Week 24 - Chocolate Birthday Cake

Quote from a book -  This little cake is such a simple show stopper. 

If the birthday boy loves chocolate, a more perfect cake you won't find - Jo Wheatley A Passion for Baking.

Faff Factor = 9

Bake = 9

Keeping Up Appearances = 9

Total score = 27/30

Oh, have I got a baking tale to tell you this week.  It was Jack's birthday last weekend (can you guess how old!) and I wanted to bake him his birthday cake.  It was a silly question asking what kind of cake he preferred as I knew before the word came out of his mouth it would be chocolate. 

To add to my ever expanding cookery bookcase I bought Jo Whitley's A Passion for Baking book and she has recently ran a competition on her blog for people to bake the chocolate cake. After reading all the complimentary comments on how wonderful it tasted I decided this was the recipe to use.

After the first bake I realised that two layers would not be enough to feed 10 of us at Jack's party so decided to bake another cake to add and have three layers.  Unfortunately I did not have any butter remaining, however I did have the new liquid Stork in my fridge.  Thinking it would not make any difference away I went and baked another cake.  Well peeps let me tell you, there is a difference, a very noticable difference too.

The cake I made with butter was more dense and firm, and even on tasting more of a brownie kind of texture, however the Stork cake, which is the middle layer in the photo above, was more bouncy and moist, more like an American cake when you use oil instead of butter (which alot of American recipes favour).

I couldn't fault either cake but as a preference when I bake this recipe again I will be using Stork.  I have used it once before for a vanilla cake and I really didn't like the taste so have avoided using it again but this recipe has changed my mind.  I'm no expert on the science of baking but I think it maybe the liquid is having a good counterbalance when using cocoa powder to make the cake moist (just love this word J) and not dry. 

If you can get your hands on a copy of Jo's book, treat yourself, because this cake is truly easy to make even the ganache is made differently to the norm but the taste was excellent.

And before anyone asks the Chocolate Smiley face is from Hotel Chocolat.  It was Jack's treat as he loves 70% Dark Chocolate and I thought it made the right addition to a boy's cake.

And the birthday boy looking mighty pleased.

Blow the candles and make a wish!

It is an impressive cake don't you think?

Have a great weekend.  I'm off to look and see what light and low calorie bake I can do this weekend.  All these cakes are making an unhealthy addition to my hips!

TTFN

Lynetta Xx