Chocolate Cake

This week I organised a party for a lovely four year old boy called Alex, and I thought I would share the cake and party bags with you for inspiration.  I have also included the chocolate cake recipe as it's quite easy and yummy, so much so that both children and adults came back for seconds.  When you read the ingredients, you'll see that it contains lots of chocolate - so it's no wonder it was a hit! The recipe below is for a double mix of cake as the tin is obviously quite large.  Just a hint, you can often hire the cake tins from specialty gift stores or catering stores, just have a look around your local area. The cake board is covered in contact and strips of the same were popped onto plain white paper bags with orange stars cut out of paper and attached with a matching ribbon.  I also made a cute garland using the stars on a ribbon to run across a doorway.  Very inexpensive and very effective.  I hope you find some fresh inspiration for your next kids party...

And now for the recipe...

Melt and Mix Chocolate Cake
400g butter, softened
400g good quality dark chocolate  (I use Callebaut Couveture chocolate but, if you're on a budget cadbury's will do, but nothing cheaper.. the taste is in the chocolate)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (buy from your supermarket)
2 cups caster sugar (I use raw caster sugar)
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2  cups self raising flour

1. Preheat oven to 160c. Grease and line a large pan (NB. this quantity is for a large pan or 2 pan mix)
2. Place butter, grated chocolate and 1/2 cup hot water in a microwave heatproof bowl and microwave uncovered for 1-2 mins (stirring occasionally) until smooth.
3. Add cocoa powder to warm chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Stir in vanilla, sugar and egg.
4. Stir flour over the chocolate mixture and stir gently until combined. Pour the mixture into prepared pan
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre has moist crumbs clinging.
6. Allow to cool completely in the pan.
7. Turn cake onto a cake board and decorate.

For the number four cake shown above, I used pre-prepared fondant icing, available from your supermarket.  Before the cake is decoarted, apply a layer of chocolate ganache to the cake, made from 200gms dark couveture chocolate and 100mls cream, simply bring the cream just to the boil, pour it over the grated chocolate, stir gently, so you don't create air bubbles, pop it in the fridge and let it semi set, then spread over the cake to create a lovely even layer, so the fondant rolls on neatly.  The image just above shows the same cake with fondant in between two layers of cake, and also on top with grated chocolate to finish it off, great with a coffee... 

For the childrens cake, the fondant is tinted with food colouring, rolled out and placed on the cake and the stars are made using a cookie cutter, the stars are applied with a little beaten egg white. Allow the icing to dry before transporting (especially in hot weather).