Showstopper chocolate cake ideas

[FusionChefGeoff]

I'm a competent but no means expert baker willing to give most things a go. Husband's 40th is coming up and he's a chocolate fiend so I'd like to make him a really WOW chocolate based cake.

Anyone got any tried and tested recipes I could try?

[FusionChefGeoff]

Bake off is on so I'm bumping!!

Any tips for the best chocolate cake??? Or fancy decorating ideas??

Help!!

[MrsHathaway]

Hummingbird Brooklyn Blackout is a wonderful celebration cake but pudding rather than afternoon tea.

A bit of sugar work and/or chocolate work on top would make it a showstopper for sure!

I add a little coffee to the mixture to deepen the intensity of the chocolate.

[m0therofdragons]

A more elaborate version of this? Dc were impressed (but I'm far from professional).

[bitofabelly]

Mother of dragons.,that's so cool how did you do that

[MrsHathaway]

You can get a kit in the supermarket but essentially it's a stick which you glue (with chocolate or icing) sweets or chocolates to, then put the bag over the end. Fiddly but very effective.

[m0therofdragons]

Stupidly easy. Lakeland do kits but I went for a blue peter style approach.

Standard kid's drink straw (one that bends at the top) and melt chocolate then dip in malteasers and stick to straw. I made a big cake and a smaller one on top then covered in butter icing (with melted chocolate in). Stuck a wooden skewer in the top slightly cut down to size. Thread straw with malteasers stuck on onto skewer then place tumbling malteasers into the butter icing. Oh and stick packed in with more melted chocolate. Sprinkle with edible gold glitter (because why not?)

I was able to remove straw malteasers (still on straw) to transport then just plonked it on top.

My version lacked finesse but it was for 6 yo who thought it was awesome. She wanted a "chocolate cake with lots of chocolate". So much easier than peppa bloody pig or frozen 😂

[tkband3]

Something like this? I made it for my mum's 75th. Actually dead easy to make, but quite impressive looking (you may not want the roses!)

[FusionChefGeoff]

Ooooh tkband that's the sort of thing, yes!!! Where did you get the choc sticks from?

Presumably a basic buttercream with cocoa in for the icing?

[Bmarie]

I made this a couple of years ago now, I think possibly the first cake I made, it's literally so easy i was expecting it to be a disaster but was only making for fun. So many videos on YouTube just put malteaser cake, I just added m and ms for colour, everyone loved it!

Just Choco cake inside, you can buy chocolate writing tubes just use those warmed to stick them onto the cake, it is quite time consuming though I spent hours doing it xxxx

[thishouseisashittip]

Op are you me?? I am in exactly the same position (competent baker and DH 40th on 17th of this month and loooves chocolate!!!). Anyway not sure what to make him, makes it worse that i recently make this for FIL -

[FusionChefGeoff]

WOW!!!

That's incredible - any tips how I might go about such a beautiful creation???

[tkband3]

Sorry - forgot to come back to the thread. So cake is a standard chocolate yogurt cake recipe - best chocolate cake I know and so easy to make. Icing is Nigella's best chocolate icing...happy to post both recipes if you'd like me to.

I got the chocolate cigarillos from here. One box would be plenty to do a one tier cake, but for a two tier, you'd probably need two.

[FusionChefGeoff]

@tkband3 yes please to both recipes. Anything to improve my chances of success!

[missmoffatt2705]

Why don't you try a checkerboard cake or a zebra cake? My 11 year old son made the checker board cake, with some supervision. You need to make at least 3 layers of sandwich cake, 2 chocolate, 1 vanilla. Then you need to use a biscuit cutter or small plate to cut out , from the centre, 2 concentric circles and swap a chocolate ring for a vanilla ring - you are making a bullseye design with the cakes. Once layered up and covered in ganache, you only see the checker effect when you cut it open. Look at Youtube for more info. The Zebra cake is similar, with 2 colours of cake batter, putting a spoon of chocolate in the centre of tin, then a spoon of vanilla directly on top until all batter is used.

[tkband3]

So sorry for the delay in coming back to the thread FusionChefGeoff - I have the memory of a forgetful goldfish . Anyway, here are the recipes:

Chocolate Yogurt Cake
This mixture will make an 8" layer cake (2 layers), 24 cupcakes, or a one layer 10" cake.

150ml veg oil
150ml yogurt (best to use full fat)
60ml golden syrup
3 eggs
170g caster sugar
225g self raising flour
3 tbps cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt

Put the oil, yogurt, golden syrup, eggs and sugar in a bowl or free-standing mixer and beat well till well mixed together.

Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, bicarb and salt and beat again till completely combined. The mixture will be quite runny.

Pour into greased and lined tins and bake - for the 8" cake, it takes about 25 minutes, the 10" one will take about 35 - 40 mins, cupcakes about 20 mins.

Nigella's Icing

75g unsalted butter
175g good quality dark chocolate
300g icing sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
125ml sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Melt the butter & chocolate in a good sized bowl over a pan of gently simmering water.

Once the butter and chocolate have melted add the golden syrup, sour cream and vanilla to the mixture and then sieve in the icing sugar. Beat well until fully mixed together. If it's too runny, add a little more icing sugar; if too stiff, add a little boiled water (I've never had to do this).

This makes enough icing to amply cover and fill an 8" cake.