Saturday, June 26, 2010

A Berry Lovely Birthday Cake

Yesterday was a very special day in the Babaduck house.  The Hubs is now just one year off the big 40 (Christ, that means that so am I come September...) and we started the birthday celebrations early by going to see Stevie Wonder at the O2.  Fantastic concert but bloody hell, the food on offer is absolutely pitiful, especially given all the good stuff at the Point Village Market every weekend.  All they sell inside are boxed sandwiches, hotdogs and sweets/crisps/popcorn.  It's not particularly cheap and the quality ain't great either.  What a wasted opportunity...

Anyway, I decided to make The Hubs a special cake to mark the occasion, as well as a gorgeous dinner of his choosing (which will make a separate blog post later!) and thanks to the ever lovely LikeMamUsedToBake, I settled on a version of Jamie Oliver's chocolate sponge which went something like this!

Chocolate Berry Birthday Cake

200g Caster Sugar
200g Butter
3 tbsp Cocoa Powder
4 tbsp boiling Water
3 Large Eggs
200g Self-Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
200ml Whipping Cream
1 punnet each Strawberries & Raspberries
2 tbsp Raspberry Jam

All the ingredients waiting to turn into something magical
 
Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4.  Grease & line two 8 inch loose-bottomed cake tins.
 
Cream the butter & sugar together until pale and fluffy using either an electric beater or food processor
.
 
Dissolve the cocoa powder in the boiling water, mixing until smooth.  Add this, and the rest of the ingredients to the butter and sugar mix.  Beat until combined.
 
 
Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tins, level out and bake for 25 minutes.  Use a toothpick/skewer to make sure the cakes are cooked.  Leave for 10 minutes to cool in the tin and then turn out onto a wire cooling rack, peeling off the greaseproof paper - you don't want a mouthful of this!!!
 
Chef's treat... nothing like chocolate cake mix

While the cakes are cooling, prepare your fruit (wash, hull & chop the strawberries and rinse the raspberries) and whip your cream until thick enough to spread.
 
Spread the jam over the bottom cake, add half of the fruit and cream and then sandwich with the other cake.
 
 
Spread the rest of the cream over the top of the cake and decorate with the remaining fruit.
 
 
The verdict - The Hubs was blown away...  It's actually very light despite all the cream and butter, and it tasted utterly delicious.  I wonder if he'll return the favour when it's my birthday???
 
 
 
 
 
 

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