Happy Happy Birthday

So, here is the promised birthday cake I made for one of my flatmates. I asked her a while ago what sort of cake was her favourite, and she said chocolate. So chocolate she got. I had a choice of three or four recipes, and I made a different cake to the one I was originally going to so, purely because I'd need to buy less ingredients for it! I'm sure they'll all get made at some point, so it doesn't really matter. I have fallen out with the recipe book I used though, and I'll tell you why.

The recipe didn't specify a cake tin size, just 'two shallow' or 'one deep'. I used one 20cm tin, as that is the only one I have available. And the cake turned out very flat! I had to make another one, as there was no way I could have sliced that one in half to fill it. And also, the recipe said to merely add more cocoa powder for a chocolate version, instead of replacing some flour. I thought that was VERY strange but went with it as it was a new recipe, even though it went against every single one of my baking instincts! I should have listened to them. A very very stiff mixture. But, despite all that it tasted good and was very well received! I just decorated it with a chocolate heart, and a smashed crunchie. Simple, but it looked rather effective.

So far so good...

Before the flour was added. This is how I imagine the consistency should have been like!

Looks ok...

No it's not. I was worried when I put it in, and I was right to be!

The chocolate buttercream, again very stiff, but tasty!

Ta-da! Apologies for the background but I nearly forgot to take a photo so it was a bit of a rush!

The Galaxy heart and smashed Crunchie.