Very important question about chocolate cake

[SeventhRaccoon]

I'm having a debate with DH about the standard way to ice an ordinary chocolate cake. When you make one (talking normal weekend or bake sale type baking here rather than once a year Bake Off style efforts) do you:

Ice it with buttercream icing
Ice it with water icing (think that's what it's called? - icing sugar and cocoa mixed together with hot water)
Ice it with melted chocolate
Ice it with a packet mix (Betty Crocker or similar)
Spread it with whipped cream
Ice it with something completely different (in which case please explain what you use!)
Not ice it at all?

Thank you to NowWhatUsernameShallIHave, MarkRuffaloCrumble , MrsHaroldRobbins, and Thefamilybusiness for your help with the ganache recipes. Not something I've ever tried.

@SomeCatsLikeCheese

Jam in a chocolate cake?! With the possible exception of Sachertorte, what heresy is this?!

Delicious heresy. The best kind.

Ah well, @NoLeafClover, if it’s delicious heresy, I may have to try it myself! I could see raspberry jam maybe working quite nicely...

I’ve read 3 pages and still no one has said they use the milk chocolate cake recipe from the Bero book with the icing that uses evaporated milk? This was the only way chocolate cake was iced during my childhood.

Not read whole thread so this might be a repeat but I always put Jam as well as chocolate buttercream in the middle. It was what my mum always did so I thought it was normal but a few people have remarked that they haven't had one with jam before. In my opinion it's a winning addition!

Depends.
If it's two layers I'd do buttercream in the middle nothing on top. If it's one layer ( think school cake) I do water icing.

And to the pps it's nice if you mix cocoa in too. Always do it.

I do like to do a chocolate cake with a thin spread of Nutella on the inside of both cakes and fresh cream in the middle but only if it was going to be eaten immediately.

@SomeCatsLikeCheese, I've never tried it with raspberry jam, but raspberry and chocolate really go well together so I reckon it'd be a winner.

I mean I really have no place commenting on a thread about cake, as I literally can't stand most cakes . But that chocolate, blackberry, cream combo is my one exception.

I sometimes spread the middle with this delicious cherry jam that I get from an Asian shop (can't get it anywhere else), and then ganache, whipped cream, grated chocolate and more gorgeous cherry jam on the top - it has whole cherries in it

I sometimes chop up a couple of slices of that and stir it into homemade chocolate ice cream, then freeze it, my kids call it Black Forest ice cream and it's very popular!

Butter icing in the middle. Icing on top, chocolate icing on a chocolate cake.

But usually I make chocolate cake with fudge icing and filling.

Butter icing. My mum always does the watery one (glace?) though so that's what I grew up with.

Depends! I like pecan coconut topping but can't get it easily in the U.K. I make ganache otherwise (dark chocolate, double cream and butter)

Water icing as standard, buttercream for special occasions.

Water icing is what I grew up with for non special occasions (I really like it!); buttercream for birthdays.

Black Doris plum jam and whipped cream in the middle, dust of icing sugar on top. About the only cake I make!

Ganache. When you say water icing do you mean icing sugar and water? That’s pretty rank at the best of times but on a chocolate cake...

Nutella in the middle, melted chocolate on top. Never lasts very long!

Whatever the puts on it.