. **
- Finally, stir in the icing sugar a little bit at a time. It may seem like it's taking forever but it will all go in eventually! The icing should be light in colour and fluffy in texture.
Because I baked the cake on Monday, by the time I came to ice it on Tuesday it was completely cool and ready to cut in half and sandwiched with the fudge icing but if you are baking the cake on the same day as icing then allow it to cool in the tin slightly before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
I iced the top and the side of this cake with my favourite chocolate icing (Joe's too!) which I wrote about on my Perfect chocolate icing post (http://icingonthecakes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-perfect-chocolate-icing_5.html).
To make the cake have a special finished, I stuck white and milk chocolate fingers around the edge and drizzled melted white chocolate over the top. Two packs of each of the chocolate fingers should be enough to go round the whole cake. I ran out half way through (I only had one pack of each) which meant an emergency trip to Sainsburys was needed...thanks Mum!
The cake went down very well and is perfect served with cream and raspberries. Joe loved it!
Happy baking!
*If you'd like to make a plain sponge cake as opposed to a chocolate sponge cake use 8Oz self raising flour and don't use the cocoa powder.
**At this stage the chocolate split so I added a little cream to bring the icing back to how it should be.
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