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5 from 1 vote

Peter's Chocolate Cake with Whipped Chocolate Frosting

Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time1 hour 45 minutes
Total Time2 hours 15 minutes
Servings: 1 large cake
Author: Gina @ The Passionate Pantry

Ingredients

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CAKE

  • 80 g Dutched cocoa
  • 200 g water just off the boil

  • 250 g butter room temperature and cut into cubes
  • 500 g golden caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

  • 4 x 60g eggs room temperature

  • 300 g self raising flour
  • 80 g plain flour
  • 1 tsp sea salt flakes
  • ½ tsp bi-carb soda
  • 310 g buttermilk / or 230g whole milk with 80g plain yoghurt

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FROSTING

  • 150 g dark chocolate chopped into small pieces
  • 100 g milk chocolate chopped into small pieces
  • 90 g butter room temperature, cut into cubes
  • 1 tsp sea salt flakes
  • 1 tsp light olive oil

Instructions

METHOD FOR CAKE

  • Boil kettle
  • Place a jug on top of TM bowl and weigh in cocoa
  • Weigh in hot water over the cocoa (be careful … ensure the jug is steady), remove jug and stir with a fork to mix together
  • Put aside for 30 minutes to cool a little (set a timer)
  • Preheat oven 150 degrees fan forced and place rack into middle of oven
  • Grease and line a 24cm round cake time (base measurement)
  • Once 30 minutes has passed place butter, sugar and vanilla into TM bowl and blend 1 minute / speed 4
  • Stir mix around, insert butterfly then blend again 1 minute / speed 4
  • Commence TM on speed 3 and add eggs one at a time through hole in lid … this should take between 30 to 40 seconds, stir mix around
  • Add flours, salt and bi-carb soda and mix 10 seconds / speed 3
  • Scrape around bowl, add buttermilk (or milk and yoghurt) and cocoa mixture and blend 20 seconds / speed 3
  • Scrape around bowl and blend again 10 seconds / speed 3
  • Pour mixture into baking tin evening out the top
  • NB: I always keep my butterfly in the bowl whilst I am pouring out a cake batter into a baking tin, I scrape around it with a flexible spatula to get as much out of the bowl as I can … then to remove the last of the mixture off the butterfly, I return my bowl to the carousel and spin the butterfly on speed 4 for a couple of seconds … all the mix on it will spin off to the sides of the bowl, I then remove the butterfly (which no longer has any batter on it) and scrape the bowl with my flexible spatula to remove the rest of the batter
  • Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, turn cake around and continue for another 15 minutes (it has baked now for a total of 1 hour 30 minutes)
  • Check to see if a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean, and if not continue for another 5 minutes, then recheck and continue at 5 minute intervals until done (it took exactly 1 hour 40 minutes in my oven but be guided by your tester at 1 hour 30 minutes)
  • Remove cake from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes before inverting onto a cake rack to cool completely before frosting

METHOD FOR FROSTING – MICROWAVE METHOD

  • Place all the ingredients into a medium mixing bowl and microwave on high at 20 second intervals, stirring between each interval until fully melted (this will take only a couple of minutes depending on the size of your chocolate pieces so make them small)
  • Once fully melted, place container into the fridge to firm up … check every 15 minutes or so as you don’t want the chocolate to go solid, just firm up enough to whip
  • Remove container from fridge and whip the mix with a hand held electric beater for three minutes or until light and fluffy
  • Spread frosting over cooled cake and leave plain, or sprinkle with decoration of choice (chocolate shards, rose petals, etc.)
  • Keeps well for a few days

METHOD FOR FROSTING – THERMOMIX METHOD

  • Place all the ingredients into TM bowl and heat 4 minutes / 50 degrees / speed 3, scraping after 2 minutes to ensure that all the chocolate is in the base of the bowl
  • If not completely melted continue for another 1 minute / 50 degrees / speed 3
  • Once fully melted pour chocolate mix into a medium sized bowl and place into the fridge to firm up … check every 15 minutes or so as you don’t want the chocolate to go solid, just firm up enough to whip
  • Remove container from fridge and whip the mix with a hand held electric beater for three minutes or until light and fluffy
  • Spread frosting over cooled cake and leave plain, or sprinkle with decoration of choice (chocolate shards, rose petals, etc.)
  • Keeps well for a few days

Notes

I have chosen to use Dutched cocoa in this cake for its fuller flavour and darker colour, and I want to acknowledge upfront that there is a lot of sugar used for this special occasion cake, but the one thing I have learned over time in baking is that: sugar = moisture, so if you decide to reduce the sugar you may not end up with a lovely moist cake.
I initially made the frosting in the Thermomix (melted it, then stored the ™ bowl in the fridge to allow frosting to firm up before whipping with the butterfly), and whilst it worked, I lost a lot of frosting as it became quite thick and therefore difficult to get off the base of the bowl and butterfly. So with my next attempt I used the microwave and my small hand held beater making the process super simple, clean and easy (if you don't have a hand held electric beater they are very inexpensive, and a wonderful item to have available so I would highly recommend one). I have given you both the microwave and Thermomix options for melting the frosting, before cooling and whipping with the electric beater.
I have made the frosting using a combination of dark and milk as described in the recipe, as well as all dark chocolate and liked both … so use your preference (for me it is all dark chocolate).