The sunshine really is good for the soul and following on from this week's horrific events, it's nice to see clear blue skies and smiles on faces as everyone makes the most of this warm spell.

I had planned on sharing this recipe with you earlier in the week but with everything that went on I didn't feel like it was appropriate to bang on about chocolate cake.

I still can't believe what has happened but it is so heartwarming to see how the public are pulling together to help the victims and their families. One victim was from Otley and it's been amazing to see the outpouring of love and support on our local Facebook group with people wanting to help in whatever way they can.

I made this chocolate cake for a very special Clandestine Cake Club event that I went to at John Lewis in Leeds last week (I shall publish a separate post on that event soon). The theme was Never Knowingly Underbaked and if I'm honest I was totally stumped on what to make. I knew I wanted to make something chocolatey and a different type of cake from my usual recipe but I was clueless on what to actually bake.

When I'm lacking in inspiration I often have a flick through Mary Berry's Baking Bible. I've loads of cookery books but for some reason it's always the one that I like to go back to as I know the recipes work. I've yet to make something by Bezza that hasn't turned out well.

Thankfully the Baking Bible has a whole chapter dedicated to chocolate cake (a woman after my own heart) and the recipe for Death By Chocolate Cake looked perfect. There was no need to take some butter out of the fridge to soften and I was able to get it whipped up, in to the oven and baked during Ethan's morning nap. I opted for a ganache instead of the chocolate frosting that Mary suggests purely because I adore ganache and when time is off the essence it's so quick and easy to pull together.

To decorate I dipped some strawberries in melted chocolate and scattered crushed white chocolate minstrels around the edge (they aren't actually white chocolate minstrels, just Aldi's version). You can really tell I was winging it with this cake!


A Super Indulgent Chocolate Cake
275g plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa
1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
215g caster sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
3 large eggs, beaten
225ml sunflower oil
225ml milk

Ganache
300ml double cream
300g dark chocolate

To Decorate
Handful of Strawberries
50g melted white and dark chocolate
Handful of crushed white chocolate minstrels

Preheat the oven to 160C (fan)
Grease and line two 20cm cake tins
Stir the dry ingredients together
Make a well in the middle and whisk in the wet ingredients
Once combined pour into the tins and place in the oven
Bake for 30-35 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean
Tip on a wire rack to cool

To make the Ganache heat the milk until warm but not boiling
Stir in the chocolate until melted and smooth
Place in the fridge to firm up for a couple of hours

Dip the strawberries in the melted dark chocolate, drizzle over the white chocolate and set aside to cool
Spread any remaining melted chocolate over some greaseproof paper and pop in the fridge to chill
Once firm break into "shards"
Crush the minstrels with the back of a knife

To Decorate
Once the cakes are cool, level off the tops and sandwich together with some ganache
Coat the rest of the cake in the remaining ganache
Using a ribbed scraper, pull around the edge of the cake to give a ribbed effect
Scatter over the strawberries and crush chocolate
Gently push the shards in to the cake

Enjoy!