Surprise, it's a birthday cake!

Another birthday, another layer cake. I really wanted to bake a caramel cake for my brother's birthday on the weekend. I searched the internet for a caramel cake recipe that looked delicious and wouldn't take four hours to bake. I then thought about how I could add texture and found a simple honeycomb recipe that would be delicious between the layers of my caramel cake. Once I had finally decided on what to make, I got baking. The first thing I did was make the honeycomb... first issue, no honey. However, I had treacle, so thought "why not give that a go?" It looked ok, a bit darker than honeycomb, but didn't foam up the same way and wasn't crunchy, so left that. Then I went to start on the caramel cakes. I pulled out all my ingredients to find I had no more brown sugar. So, with treacle-comb unsuccessful and no brown sugar for a caramel cake, I decided to go onto plan B... a white and dark chocolate layer cake. 

I don't know how my caramel cake would have turned out, I'll probably tell you next brithday, but I can tell you the white and dark chocolate cake was delicious, and even more special with the white chocolate buttercream! ENJOY!

White and dark chocolate birthday cake
Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease two round 20cm cake pans with butter. Line base and side with non-stick baking paper.

Dark Chocolate Cake
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
200g butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa into the bowl and fold through. Stir the milk through until smooth.

Using a piping bag, pipe the chocolate mixture into ball type shapes into each pan (about four around the edges and one in the middle). Leave until the white chocolate mix is ready to fill the remainder of the tins.

White Chocolate Cake
220g extra-creamy premium white chocolate, chopped
180g butter, chopped
185ml cold water
155g caster sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature, lightly whisked
150g plain flour, sifted
115g self-raising flour, sifted 

Place chocolate, butter and water in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until chocolate melts. Remove from heat and set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

Add sugar and egg and stir until just combined. Add flours and stir until well combined. Pour mixture into pans, surrounding the chocolate. Pop into the oven to bake for 45 - 55 minutes, or until moist crumbs cling to a skewer inserted into cake. Set aside for 30 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

White Chocolate Buttercream
3 egg whites
130g sugar
100g white chocolate, melted
142g butter, cubed and at room temp
4 x drops green food colouring

In the base of a double boiler, bring water to a simmer. In the top bowl, combine the egg whites and sugar and whisk constantly until the mixture is hot to the touch, about five minutes depending on the original temperature of the eggs. When the mixture has warmed sufficiently, pour it into the bowl and whip on high speed until the bottom of the bowl is room temperature, ten to fifteen minutes. With the beater still going, pour in the white chocolate and continue to beat until the mixture is back to room temperature.

When the bowl is no longer warm, turn the mixer to medium-low and begin adding the butter piece by piece. Let each chunk incorporate completely before adding the next and don't rush the process!

Assembly
Raspberry jam
Hundreds & thousands

Cut the cooled cakes in half. Place the bottom layer on your cake stand and top with some buttercream. Top with the second layer. Spread the raspberry jam over the top followed by some buttercream. Top with the third layer and just buttercream again. Top with the final layer. Lightly press down on the top of the cake to ensure you get a flat top. Fill in the side gaps with buttercream. Pop in the fridge for about 15 minutes before coating for a second time. Coat the top with a layer of buttercream. With the remaining buttercream, decorate the top with swirls around the edge (using a piping bag) and fill the centre with hundreds & thousands (it is a birthday after all).