Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and marshmallows

Want to keep it simple: Omit the icing and marshmallows and just dust with icing sugar.

This cake has been doing the rounds in our family, lots have tried making it, experimented with it, and changed it up a bit, so it's a cake that can be personalised.

Recently I even made a tractor cake!!! for my son's third birthday using this recipe. I changed the cocoa for melted dark chocolate and I made a creme fraiche chocolate icing with the number 3 ploughed out of the icing (and a few chocolate flakes broken over the ploughed field) and a toy tractor on the side. It was a kids birthday cake, that the parents enjoyed as well. However, it wasn't as pretty as this cake and I wont be posting a pic. It needed a bit of visual refinement.

I'm not a fan of cakes that don't look like cakes anymore....or food for that matter, I cant stand green or blue cakes (Thomas!!!) I know the kids love it but I just don't get why you would want to make a cake that simply looks like a rainbow of additives and chemical components.

Therefore this cake is my 'go to' for any special occasion, I know it works, it can be dressed up or down, and it tastes like a REAL cake. Enjoy, Ingrid

Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and marshmallows
What you need:
2 cups of flour
2 cups of brown sugar
1 cup cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
handful of pink marshmallows

How to make:
Preheat oven to 180c. Mix everything together until smooth. Pour into greased 20cm diameter (deep) cake tin and bake for 45mins (approx). Test with skewer, cake is ready when it is clean.

Vanilla buttercream
What you need:
125g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
2 tbsp milk

How to make:
Beat butter and vanilla with electric beater. Gradually beat in half the sifted icing sugar, milk, then the remaining icing sugar. Add milk to get the consistency you desire. Spread onto cake and top with marshmallows.

3 comments:

  1. This is such a pretty and elegant yet simple looking cake. Thanks for the decorating idea, I'll be trying this out soon. Is there is any particular kind of vegetable oil (safflower or sunflower) you use or can I simply use olive oil?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Karen, Olive oil tends to have a strong flavor that personally I don't think matches so well with chocolate, it's also a more expensive option. I would use either canola, corn or a generic vegetable oil. Let us know how you got on. Ingrid

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hmmm lovely stuff and the recipe sound quite easy. Mine shall be drenched in chocolate!

    ReplyDelete