Triple Layer Triple Chocolate Cake

October 17th to 23rd is National Baking Week here in the UK. A host of leading baking brands are encouraging Britain to get baking, which I think is a great thing! Baking to me means many memories of fun times in the kitchen, clouds of flour, kids helping with icing fairy cakes, licking out the bowl of batter when my mum made one of her wonderful roulades, the most enticing aromas of chocolate or bread coming from the oven.

I plan to spend the week baking all sorts of goodies for sharing with friends and family: a roast vegetable quiche, a Lincolnshire Poacher cheese loaf, a game pie and then, to top it all off, this wonderful triple layer chocolate cake using hand-made chocolate by Tracey Cox of The Little Chocolatier in Louth.

The idea is to make three cakes, one in dark chocolate, one in milk chocolate and one in white chocolate, but to make it as simple as possible you only make one big batter mix and then add the melted chocolate once it has been divided into three. If you’re feeling really adventurous you could go further and do other layers – a bright green mint chocolate layer would be wonderful, or how about a chocolate orange layer?

METHOD
Grease and line three 20cm cake tins and pre-heat the oven to 180C (or 160C for fan ovens)

In three bowls gently melt the chocolates in the microwave (so much simpler than a double boiler, but watch like a hawk – you’re better off leaving it slightly solid and letting the residual heat melt it outside the microwave) and set them aside to cool

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt together into a medium bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy; then beat in the eggs a little at a time until fully combined.

Mix the buttermilk with the boiling water. Add the flour and buttermilk mix and gently fold it into the mixture. I do this is stages, separating the flour and buttermilk into thirds. It makes the cake lighter and avoids any splitting.

Now separate the batter evenly into three bowls and gently fold in the three different melted chocolates, one into each bowl until you are left with a dark, milk and white chocolate selection of bowls.

Pour each one into its own cake tin and bake for 25-30 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

To make the ganache, melt the butter, chocolate and honey or golden syrup in the microwave and once smooth add the cream and stir until combined. Leave to cool for at least 20 minutes.

To assemble the cake simply layer a small amount of the ganache on top of the first cake, then sandwich the next cake on top, repeating the process until the three layers are complete. Then smooth the remainder of the ganache onto the outside.

Grate on a little of the three chocolates you’ve used to jazz the top up a little.

Eat and of course enjoy!

Read about the rest of my adventures in baking on my blog belleaukitchen.blogspot.com

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