Dougs 91st Quadruple Chocolate Birthday Cake
Kit Bag
4 x 8inch Silicone Cake Tins
1 Large Spatula
1 Small Spatula
1 Spreader Spatula
Thermomix Machine used purely for mixing but a whisk will work fine, i'm just lazy.
Cake Stand
Warm Up
I made 4 sponges but obviously feel free to adapt amounts etc to whatever you need. These amounts are for all 4 not each.
Recipe was adapted from an amazing recipe I found online by Kat @ The Loopy Whisk
400g plain GF flour
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
75g cocoa powder
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
450g granulated sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 eggs (room temp)
375ml full fat milk
187ml melted coconut oil (you can use vegetable or sunflower oil but I just used what I had in & gambled)
375ml boiling hot water
Strides & Drills
So in the cake I made there are 3 layers of buttercream filling (Milk Chocolate, Mix of milk and white and then white chocolate) and then the top (Dark Chocolate & Raspberry) so here is the recipe per layer then obviously add the melted chocolate to each one for the different layers. I also DOUBLED these measurements for the top layer as I put it round the sides too but did make a bit much if there is such a thing as too much buttercream. Maybe just add 50% rather than double.
113g room temp unsalted butter (Lurpak Obvs. Not an ad but get the good stuff)
85g icing sugar
25g cocoa powder (Only had a half of this if that for the middle layer and NONE for the white chocolate layer)
3 x 90/100g Chocolate (Personal Choices: 1x Dairy Milk (Obvs), 2 x Milkybar & 1.5x Green&Blacks Velvet Edition with Raspberry & Hazelnut)
GO TIME!
Pre heat the oven. (180c for FAN OVEN)
I used silicone tins so didn't need to grease but otherwise grease/baking paper your tins
In a mixing bowl (I used my thermomix bowl and mixed my ingredients using that) but either way SIFT in the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder.
Add the sugar and salt and whisk together
Then for your 'wet' ingredients. Add the eggs, milk and oil. Whisk until smooth. It'll likely be quite thick at this point.
Then add your boiling water and whisk until its runny.
Divide evenly between your cake tins and put in the oven for 40minutes (I sat and watched it in pure fear for the first 25minutes. Total amateur). A clean knife/stick/anything sharp should come out clean. DON'T OPEN THE OVEN MID BAKE. TRUST THE PROCESS!
Allow to cool. Again patience isn't my strong point and I probably didn't leave mine to cool long enough as we had a Leaning Tower of Pisa sitch in the next stage. I would have got fairly heavily marked down on presentation on GBBO.
Last Mile
Using a mixer or good old brute force beat the butter until fluffy
Add icing sugar and mix
Add cocoa powder. (or don't. Check previous instructions dependent on which layer you're on) The recipe I was looking at said add salt here. I didn't because I forgot.
Add in melted chocolate. Again it said wait for it to cool. Again I didn't because I don't have the patience. I melted my chocolate in the microwave (or mecro-warvay)
Finish Line!
BUILD YOUR CAKE!
Some of my sponges had little domes on so I just cut the tops off.
Then place the bottom sponge on your cake stand/plate,
add your first layer of buttercream filling, then your next layer of sponge and REPEAT !
Add your topping later of buttercream and I then used the scraper to scrape it round the sides.
Throw sprinkles and sparkly candles at it to detract from the fact that its leaning if need be.
