It was Imogens 22nd birthday at the start of this week, so as per usual we wanted to make an amazing cake to celebrate the occasion! This cake features two things which we have been absolutely dying to try; a sprinkle cake and chocolate bark. We are super happy with how the cake turned out, we think it looks really fun and exciting!
We made just a simple vanilla sponge and filled the layers with Chambord soaked raspberries and buttercream. The first tier is a sprinkle cake, and the second is decorated with turquoise white chocolate ganache drips and topped with exciting, colourful white chocolate bark.
If you want to have a go at making this cake, then read on to find out how (or to just look at pretty pictures).
Ingredients:
For the cake...
Bottom tier: (9inch)
10oz butter
10oz caster sugar
5 eggs
10oz self-raising flour
2tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla essence
Top tier: (7inch)
6oz butter
6oz caster sugar
3 eggs
5oz self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla essence
For the buttercream...
14oz butter
28oz icing sugar
For the filling...
1 punnet raspberries
2tbsp Chambord
For the decoration...
approx. 300g sprinkles
Ganache:
50ml double cream
200g white chocolate
food colouring
Chocolate bark:
300g white chocolate
food colourings
sprinkles
For the decoration...
approx. 300g sprinkles
Ganache:
50ml double cream
200g white chocolate
food colouring
Chocolate bark:
300g white chocolate
food colourings
sprinkles
We used 2 of the 9 inch cake tins for the bottom tier and then baked the top tier as one cake in a 7 inch cake tin and then cut that cake in the half.
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then, add in the eggs, vanilla essence and baking powder and combine. Mix in the self-raising flour until you have a smooth batter.
Divide the bottom tier chocolate cake mixture equally into to 9 inch cake tins (or leave half of the mixture in the bowl if you need to reuse the cake tin for the second cake).
Make the batter for the top way in the exact same way as above and then pour the batter into the tin. Put the cakes into the oven and bake the two 9 inch cakes for 25 minutes and the 7 inch cake for 40 minutes. Make sure the cakes are cooked before taking out of the oven by checking to see if an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Place the punnet of raspberries in a bowl along with the Chambord and mush them up a little using a fork, leave them to soak while you make the buttercream.
For the buttercream, beat together the butter and icing sugar. You can add a bit more icing sugar if you want to thicken it.
Place the first layer of cake onto a cake board or plate and spread on a generous layer of buttercream.
Evenly place just over half of the raspberries and Chambord on top of the buttercream, then place the second layer of cake on top. Repeat the buttercream and raspberry steps for the second cake.
Cover the two cakes in buttercream; starting by filling in the gaps between the cake layers, then covering the whole cake evenly. Leave the first layer of buttercream to dry for about 10 minutes. Don't worry too much about making the buttercream smooth on the bottom tier as you will cover it all with sprinkles! Now, give the top tier a second layer of buttercream and then leave to dry whilst you decorate the bottom tier.
Cover the bottom tier with another layer of buttercream and while its still wet cover the cake in sprinkles. We're not really sure of the best technique for this, some people roll the cake in sprinkles but we just went for a sort of throwing/pouring the sprinkles onto the cake with spatulas technique. It's a bit hard to explain but just experiment until you find a way that works best for you!
When your happy with your sprinkle cake you can carefully place the top tier on top.
To make the bark we melted 300g of white chocolate. We tempered our chocolate to make sure it would be hard at room temperature. To do this chop up the chocolate into small pieces and place about 1/4 into the fridge. Melt the other 3/4 either in the microwave or over a pan of hot water and bring it up to 45°C. When it reaches this temperature, quickly take it off the heat, add your cold chocolate and stir to reduce the temperature down to 26°C as quick and you can. When you have it down to 26°C, you want to bring it back up to 32°C but make sure not to heat it up any higher or you will have to start all over again.
Split the chocolate out into separate bowls and stir in your food colourings.
Spread the chocolate onto a piece of greaseproof paper and swirl around using a spoon to create pretty patterns.
While it's still wet you can now add any sprinkles or decorations that you wish. Leave aside to harden.
To make the ganache, heat the double cream over a low heat until it starts to steam. Take of the heat, add in the chocolate and food colouring and stir. Let the ganache thicken a little before putting onto the cake to make sure it doesn't all run off.
Start by pouring some ganache into the middle of the cake and then push it to the edges using a spoon.
When the chocolate bark has set you can now break it into rough shards varying in sizes. Place these onto the cake, pushing them down into the top to make them stand up.
We love the look of this cake, the sprinkles and bark are such effective decorations! We added a little gold leaf to our bark to make it extra exciting!
The Chambord and raspberries inside the cake make a perfect fruity filling, it makes a really delicious change to jam! The sprinkles on the cake add a really tasty texture to the buttercream.
The cake was a big hit with our family, everyone thought it was delicious!
Thank you very much for reading this post!
We have a lot more birthdays coming soon so this is the start of many cakes.
What are your favourite kinds of cake? We would love to know if you have any ideas for us to try!
We are currently in Rome as this post goes up so we will see you soon,
Love, Antonia and Imogen x
