Great British Bake Off Bake Along – Chocolate Drip Cake

It’s been a week since the final of The Great British Bake Off. I must admit, I’m rather sad that it won’t be on this evening :o( Though the BBC have confirmed that there will be a couple of Christmas Specials returning to our TV’s later in the year!!

So what did the final episode offer in the way of bakes last week? We saw the remaining 3 bakers; Andrew, Candice & Jane challenged to create a meringue crown for the signature bake, Victoria sponge for the technical challenge and a regal picnic fit for the Queen for the Showstopper that consisted of a hell of a lot of elements. The judges requested one chocolate celebration cake, 12 puff pastry sausage rolls, 12 savoury scones, 12 mini quiches and 12 custard and fruit tarts, all baked in five hours!! 49 things in 5 hours!! I think I may have had a meltdown!! Andrew’s bakes weren’t all quite up to scratch, according to Mary & Paul, for the final round – though I thought his chocolate cake looked amazing! Jane had some issues with her chocolate wrap decoration not peeling away from the acetate so she decided to throw edible glitter on the sides of her chocolate cake instead!! Both Candice & Jane received the rare Hollywood Handshake for their meringues. Candice created the cutest little sausage rolls complete with lil piggy faces which I adored and her bakes helped her win the Bake Off which I was really pleased about as she was one of my faves from the beginning!!

So with tons of bakes to choose from for my final creation in my Bake Along series, I just had to bake up something from the showstopper round and decided to bake a Chocolate drip cake complete with chocolate bark, buttercream swirls & sprinkles. I’ve wanted to create a drip cake for quite sometime now – inspired by a couple of my favourite bakers; Katherine Sabbath & Reshmi Bennett – Founder of Anges De Sucre.

To make this cake you will need the following ingredients:
50g (2oz) sifted cocoa powder
90ml boiling water
3 large eggs
50ml (2fl oz) milk
175g (6oz) self-raising flour
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder
100g (4oz) softened butter
275g (10oz) caster sugar

For the filling and icing:
250g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
500g icing sugar
2 tbsp milk
4oz dark chocolate

To decorate:
Chocolate bark:
150g dark chocolate
150g milk chocolate
150g white chocolate
A selection of sprinkles & chocolate chips

Chocolate Ganache:
150g dark chocolate
100g butter

Method:
For the cake:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas Mark 4. Grease three 6 inch round sandwich tins with non-stick cooking spray or butter then line the base and sides of each tin with baking parchment.

2. Blend the cocoa and boiling water in a large bowl then add the remaining cake ingredients and beat until the mixture has become a smooth, thickish batter. Divide the cake mix equally between the prepared tins and level the surface.

3. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25–40 minutes or until well risen and the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly pressed with a finger. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack.

4. Meanwhile, make the chocolate bark, melt the chocolate in 3 separate bowls in the microwave or Bain Marie (bowl over a pan of simmering water). Line a tin with foil lined baking paper…

…pour the milk chocolate into the tin and tilt the tin to spread the chocolate into the corners

then drizzle the dark and white chocolate in and use a dowel to swirl around and make pretty swirly patterns

Then you want to scatter the sprinkles over the chocolate and place in the fridge to set

Once set, remove from the fridge and lift out of the tin & slice into triangle shaped shards.

5. Make the buttercream by creaming the butter until pale and fluffy, add the icing sugar and milk, beat until completely incorporated. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or Bain Marie, and mix into the buttercream until smooth.

6. Level the cakes and place the bottom layer onto a cake board or cake plate/stand. Pipe the buttercream and sandwich the cakes together

7. Crumb coat the cake with buttercream using a pallet knife to smooth over and pop in the fridge to chill

8. Make the chocolate ganache by melting the chocolate in the microwave or Bain Marie. Add the softened butter and mix in until melted and glossy. Pour into a squeezy bottle and drizzle drips around the top edge of the cake

Pour more on top of the cake and use a pallet knife to spread to the edges to cover the top

9. Scatter over some sprinkles and decorate however you want. I chopped up some of the chocolate bark into smaller pieces to decorate the base of the cake. Pipe buttercream on top and add the chocolate shards. I also used star cutters pressed into the chocolate bark and placed on top of the cake.

And voila! An extremely chocolatety cake fit for any occasion!

I hope you enjoy creating this chocolate cake. You can decorate however you like. I would love to create more drip cakes with different flavour sponge cakes & buttercream.

And that’s a wrap for my GBBO 2016 bake along series. I’ve learnt loads of new techniques and it’s been fun baking along each week but can’t wait to see what’s in store for the Christmas specials later in the year along with our favourite hosts and judges!

I’m looking forward to creating and sharing some festive bakes in the run up to Christmas too so keep an eye out on my website, Facebook, twitter and Instagram for all the latest updates!

Happy Baking! x x x