Chocolate cake is my ultimate fave, and i have put a slight twist on this one by adding Nutella to the icing. Personally, i found normal chocolate icing a bit to sweet and i found that the nutella breaks the sweetness a bit and also makes the icing firmer which i prefer! The pictures below show the cake which i made for my 19th birthday and as you can see, ive just added some raspberries to the top to add a fresher taste to the cake and i think the flavours go really well together but you could be really chocolatey and add chocolate sprinkles or broken up Cadburys flake bars if you wish!
The ingredients to this cake are the same as the victoria sponge but with the addition of cocoa powder (NOT hot chocolate powder!!)
Ingredients
100g/4oz self raising flour
2 level tablespoons cocoa powder
100g/4oz butter
100g/4oz caster sugar
2 standard eggs
1 Teaspoon of baking powder
For the nutella buttercream
100g/4oz butter
200g/8oz sifted icing sugar
splash of milk
2 heaped spoons of Nutella (or more to taste)
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
Method
Line two 18cm/7in sandwich tins
Cream the butter and sugar together until very pale in colour, light in texture and fluffy
Beat in whole eggs, one at a time (this is very important), sifting in a bit of flour and 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder with each egg
Gently fold in the rest of the sifted flour
Add in 1 teaspoon of baking powder for extra uuumffft!
*With this bake, it is best to get as much air in the mixture as possible (which will result in a lighter, more enjoyable cake!) so doing a gentle figure of eight movement will work well, as well as lifting some of the mixture up with the spoon as you mix*
Transfer the mixture to the prepared tins and smooth the tops of the evenly distributed mixture with a knife
Bake in the centre of the oven for 25-30 minutes (or until well risen, golden brown and firm - as shown in the picture above)
Leave in the tins for 2-3 minutes then turn out onto a wire cooling rack. Strip off paper and leave until cold.
For the Nutella chocolate buttercream
Beat the butter until soft
Gradually beat in the sugar alternatively with milk
Sieve in the 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
Melt the Nutella down in the microwave for 15 seconds on high or until slightly softer, then add to the mixture
spread in the middle of the cake, and on top
I was given a tip by the baker Luisa Zissman who appeared on the BBC's Apprentice in 2013, and she said that when it comes to butter cream, it should be a 2:1 ratio of icing sugar to butter. So if you require less buttercream, you can follow these measurements. :)
*If you are wanting to make bigger cakes, with perhaps more layers and therefore require more mixture.. just remember all the mixture should be equal to the weight of how many eggs you use. So with each egg typically weighing 2oz, using 3 eggs would mean all ingredients should weigh 6oz*
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