5 from 6 votes

Super indulgent and versatile, this easy to make, rich chocolate cake is perfect to adapt for many occasions, birthdays, family celebrations or baked as a lovely treat to serve with a coffee.

I made this deep rich chocolate cake the first time with help from my two youngest who were both teenagers at the time, a team baking effort. This has since been a regular bake for celebrations in our household! Serves 12-16 generously.

It’s fun to bake and delicious to eat, this cake is guaranteed to disappear very quickly I can vouch for that!

I’ve used this recipe for a few different special occasions and made it slightly different each time, I don’t always make the truffles for decorating and the ganache can be swapped out for shop bought ready-made icing, just put it in an icing bag and pipe it. It’s good to have different options and play around with the finished look.

Indulgent Chocolate Celebration Cake

Recipe by Janine Moore

5 from 6 votes

Super indulgent and versatile, this easy to make, rich chocolate cake is perfect to adapt for many occasions, birthdays, family celebrations or baked as a lovely treat to serve with a coffee.

Course: DessertCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Medium

Servings

servings

Prep time

hour

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Calories

590

kcal

Ingredients

For the cake
150 ml (5floz) quality vegetable oilplus enough for greasing cake tins.
140 g (5oz) golden caster sugar (or super fine sugar.)
175 g (6oz) self-raising flour plus extra for dusting.
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
140 g (5floz) golden syrup
150 ml (5floz) full-fat milk
2 free range eggs
For the truffles
50 g (2oz) digestive biscuits/ graham crackers, crushed into crumbs.
100 g (4oz) milk chocolate, broken into pieces
1 tsp soft butter
3 tbsp chocolate sprinkles/chocolate curls or flakes
For ganache topping
500 ml (18floz) double cream
1 tbsp soft butter
150 g (5oz) dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa solids, or milk chocolate broken up into pieces.
Chocolate spread if your taste buds can take more delight.

Directions

Pre-heat oven to gas 3, 160c/320f, or 140c/284f for fan assisted oven.
Grease 2 20cm cake tins, spring form ones if you have them. Lightly dust over the greased tins with a little flour.
Put all the measured cake ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat well, by hand or mixer whichever you choose, I like to use a wooden spoon.
Blend together until smooth.
Divide the cake mix into the 2 cake tins, making sure to be equal between the 2 tins.
Now bake in the pre-heated oven for 25-30mins.
Check at 20mins because all ovens can vary.
When ready the cake should be soft and springy and as a test insert a skewer into the centre and see if it comes out without any stickiness.
Leave to cool for 15mins after leaving the oven before removing from tins.
While the cakes are baking start to prepare the truffles, if using this version. I like to melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water but you can use a microwave if you prefer.
Stir in the butter and combine with the crumbled biscuit.
Now leave in a fridge to set enough to roll into balls, about 20 mins.
Once you have made 12 balls, roll them in the sprinkles then leave to set.
To make the ganache icing, pour 125g (5floz) of the double cream into a pan and gently heat up,
Once it’s heated up add the butter and keep stirring with a wooden spoon until melted.
Put the broken chocolate pieces into a heatproof bowl and pour the creamy mixture over the chocolate, stir in until all is combined.
Leave to cool for roughly 30 mins.
While the icing mixture is cooling whisk up the remaining double cream until light and fluffy and spread evenly over one of the cooled cakes to sandwich them together.
If a more chocolatey filling is required add a layer of chocolate spread to the sandwiched cakes.
To finish, spread the top and the sides of the cake with the chocolate topping that has cooled down previously and complete the cake by evenly adding the chocolate truffles around the top of the cake and sprinkle as required with more of the chocolate sprinkles or chocolate curls.
The decoration is of course a personal thing and you can use your imagination for whatever occasion you have in mind. Keep in the fridge in an air tight container and use within a few days if using the cream ganache topping.
’m sure that won’t be a problem as it usually goes rather fast! Serves 12-16 generously.