Hello Cake Lovers,
I hope you're all coping with the on-going battle between summer and winter? It looks like there's about to be a storm here so instead of going swimming, I decided to make a deliciously decadent dark chocolate marble cake. It's a cake that reminds me of birthday parties when I was little and has the most intense chocolate icing; a perfect remedy for post-election blues. (Or rather a momentary remedy - as much as I like to think baking could make political waves I'm not sure it can.)
Making this cake really couldn't be easier - make a Victoria Sponge, split the mixture into two bowls and add a tablespoon of coacoa powder mixed up with warm milk to one half of the mixture to make the chocolate sponge. Dot alternate tablespoons of the two mixtures in a circular cake tin and then swirl in a figure of eight with a skewer to make it marble!
I have to confess that this time for some weird reason I got it into my head that my brand new palette knife (major excitement in the Silver Whimsy kitchen at the purchase of said knife) would work just as well as a skewer. This is not a good idea! Do use a skewer to make your swirls. I kind of realised as soon as I used the knife that it wasn't a good idea but I carried on regardless because I'm having one of those days - I dropped a bag of sugar, spilt a whole cup of tea on both my feet and the sofa and put a white sheet in with an extremely dark wash. Domestic Goddess I am not. Mais je digress... I find you have to bake this cake for about 45-50 mins because you'd normally split a Vicky Sponge so it only takes 25 mins, but do check after 30 mins because it would be awful if it burnt!
Anyway, once your cake has cooled melt 100g of 70% coacoa solids dark chocolate with about 25g unsalted butter and two tablespoons of water in a bowl over a pan of gently bubbling water. It's best just to leave the chocolate mixture to do it's own thing and then stir it to combine and thicken once it's all melted because this helps to avoid the chocolate from splitting.
Then, using a spatula, ice your cake! Yay! That's the fun bit.
Then eat it with a cup of good and strong Yorkshire Tea and find temporary chocolate oblivion. One of the bst things about this cake is that it keeps really well for a few days so if you make it on a Friday you can still have cake joy on a Monday!
Until next time, happy weekend,
Love Silver Whimsy x
Just beautiful.
ReplyDeleteOne thing about america is that you can't just skip out and buy dark chocolate. Or milk chocolate. Or in fact any chocolate that doesn't taste of parmesan cheese.
But it is 26 degrees and sunny today, so I won't moan too much. And I have a huge box of Yorkshire Tea.
Oh my!!! That just looks incredible! I was GUTTED that I didn't have room for any the other day... Sally xxx (ps - hope your feet are ok)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jenny! That's terrible about the lack of non-parmesan chocolate in America! I think American and British baking are very different things. I'm glad you've got a lot of Yorkshire Tea!!! Where would we be without it?! x
ReplyDeleteSally - my feet are ok!!! Phew! x