I love baking cakes and I love sharing my cakes with friends and family even more. Last week my good friend Abi had a little house warming to celebrate that she has bought her own little abode, and a select few friends were invited round for a few hours to toast her move and eat some homemade pizza and nibbles. Well, any excuse to bake a cake I say, so of course I offered to take a dessert because I know Abi shares my sweet tooth!
My yummy looking cake is inspired by one featured on the Dr.Oetker website , a site which is full of very tempting chocolate cakes and bakes and will cause you to drool as you look! Dr.Oetker is running a competition throughout March and if If you tweet a photo of a homemade chocolate bake that you have made, and include the hashtag #evenbetterbaking to @DrOetkerBakes, then you could win one of their luxury chocolate hampers.
So back to my Red Devilish Chocolate Cake, I made a few changes to the original recipe posted by Dr.Oetker, by adding red food colouring to the cake batter, I mean a devilish cake is crying out to contain a red velvet sponge.
I also self raising flour instead of plain flour and baking powder, and used less sugar in the sponge.
Making this cake meant that it was the first time I have ever attempted an Italian meringue frosting , and a first for using powdered egg whites. However, it turned out really well and tasted amazing and is definately something I will make and use again! I would never have attempted it before as it scared me, but thanks to this challenge I have a new frosting I can add to my cake making repertoire 🙂
Here is my version of this delicious chocolate cake
- *FOR THE CAKE*
- 75g Cocoa Powder
- 175g Margarine or unsalted butter
- 300g Caster Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 250g self raising flour
- 1 tube of Dr. Oetker red liquid gel food colouring
- 350ml water
- *FOR THE ITALIAN MERINGUE FROSTING*
- 450g caster sugar
- 20ml or 4 tsp of Dr. Oetker Liquid Glucose
- 3 x Dr. Oetker Free Range Egg White Powder Sachets (or 3 egg whites)
- 1 tsp Dr. Oetker Cream of Tartar Sachet
- 1 tsp Dr. Oetker Madagascan Vanilla Extract
- 115ml Water
- cocoa powder for dusting (about 1-2 tsp)
- *TO MAKE THE SPONGE*
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 160°C (fan)
- Grease and line 2 x 8inch sandwich tins
- Sift 75g cocoa into a bowl and whisk in the water and the food colouring
- Beat the margarine with the sugar until pale and creamy
- Whisk in the eggs and the liquid cocoa mixture.
- Sift the flour and carefully fold into the other ingredients to form a thick batter.
- Divide the mixture between the tins and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until risen and just firm to the touch. Turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
- *TO MAKE THE FROSTING*
- Place the sugar, Liquid Glucose and the water into a saucepan.
- Heat gently, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and boil until the temperature reaches 115°C on a sugar thermometer. Remove from the heat.
- In a large heatproof bowl, whisk the egg whites with the Cream of Tartar until very stiff – as if making meringue.
- While still whisking, carefully pour the sugar syrup on to the egg whites
- Add the Vanilla Extract and continue whisking for 4-5 minutes until glossy and stiff.
- *ASSEMBLING THE CAKE*
- Slice each sponge in half to make 4 sponges
- Use some of the frosting to sandwich the cakes together and put on a serving plate.
- Generously spread the remaining frosting all over the cake to cover.
- Then decorate by dusting it with a little extra cocoa powder before serving.
- Keep in a cool place
This cake was sooooo scrummy and my friends were very excited to be eating it – they were all so nice about it before it had even been cut!! I think sharing cake with friends is always fun, I like to eat mine with tea but my friends had theirs with wine last Thursday night
I was sent a hamper of Dr.Oetker goodies and a voucher to make this cake
Loving the look of that cake. Fancy moving to Berkshire – happy to be friends with you 🙂
That is just so gorgeous! You are a genius! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
#EvenBetterBaking Chocolate recipes from UK Food Bloggers | Foodies 100
[…] Red devilish chocolate cake was generously whipped up by Mummy Mishaps to help celebrate a house warming at a friend’s new abode. […]