The cake of many guises

With Easter upon us once more and many expecting family to descend upon you I thought I would share with you one of my favourite cakes to make as it is so versatile.

 I love making this cake. 

 Its adapted from the I can't believe you made that cake, cake by Lorraine Pascal, but I like to call it the cake of many guises.  

Its been a Christmas cake

 It's been an anniversary cake

and it's been an Easter cake

What you will need

Equipment

2 x 8cm sandwich tins or if like me you are useless at slicing cakes in half then you could purchase a set of layer tins usually used for rainbow cakes. A palette knife and a cake board and a nice ribbon to finish it off.

Ingredients

280g Butter or margarine

220g Self raising flour

60g Cocoa powder

280g Caster Sugar

5 large eggs

2tsp Baking powder

35mls milk

1dsp of hazel nut spread

2 packets of chocolate fingers

For the buttercream

250g butter, softened

500g icing sugar

100g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids), melted and slightly cooled.

Method

• Pre heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
• Cut circles of baking parchment and line the base of the tins. 
• Sieve the flour twice this helps to keep the cake light.
• Put the sieved flour, butter, caster sugar, eggs, baking powfer, cocoa powder, hazel nut spread in a bowl or food processor and mix until combined. 
• Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and make a slight dip in the middle as this will help to achieve an even rise. 
• Bake two at time on the middle shelf for approximately 18 minutes, until the sponge is risen and cooked  and springy to the touch.
• Allow the cakes to cool and then turn out onto a cooling tray.
• Once completely cooled if using two sandwich tins you will need to slice the cakes in half horizontally to give you your four layers. 
• Allow the cakes to cool completely before adding the buttercream.. 
• To make the buttercream icing put the butter and icing sugar into a bowl and whisk together until the mixture begins to go fluffy. Add the cooled melted chocolate and whisk for a further 2 minutes.
• Sandwich the layer together with a 1cm layer of buttercream. Spread half the remaining buttercream all over the top and sides of the cake, making it as smooth as possible.
• Gently push the chocolate fingers vertically onto the sides of the cake, positioning them as straight as possible and making sure they touch the bottom.
• At this point you can finish off by putting fruit such as raspberries on top or if like my family you have more of a sweet tooth then the possibilities are endless.  I have used maltesers, grated chocolate and of course mini eggs but you could also use smarties, chocolate buttons or if feeling rather extravagant you could even use Ferrero Rocher.

I hope you have as much fun making this cake as I do and its great if you're wanting to impress.
 I am no Mary Berry when it comes to making cakes but you can hide an awful lot with a packet of chocolate fingers and some buttercream icing.

Happy Easter to all

Take care & stay safe

Mx