The cafe has brought me the most amazing opportunities in my career & creating this recipe for TV was no exception! It's been two years since my Celebratory Cake was featured on Channel 9's Postcards (12/08/16). I demonstrated with Livinia Nixon how to bake & make it. It's a fail safe recipe - and one our most popular cakes! Of course, there's not rule as to how much honeycomb & chocolate treats you can put on top!
Makes one 3-layered 8" (diameter) cake.
Ingredients
For chocolate buttermilk cake
300g dark chocolate, at least 70% solids, chopped
263g plain flour, sifted
98g dutch cocoa, sifted
¾ tsp baking soda, sifted
6 eggs
450g caster sugar
210ml vegetable oil
375ml buttermilk (homemade* or store bought), room temp
*Homemade buttermilk = mix 125ml milk + 1 ½ tsp white vinegar (or lemon juice)
For vanilla buttercream frosting
360g unsalted butter at room temperature
90g pure icing sugar, sifted
50ml full cream milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
For chocolate ganache
100g thickened cream
200g dark chocolate, chopped
Taken by Sarah Leung, Capturing Yumminess
Method
Preheat oven to 160°C, grease & line 3 × 8” tins w baking paper. If you only have one, that’s alright – just bake them one by one. Melt chocolate in large heatproof bowl over saucepan, set aside to cool (alternatively you can melt chocolate in a microwave, stirring occasionally in 30 second increments). Place flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt into a bowl & mix lightly. In a Kitchen Aid (or any other free standing mixer), whisk eggs and sugar together to be light and fluffy (ribbon stage). Slowly pour oil into egg mixture, followed by melted chocolate. Gently add milk and dry mixture & mix lightly between each addition.
Once batter is just combined, divide it into the three tins. Bake for 35-45 minutes (the cake is cooked when you put a skewer in and it comes out clean). Cool in tins for 15 minutes before turning out of the tins. Cool completely before frosting (the colder the better, you can put it in the fridge). I like to cool my cakes upside down so they even out a little bit.
To make buttercream, combine butter, icing sugar, milk & vanilla bean paste in kitchen aid and beat until light and fluffy. This process can take a while depending on temperature. The longer you beat the buttercream; the fluffier, smoother and lighter in colour it gets.
To make chocolate ganache, bring cream to boil on stove top, then remove from heat. Add chocolate & mix thoroughly until all melted and the mixture is a thick consistency. Cool slightly before use, making sure it’s still runny for pouring.
To frost & assemble the cake
Once the cakes are removed from the tins, using a serrated knife, run over the surface of the cakes to even them out so they sit on top of each other balanced and more or less equally in width. Put a little bit of buttercream on the base of the plate (or cake board) so that the cake does not move during frosting process.
Place the first layer of cake on the plate, and cover surface liberally with buttercream. You can do this with a spatula, or alternatively fill a piping bag with the frosting and squeeze directly onto surface of the cake. Using a palette knife, smooth the frosting into a uniform surface, before putting the second layer of cake on top. Repeat this process and place the final layer of cake UPSIDE DOWN so that the top of the cake is now completely flat. Press down tightly, and have a look on the side if the cake is straight up. If not, just gently nudge the cake layers until it’s more or less straight.
With your piping bag or spatula, liberally spread frosting around the cake sides. Use a scraper – you can buy one at specialty kitchenware shops (eg. House, Chef’s Hat, Cake Deco) or a paint scraper (Bunnings!) is perfect for the job! Place the scraper even with the base of the plate, and following the rounded edges of the cake, move along the perimeter until you’re happy with the smoothness. If the frosting gets soft, place the cake in the fridge for a few minutes and redo. You can repeat this step as many times as you like until you’re happy with the cake edges. Finally, spread a thin layer of frosting on the top of the cake to finish the frosting process completely.
Using a dessert spoon, drop spoonfuls of ganache on the edges of the cake, allowing them to naturally drip down the sides. Sometimes the drips may need some extra encouragement, so just use the tip of the spoon to guide them. Once you’re completed the sides, it will look like a 'wreath' of chocolate drip. Decorate the cake by placing chocolate treats, honeycomb & other bits in a wreath-like shape along the edge of the cake surface. But really, you can cover the whole cake with treats if you're that way inclined also!
Cake will last up to 5 days if stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
