Ombré Monster Chocolate Cake

Morning all! I am so excited to share my latest creation with you: a completely over the top ombré chocolate cake, it was so much fun to make and it is so delicious!! Yesterday afternoon, I really fancied making something which challenged me but is also a lot of fun so this was what I endeavoured to create. Ombré really is the in-thing at the moment, it's everywhere, clothes, hair, decor and now cake! It may look tricky but if you tackle it bravely you will be absolutely fine! 

This cake is a one bowl wonder, however I would advise that you use an electric whisk in order to combine all ingredients. 

Ingredients

300g Self Raising Flour

300g Granulated Sugar

300g unsalted Butter

4 Eggs

4 tbsp. Milk

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Vanilla Essence

3 tbsp. Cocoa powder

400g Butter

500g Icing Sugar

1tsp. Vanilla

200g Nutella (to add gradually)

Oreos

Wither Original Toffees

2 Reeses cups

Chocolate of choice (middle)

Method

1. Start by cracking all of the eggs in the mixing bowl and whisking for 3-4 minutes until double in size. Then pour into a jug and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 180oc and prepare 2 tins with greaseproof paper
3. In the mixing bowl whisk the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then gradually add the eggs in, vanilla essence, cocoa and the baking soda.
4. Gradually add the flour in to the mixture, then add the milk.
5. Divide the mixtures between the two tins, smooth and place in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Use a cocktail stick or a knife to check the sponges are cooked. Do NOT over cook!
6. Once the sponges are cool: use the electric whisk to combine the butter, icing sugar and vanilla: at this point your icing will be yellow. Now add 1 tsp of Nutella.
7. Spread 2tbsp of butter cream onto the bottom sponge and then sandwich the two together.
8. Now using a pallette knife, spoon one large tbsp of icing to the top of the cake and the top third of the side of the cake. 
   9. Now add 1 tsp of Nutella to the icing, this will make it slightly darker, Hse your knife to cover the second third of the sides of the cake.
   10. Finally add one large tbsp of Nutella to the icing, then use the pallette knife to the last third of the sides of the cake.
   11. You should have enough icing left to either pipe some icing around the sides of the top of the cake or use a knife to smear icing around the sides. 
   
   
   Decorate the top of your cake however you please, I used Oreos, toffees and reeses cups, however it is completely up to you! Enjoy!! 

Anti-Gravity Malteser Cake

I made this cake for my brothers birthday, in order to out do my efforts last year. I make the birthday cakes in this family, but each family member has a different theme, for example when I bake something for my partner, I will ensure it contains peanut butter, as he absolutely loves it, so I cant go wrong. My dad will have a chocolate cake, my step-mum a very pretty cake, my mum will have something fruity, and so on. I tend to make my brothers cake completely absurd, spectacular and every year I attempt to top my previous efforts. I saw an image on Pintrest of an antigravity cake which was made with M&MS. I think the idea of an anti-gravity cake is both clever and highly impressive. I decided to make mine with maltesers, as they are one of my brothers favourites. In terms of flavour of the cake, I had no second thoughts on keeping my cake a chocolatey one. I made my fool proof chocolate sponge with chocolate hazelnut icing, a great cheat of mine, but it is completely delicious, and when you need to ice both the inside and the outside of a cake you need a fair amount of icing.

In terms of tools you will need to pull off a cake like this, you will require a base for the cake, cocktail sticks, and a skewer. I will advise you to soak them in order until you need them so that they don't shave off any splinters in your cake!

Anti-Gravity Malteser Cake

250g self-raising flour

250g granulated sugar

250g softened butter

4 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp. cocoa powder

200g Nutella/ Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

400g Icing Sugar

100g Butter

Splash of milk

1 small bag of Maltesers

5 bags of Grab Bag Maltesers

3 Packs of Cadburys Chocolate Fingers

• Preheat the oven to 195oc and pace baking paper in two 9 inch round tins.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugar and the butter together until light and fluffy.
• In a separate jug, whisk the eggs together and set to one side.
• Weigh out the flour, baking powder and cocoa and gradually add to the cream and sugar mixture. This will be a little tough and thick however once the flour has been added, proceed to add the egg mixture. Mix until thick.
• The mixture will need to be correctly halved and placed in the tins. To do this use 2 bowls to divide the mixture out evening, or estimate if you aren't too fussed.
• Bake the sponge for 15 minutes, until golden brown and springy.
• While the sponges are baking, you can use this time to make your icing. In a food processor, place the icing sugar with the butter. If the mixture is a little stiff, add a splash of milk to lighten it up.
• Once the ingredients have been combined well, add the nutella and whizz the mixture some more.
• Pop in the fridge until the sponges are cold.
• Once the cakes are ready to ice, take some of the icing to sandwich both sponges  together, then proceed to ice the sides and the top of the sponges.
• To decorate, stick the chocolate fingers around the sides of the cake, but leave space at the front for the flood of maltesers.
• Place the maltesers neatly on top of the cake and the gap left by the fingers, for effectiveness, if you use a large cake base you can have some of the maltesers spilling onto the base.
• If the maltesers are having trouble sticking to the icing then use the cocktail sticks, stick the cocktail stick into the malteser at one end and the other end into the cake.
• Using the skewers, pop the small malteser bag on top, empty obviously and fix with a small piece of sticky tape.
• Pop the skewer into the cake and using the left over icing, create a tower of maltesers up to the bag, to look as if they are falling out. To finish I can the cake a shimmering of cocoa and icing sugar, this gives the cake a real glimmering.
  
  
  

  
  

If you have any tips of questions please comment below.

Enjoy!