Wow your friends and family with this really simple bonanza birthday cake cooked in the Everhot in the top oven. It’s quick to make and decorate but you do need a lot of chocolate!
You will need two 20cm sandwich tins, ideally with removable bottoms.
Ingredients
For the cake
- 2 tbsp cocoa
- 3tbsp boiling water
- 225g soft butter or margarine
- 225g caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 225g self-raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
For the filling and under topping
- 50g soft margarine
- 175g icing sugar, sifted
- 1 tbsp milk
For the topping
- 50g margarine
- 25g cocoa, sifted
- 2 tbsp milk
- 225g icing sugar, sifted
Decorations
- 100g white chocolate
- 100g dark chocolate
- 100g milk chocolate
- multi-pack kit kats
- large pkt maltesers
- pkt long mint chocolate sticks
- tube white chocolate writing icing
Method
Make the bonanza birthday cake:
Check the Everhot top oven is at around 200ºC
- Grease and base line sandwich tins with greaseproof paper
- Blend the cocoa and water in the bottom of a large bowl, set aside to cool
- Measure all the remaining ingredients into the cocoa mixture and beat well until thoroughly blended.
- Divide the mixture between two tins and level the tops to ensure a flat cake
- Place on the bottom rack of the top oven for 35 minutes, less if it runs hot, more if cooler. Bake until the tops of the cakes spring back when slightly pressed.
- Leave to cool in the tins for few moments and turn on to a wire rack. Peel off greaseproof paper and finish cooling.
Make the buttercream filling:
- Blend the margarine, icing sugar and milk until smooth. Use three quarters of the buttercream to sandwich the cakes together but keep back some to line the top before applying the chocolate icing.
Make the chocolate fudge icing and chocolate shards:
- First make the chocolate shards to decorate. Melt the white chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of boiling water, making sure the base does not touch the water.
- Place a rectangular sheet of greaseproof paper on a baking tray, around 10 inches long. Pour on the chocolate and spread the out until flat. Place another sheet of greaseproof on the top.
- Roll the greaseproof up into a roll at the short end and place in the fridge for a couple of hours. You can speed this up by placing in the freezer. Repeat with dark and milk chocolate. Once the chocolate is hard, unroll the greaseproof and it should break into shards. If you are not using immediately place in a container in the fridge so they do not melt.
- Next make the chocolate fudge icing. Melt the margarine in a small pan, add the cocoa and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the milk and icing sugar. Beat well until smooth. Cool until spreading consistency.
- Spread the remaining buttercream from filling on the top of the cake or you can use warmed apricot jam if you have no buttercream left.
- Spread the chocolate fudge icing on the top of the cake, allowing it to run slightly over the sides.
- Decorate with the chocolate Kit Kat sticks around the sides. You can use as many as you like. Then decorate with the maltesers, chocolate shards, chocolate mint sticks and drizzle with white chocolate icing.
- Refrigerate until you are ready to serve. Keep in the fridge.