DARK CHOCOLATE CAKE

This is the best chocolate layer cake recipe I've found so far. Here's a picture of a graduation cake I made for my other half. He's a software engineer and a Mac man as you can see.




This is for a 28cm (11 inch) cake tin. Bake the cake one or two days before serving.

335g flour
535g sugar
85g cocoa powder
2.75tsp bicarbonate of soda
1.25tsp baking powder
0.75tsp salt
3 small eggs
200ml cold coffee
430ml milk
2.75tsp vinegar or lemon juice
160ml mild vegetable oil

For the filling:
200ml milk
250ml double cream of whipping cream
Sugar to taste
500g strawberries

For the icing:
200g dark chocolate
2ooml double cream or whipping cream


Measure all the wet ingredients into a large bowl and mix together. The bowl should be big enough to hold all of the batter so it needs to be a lot bigger than in the picture. (Oops!)




Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl add to the liquid though a sieve. Stir gently so no lumps will appear.




Pour into a prepared cake tin and bake in 175°C until a toothpick comes out dry. Wrap well and leave the cake in the fridge until the next day.

Whip the cream and slice the strawberries. Cut the cake, dampen the layers with the milk and fill it with the strawberries and cream.




To make the icing:
Melt the dark chocolate gently and stir in the cream. Allow to cool and whip up. Spread on the cake.

I had another problem here when the chocolate I used refused to cooperate so I had to make some adjustments. That's why the chocolate icing looks a bit runny in the picture. It's my second disappointment with Rainbow dark chocolate (sold in Finland) so I'm never using it for baking again.


If you want to make the chocolate Apple logos, use a MacBook and a bit of cling film. Melt the chocolate, put it in a small piping bag and just squeeze onto the logo. The edges are elevated so the chocolate will set nicely. Move the cling film to make another one. You can put the apples upside down on the cake to make them look perfectly smooth.




This recipe is a version of one found here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Dark-Chocolate-Cake-II/Detail.aspx

TIGER CAKE

This is cake substitutes some of the flour with potato starch for a dense but soft result. It simply melts in your mouth. Delicious with a cup of tea.

An Englishman might call this a marble cake but I think the Finnish tiger cake has a stronger pattern, proper stripes instead of a touch of colour. Someone will disagree, I'm sure.






200g unsalted butter
3 eggs
150ml sugar
200ml potato starch
100ml all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
50ml (or more) cocoa powder
vanilla or vanilla flavouring



Beat the butter and sugar until white and fluffy.



Mix in the eggs.




In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients excluding the cocoa powder. Add to the butter mixture with the vanilla and stir well.




Separate one third of the batter and mix in enough cocoa powder to give a chocolatey colour.




Prepare a ring-shaped cake tin or a loaf tin and spoon in half of the light batter.




Top it with all of the brown batter. Spoon in the rest of the light batter.




After this you can stick a knife in the cake and gently 'cut' a full circle around the whole cake. This will mix the two colours together just enough to make a nicer pattern.

Bake in 175°C for about 50 minutes. Don't forget to decrease the temperature to 150°C if you're using a fan-assisted oven or the surface of the cake will swell and rip like it did when I made this cake...