Chocolate Drip Cake

This was a special bake for an 85th Birthday celebration.  I must be honest, I found it hard to create a cake that was not pink or girly like.

I'm pretty pleased with the way the cake turned out but I did have problems along the way.  Initially, I thought I would decorate the cake to look like the classic white birthday cake.  However, after adding a little drop of purple along with the white food gel, I felt that it looked a little grey rather than white.  The little touch of purple food gel was supposed to hide the yellow tint of the buttercream.  In the end, I decided to add sky blue food gel instead.

This Chocolate Drip Cake is made of a super moist chocolate cake with delicious chocolate ganache frosting in between the layers.  It is finally decorated with a chocolate drip, Swiss meringue buttercream swirls and sprinkles.

Happy Baking xo

Chocolate Drip Cake

Ingredients

· 1½ cups plain flour
· 1 cup caster sugar
· ¼ cup cocoa powder
· ¾ teaspoon baking powder
· 1½ teaspoons baking soda
· ½ teaspoon salt
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
· 2 eggs
· ¼ cup sour cream
· ½ cup buttermilk
· ¾ cup strong coffee
· ¼ cup vegetable oil

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

· 4 egg whites
· 300 grams caster sugar
· 400 grams unsalted butter (room temperature)
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Ganache Frosting

· 340 grams dark chocolate
· 1 cup cream

Chocolate Ganache Drip

· ½ cup dark chocolate
· ¼ cup cream

Filling/ Decorations

· Food colouring (sky blue – americolor )
· Sprinkles (dollarsweets)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.

2. Spray three round 6-inch tins with oil and dust some flour around the tins.

3. Place all dry ingredients into a large bowl and using an electric mixer, whisk until all ingredients are well combined.

4. Add all wet ingredients, making sure the coffee has cooled down. Mix until combined and turn beater onto medium and continue mixing for a few minutes.

5. Spoon the mixture into the tins evenly. Make sure to only fill them up a third full and smooth the tops with the back of a spoon or off-set spatula.

6. Bake in oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool in pans for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Place egg whites and caster sugar into a large bowl. Place over a pot of simmering water on low. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved completely. To check if the sugar has dissolved, rub a bit of the mixture between your fingers.

Remove from heat and using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat on medium speed for about 10-15 minutes or until the mixture has completely cooled.

Remove the whisk attachment and replace with the paddle attachment. Slowly add portions of the room temperature butter and beat well before adding next portions.

Once all the butter has been added, beat on high for several minutes and then reduce to low speed and continue to beat for another few minutes to remove air bubbles.

Add a few drops of your desired food colouring gel and mix until all combined.

Frosting is ready for use.

Chocolate ganache frosting

Place chocolate and cream into a heatproof bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals until cream is hot. Mix in between each interval until chocolate and cream are fully combined.

Cover with cling wrap; make sure that the cling wrap touches the chocolate ganache so no skin forms. Allow it to cool down completely for a few hours or overnight.

Using an electric beat up the ganache until it’s nice and fluffy.

Chocolate ganache drip

Warm the cream by heating in microwave at 20 second intervals and then pour over chocolate and allow it to sit for 2 minutes.

Stir until all combined. Allow it to cool down to the desire drip consistency.

Assembling the cake

Cut off the tops of the cakes if needed to make them even.

Place one cake layer onto the cake board, securing it with a bit of buttercream at the bottom.

Pipe or spread some chocolate ganache frosting on top of the cake and stack the next cake and do the same to the remaining cake layers.

Lightly crumb coat the whole cake and place into the fridge for 15-20 minutes.

Colour the buttercream to the desired colours and create the final coat on the cake and place cake in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Remove cake from the fridge and apply the chocolate ganache to create drips (make sure to do a drip test first to see how the ganache travels down the cake).

Pipe swirls using the Wilton 2D tip around the top of the cake and add sprinkles.

Tips

· Batter makes 3 x 6-inch round cakes.
· Or you can bake 4 x 4-inch cakes.
· You can also line the bottoms of the tins with some baking paper.
· Remember to rotate the tins halfway through for a more even bake.
· Allow cakes to cool completely before icing and decorating.

Did you bake this recipe?

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so I can see your wonderful bakes.