Happy Birthday Mum

They say you should bake for the ones you love - well, I'm sure some people say that. Tonight was Mum's birthday so I wanted to make something special for her. A few birthday's ago I made the Hummingbird Bakery's Brooklyn Blackout Cake. It was unbelievable, so I thought I'd work with that for Mum's cake. I also like a bit of surprise, so was very pleased that the frosting came out a delicious white and perfectly covered the rich, dark cake and custard.

Happy Birthday Mum Cake

Adapted from Hummingbird Bakery cookbook

Chocolate cake

100g unsalted butter, at room temperature

260g caster sugar

2 eggs

¼ tsp vanilla extract

45g cocoa powder

¾ baking Powder

¾ tsp bi-carb soda

a pinch of salt

170g plain flour

160ml whole milk

Liberally grease a cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar  together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Turn the mixer down to low and beat the cocoa, vanilla, baking powder, bi-carb and salt until well combined. Continue to beat on low speed, add half the flour then all the milk, then the remaining flour.  Pour mixture into cake tin and pop into the oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until a skewer can be inserted and come out clean. Leave to cool for about 15 minutes in the tin, then remove from tin and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate custard

125g caster sugar

½ tsp golden syrup

45g cocoa powder

50g cornflour

30g unsalted butter

¼ tsp vanilla extract

While cake is cooling, make the custard. In a bowl, whisk the cornflour with about 60ml water. Whisk until you get a gluey kind of consistency. In a saucepan over a medium heat, cook the sugar, golden syrup and cocoa powder. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Slowly pour in the cornflour mixture and whisk constantly until thick. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until cooled.

Frosting

3 cups icing sugar

50g unsalted butter at room temperature

½ cup thick cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, beat butter and icing sugar until well combined. Pour in the cream and vanilla and beat until smooth. Taste to make sure the frosting isn’t too grainy, if it is, add some more cream and continue beating.

Assembly

Cut the cake in half by slicing half way through the middle of the cake and turning the cake while moving the knife in a slicing motion. Spread the custard over the top of the base cake, make sure it’s evenly spread. Top the cake with the top layer and press down lightly. Fill the gaps in the sides of the cake with the frost, then spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Melt some chocolate and using a piping bag, drizzle chocolate over the cake in a lattice motion.