I mentioned in my last post that my parents came to stay for a few days recently for Mum's birthday. Often I miss a lot of the family birthdays with living across the water so having Mum here provided me with the perfect opportunity to bake her a birthday cake.

I was really struggling for ideas for ages as I wanted something with a bit of a wow factor but that wasn't too labour intensive. I do miss spending hours baking in the kitchen but with maternity leave rapidly whizzing by I want to savour as many moments with my boy as possible.

My parents are quite plain eaters so there is no point in making anything too wacky on the flavour front as they won't enjoy it. I realised I needed a cake that looked amazing but was traditional in taste. I know I could have knocked up a Victoria Sandwich or a Lemon Drizzle fairly quickly but birthday cakes need to be fun and interesting as we only get that special day once a year.

When I think of a birthday cake I always think of sprinkles, lashings of icing and it's more often than not chocolate! By combining these three together I created one of my most favourite cakes to date - my go to chocolate cake sandwiched and coated with a decadent chocolate ganache, a scattering of sprinkles up the sides and a selection of delicious chocolates on top.

This cake took very little time to knock together. I popped it in the oven while Ethan napped and made up the ganache. Once he went to bed I trimmed the layers, assembled and decorated it. To be honest that part should have only taken half an hour at most but a certain little man kept waking up!

Mum was delighted with her cake (phew!) and Dad who isn't a massive fan of chocolate cake said he really enjoyed it too - woop!

I know I've already said it but this was one of my most favourite cakes to make to date. Happy Birthday Mum!

Chocolate Box Birthday Cake

2.5 cups SR Flour
2 cups soft dark brown sugar (although any sugar will be fine)
1 cup cocoa
1 cup veg/sunflower oil
1.5 cups of milk
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs

• Preheat your oven to 160C (fan)
• Grease and line two 20cm cake tins
• Pop all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth
• Divide between the two tins and bake for 40mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean
• Tip onto a wire rack to cool

To Decorate
300ml double cream
200g dark chocolate
100g milk chocolate
Sprinkles
Selection of chocolates

• Heat the cream until warm but not boiling
• Stir in the chocolate until melted, smooth and glossy
• Place in a bowl in the fridge for 2-3 hours until thick and spreadable in consistency
• Level the sponge layers
• Sandwich together with the ganache and coat the outside of the cake with a generous amount
• Carefully scatter the sprinkles up the sides
• Decorate with a selection of chocolates

Enjoy!