Let Them Eat Cake

We all love cake, it's human nature.

What I love most about baking cake is that you will never get two sponges identical in flavour, texture, height, nothing. They have a mind of their own (kind of).

Last week I felt the need to bake (fellow bakers, you know what I mean).

So I whipped up a nice simple chocolate sponge cake and then sandwiched the cakes together with a yummy vanilla buttercream, then topped with icing sugar. It really doesn't get much better.

As always, here is the recipe. Have a go and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:
6oz Self Raising Flour
2oz Cocoa Powder
8oz Butter
8oz Caster Sugar
4 Eggs

600g Icing Sugar, sieved (plus a little extra for dusting)
300g Butter, softened
Vanilla Essence

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180 Degrees Celsius.
Grease and line two 8inch sandwich tins and pop these to one side.
Beat together the butter and sugar until a light cream paste is formed, this should take three to four minutes by hand or just a couple of minutes by electric mixer, it just depends on how soft the butter is.

Gradually add the eggs one at a time (beating between each addition), adding a tbsp. of flour with the last egg, beat thoroughly. Add the flour and cocoa and mix well until all the ingredients are combined.

Split the mix between both cake tins, smoothing it out with a palette knife, until the mixture sits level in the tins. Pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Leave to one side to cool while you prepare the butter cream.

For the butter cream, simply beat together the icing sugar and butter (be careful not to splatter icing sugar everywhere, it can be quite messy!) until combined, it should form a similar mix to the butter and sugar combination for the sponge however it will be lighter and creamier.
Add as much vanilla essence as you like, tasting along the way, until you get to a flavour you like.

Once the sponges are cool enough, pop one sponge on a serving plate and level out the top with a serated knife.
Then spread the butter icing over the top and smooth it out. Place the second sponge on top and sprinkle with icing sugar.
Voila! A yummy chocolate cake, perfect for the whole family.




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