Sarah Nelson's Ginger and Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
50g cocoa
6 tbsp boiling water
3 eggs
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp syrup from Stem Ginger in Syrup
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g stork or softened butter
300g caster sugar
Four balls of stem ginger, diced
For the Buttercream icing:
600g icing sugar
200g butter
80g cocoa
30ml milk
50ml syrup from Stem Ginger in Syrup
Decoration:
Bag of Grasmere Gingerbread® Crumbs
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas 4
- Grease and/or line 2 20cm (8”) round cake tins
- Mix the cocoa and boiling water in a large bowl until it forms a paste.
- Add all remaining ingredients, except the stem ginger, and beat until combined.
- Fold in the stem ginger.
- Pour the mix into the cake tins and bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until well-risen and a wooden skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Let cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.
- While the cakes cool, make the buttercream icing. Cream the icing sugar, butter, and cocoa in a bowl and beat until the mixture comes together and looks like large grains of sand.
- Add the milk and ginger syrup and continue to beat until well combined. If the icing looks too thick add more milk. The longer you beat the mixture the fluffier the icing will be.
- To assemble the cake, place the first sponge on a plate and spread a generous layer of buttercream on top in an even layer. Optional: For an extra kick of ginger, dice up another couple of balls of stem ginger and sprinkle over the icing.
- Add the second sponge on top, then add another layer of buttercream. Smooth more icing around the sides of the cake, making sure there aren’t any gaps.
- Take your bag of Grasmere Gingerbread® Crumbs and press the crumbs around the side of the cake in an even layer.
- Optional: Pipe some remaining buttercream on the top of the cake in whatever design you please.
- Finally, take the Dark Chocolate Gingers and chop them up to the desired size. Sprinkle around the top of the cake.
- Enjoy!