This recipe was given to me by my friend Becky Miles, who is an amazing baker and has her own cake business called Fondant & Frosting. I had been after a really moist, chocolately sponge cake recipe and so when she passed me this little gem I had to try it out! I did wonder at first if it was going to be worth it after buying all the ingredients but once I tried a slice I knew it was worth every penny! It's dark, rich, moist and oh so chocolatey! I now only ever make this recipe when making a chocolate sponge. The other perk of this recipe, apart from the amazing taste, is that it makes a lot of batter. This mixture normally gives me two deep 10 inch sponges and a loaf cake, or two deep 7 inch sponges and 2 loaf cakes or a tray of cupcakes. It freezes really well too and so the extra cakes are great for popping in the freezer for another day. Icing-wise anything goes, I have tried it with white chocolate buttercream, milk chocolate buttercream and also fondant - as you will see in the pictures below of my eldest sons birthday cake and also my sisters Giraffe birthday cake. But one of the best toppings - and a bit of a cheat - is spreading a loaf cake with Nutella and then letting my boys garnish it with sprinkles and smarties galore!
Ingredients
325g Plain Flour
325g Butter (I use Stork)
325g 70% Cocoa Drak Chocolate
50ml Strong Coffee (I use Espresso)
1.5 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
475g Light Brown Soft Sugar
5 Eggs
284ml carton of Sour Cream
How to Make
1. Heat the oven to 160'c and grease and line your cake tins. Melt the butter and chocolate over a low heat and then add the vanilla and coffee and remove from the heat.
2. In a mixer combine together the bicarb, baking powder, flour and sugar. Beat the eggs and sour cream together and then add this to the dry mix.
3. Pour in the melted chocolate mixture and stir together until smooth. Pour into the tins and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until firm and a skewer test comes out clean.
4. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.
Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and one of them was a Rossini, which is Prosecco and strawberries. I used my vanilla sponge recipe and subbed the vanilla for prosecco and for the strawberry element I soaked some fresh strawberries in prosecco and popped them in the middle of my cupcakes as a little surprise. I topped them with vanilla buttercream, freeze dried strawberries, wafer butterflies and a prosecco shot. Makes 12.
Ingredients
6oz Stork
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs
150ml Prosecco plus 2 tbsp
12 Whole Strawberries
For the icing...
450g Icing Sugar
200g Butter
1 tsp Vanilla
2 tbsp Milk
How To Make
1. Soak your strawberries in 150ml of prosecco. Preheat the oven to 160'c and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cases.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time with a spoonful of flour. Fold in the flour and stir through the 2 tbsp of prosecco.
3. Spoon into the cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool.
4. Once the cakes have cooled, cut a strawberry sized hole in the cakes (I used a cupcake corer). Pop a strawberry into each one.
5. For the icing, cream the butter until soft and then combine the rest of the ingredients. Pipe over the cupcakes and decorate as you wish.
Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and one of them was Baileys, I know its not strictly a cocktail but with a chocolate sponge I thought this would go down a treat at the party and it was a nice contrast to the two other flavours I had devised. For this one I used a recipe on Bakingmad.com which makes 24 fairy cakes but I used it to make 12 cupcakes. I decorated them with chocolate covered coffee beans and a baileys shot.
Ingredients
40g Butter
140g Caster Sugar
100g Plain Flour
20g Cocoa Powder
1.5 tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg
50ml Baileys
80ml Whole Milk
For the icing...
125g Butter
500g Icing Sugar
15ml Milk
45ml Baileys
How To Make
1. Preheat your oven to 170'c and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cases. Mix together butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder and baking powder until it resembles breadcrumbs.
2. In a jug mix together the egg, baileys and milk. Then add slowly into the mixer to combine. Divide between the cupcake cases and then bake for 20 minutes until risen and golden. Transfer to a rack to cool.
3. For the icing mix together the butter and icing sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs. Then add the milk and baileys and pipe over the cupcakes. Decorate as you wish.
