Chocolate Wedding Cake Attempt 1

For my Australian wedding I am looking at making my own wedding cake so will be trying out a series of chocolate cake recipes until I find the cake most suitable for me. It has to be rich dense and fudgey and to be honest I am not so sure where to start. Before I attack my own recipe books I plan to have a good search and find some decent recipes online.


The first one I plan on trying is one from the BBC Good Food Website http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4577/wedding-cake--rich-dark-chocolate-cake It sounds right up my alley, I don't have a 30cm pan and there is no way one would fit in my oven anyhow so I will be halving this recipe and using a 20cm pan. 


The Recipe - Attempt Number 1 - Chocolate Wedding Cake from BBC Good Food website
650g unsalted butter
650g plain chocolate (70% cocoa)
100ml very strong coffee- espresso is ideal
3 tsp vanilla essence
650g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
950g light soft brown sugar
10 eggs
2 x 284ml/9.5 fl oz soured cream

The Method

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into the biggest bowl you have. Add the sugar, breaking down any lumps with your fingertips if necessary. Beat the eggs and soured cream together in a jug or bowl and pour into the flour mix. Pour in the melted chocolate mix as well, then stir with a wooden spoon until you have a thick, even chocolaty batter.
3. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 2½ hrs - don't open the oven door before 2 hrs is up, as this will cause the cake to sink. Once cooked, leave in the tin to cool completely. The unfilled cake will keep for up to four days, wrapped as before, or frozen for a month.
4. to decorate and fill this cake I made a simple white chocolate ganache by bringing 100ml cream to almost boiling point and pouring it over 220g white chocolate. Once the chocolate was smooth, Iet it cool before using it to fill and top the cake

The height on this cake was awesome, if it had rose anymore it would have spilled over the top of the paper, which wouldn't have been good. Once cool, I took of the cracked top (the recipe had mentioned to not open the over for 2 hours or the cake would crack), sliced it in half and filled it with the ganache. the cake inside was light chocolatey and rich looking, and once filled gave off a beautiful aroma.

So I took half of this cake into work and asked people to rate it out of ten, here is how it scored:
Camaryn:  10
Alice: 8
Lynton: 7
Scott: 7.5
Me: 7
A total of 49.5, not bad!!