When it’s my children’s birthdays I always offer to make whatever cake they want. There is a Russian Roulette element to my baking, in that about 1 in 6 times it goes wrong, but at least the odds are in their favour.
This year my son requested a six layer cake like we made for his 8th birthday, but this time he wanted all his favourite chocolate bars added in.
It should have been an unholy mess but it actually turned out pretty good. These are the six layers:
- Strawberry flavour bluey/green frosting with Malteasers, Smarties and chewy gummy Turtles
- Chocolate sponge
- Buttercream icing plus chopped up chocolate bars – Double Decker, Mint Aero, Crunchie
- Chocolate sponge with added smarties in the batter
- Buttercream icing plus chopped up chocolate bars, as above
- Chocolate sponge
The good thing about a cake like this is that you can make it with very minimal baking skills. Even if it goes a bit wrong you can usually fix it with Smarties. (like, say if the middle layer was meant to be vanilla but you got distracted and put a bit of cocoa powder in.
Not that I would do that.
OK yes I did)
We used Mary Berry’s Victoria sponge recipe which is pretty foolproof. Substitute 25 grams of flour for cocoa to make chocolate sponge. Make an extra half quantity of cake mixture for the middle layer (this is where it becomes less foolproof when you’re halving everything so pay attention and don’t have a break for Tweeting.
Not that I would do that.
OK yes I did)
We discovered that a fair selection of the chopped up bits of chocolate bar will need to be tested to ensure they’re not poisonous. Those that do make it into the cake really add to it in texture and flavour. This is a cake with a lot to give. As indeed is the child in whose honour it was made.
So Happy 10th Birthday Son of Mine. I hope you liked your cake.