Let them eat cake

Let's be clear on this: I'm not Delia Smith. I like making cakes, although I prefer eating them if I'm honest. Possibly why the exercise bike will be suffering again in the next few weeks...

However, I mentioned a month or so ago that one of the McRampants (thanks, Maria) came up with a hundred hundreds cake with an adaptation of an existing recipe. Just so we can keep it for posterity, here it is replicated in its full glory:


Mark Ramprakash Hundred Hundreds cake -

For the cake:

Ingredients

125g dark chocolate
3 tbsp milk
150g butter
150g caster sugar
3 eggs
200g plain flour
1 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the icing

300g icing sugar
200g butter
4 tbsp double cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 and a 1/2 instant coffee powder

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4. Butter and flour the sides of two 20 cm sandwich tins and line the bases with greaseproof paper.

Place the chocolate and the milk in a bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water and heat until the chocolate has melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Beat the butter until very soft then add the caster sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then fold in the melted chocolate.

Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and the bicarbonate of soda, and fold in gently to mix. Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean.

Remove the cakes from the tins and allow to sit for 5 minutes before taking them out of the tins, leave them on a wire rack to cool.

For the icing:

Sift the icing sugar. Beat the butter, cream and vanilla extract until very soft. Then gradually add the icing sugar and add the coffee powder. Beat until well mixed, empty into a bowl and leave to chill in the fridge for 10/15 minutes.

Once the cakes have cooled, sandwich them with some of the icing and ice the top and sides. Decorate using an icing pen and with hundreds and thousands.

*You can hold the coffee flavouring if you're not a fan.