Easy Chocolate Cake

This chocolate cake looks good and it tastes great too, guess what...it is really easy to make!! This is so easy to make and decorate that I made two of them for my childrens teacher, the perfect end of year thank you!!

The sponge mix is an all in one - put everything into a bowl, mix it up - and the chocolate buttercream is a doddle to make.

To start with I made the sponge using my Victoria Sponge recipe and poured it into a 7" (18cm x 6cm) deep cake tin and baked it at 190º/ 375ºF/ Gas Mark 5 in the oven for 50-55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool completely. Meanwhile make up a batch of my Simple Vanilla Buttercream recipe and replace 50g of the icing sugar with 50g of cocoa powder.

Cut the cake into three layers using a long blade, like a bread knife. If layering a cake is totally new to you then this Zoe Bakes video is a great step by step tutorial and how to get rid of the domed top. My personal preference for getting rid of a domed top is to turn the cake upside down, I use a turntable when cutting or decorating my cakes, but placing the cake onto the base of your tin and placing that onto an upturned saucer will do just as well.

Spread each layer with some buttercream, notice that my cake is upside down. I secure all my cakes onto the cake board with a blob of buttercream, keeps it from sliding around! Make sure that your cake is level before you apply the crumbcoat.

Cover the cake with the remaining buttercream, take care when smoothing the top of the cake as it will be seen, no need to worry about the sides though because they will be clad in chocolaty goodness very soon.

Three 114g boxes of Cadbury Chocolate Fingers will be enough for this 7" cake (with some left over for the cook!!)

This cake is perfect as it is, you could top it with some summer fruits, strawberries dipped in chocolate, white chocolate curls or any sweets of your choosing.

I couldn't resist using a big (121g) bag of  Maltesers!

Done and dusted!!