Left-Over Ultimate Chocolate Cake
Use up all that left-over chocolate from Easter with this creative and seriously chocolaty cake. It comprises of a deep chocolate sponge filled with a rich white chocolate cream centre, smothered in a dark and milk chocolate ganache, decorated with KitKats, Mini Eggs or Smarties, whatever you have left-over from your Easter celebrations.
Ingredients
For the cake
- 175g Self-Raising Flour
- 50g Chocolate
- 225g Golden Caster Sugar
- 225g Butter (unsalted - softened)
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 3 Eggs
- 2 Tbsp Whole Milk
For the filling
- 60g White Chocolate
- 60ml Double cream
For the topping
- 200g Dark Chocolate
- 100g Milk Chocolate
- 225ml Double Cream
For the decoration
- 18 Chocolate finger biscuits (kitkats)
- Coloured Chocolate Beans (Smarties) or Chocolate Mini Eggs
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C, gas mark 4) and grease and line an 18cm (7”) deep cake tin. (Alternatively, rather than baking one cake and slicing to create two layers, you could use two equally sized cakes tins – just make sure to add the same amount of batter to both tins if you do.)
- Sieve the flour and cocoa together into a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, beat the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time to the creamed butter and sugar with a little flour/cocoa mix and milk then beat in between each addition. Fold in the remainder of the flour and cocoa together with the vanilla extract – being careful not to “knock” out the air which has been beaten into the mixture.
- Pour the mixture into the lined cake tin and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, keeping an eye and not opening the oven whilst baking. Leave the cake to cool before turning out on a rack to completely cool.
- Whilst the cake cools, prepare the filling. Melt the white chocolate and cream together in a bowl over a pan of hot water, stirring occasionally to combine. Be careful not to let the chocolate overheat as it can turn grainy. Once melted, stir gently and leave to cool and thicken. Cut the cake into two even layers, then spread the filling onto one half of the cake.
- To make the topping, melt the dark and milk chocolate and cream together in a bowl over a pan of hot water, stirring occasionally to combine. Be careful not to let the chocolate overheat as it can turn grainy. Once melted, stir gently and leave the cool and thicken slightly before spreading it onto the cake, covering it completely. Use a hot pallet knife to smooth off the surface.
- Whilst the icing is still wet, stick the kitkat biscuits around the outer side of the cake and fill the top with mini eggs.
