Double Chocolate Fudge Cake

And White Chocolate Buttercream

 

Ready in 50 minutes plus cooling time. Serves 8

Ingredients

For the cake:

150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
150g light muscovado sugar
40g cocoa, sifted
150g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
2 medium free range eggs
1 teaspoon Neilsen-Massey Vanilla Extract
142ml soured cream
2 tablespoons golden syrup

For the buttercream:

200g white chocolate
280 unsalted butter
280g icing sugar
2 teaspoons Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste

For the chocolate curls:

100g white chocolate
100g dark chocolate

 

2 x 18cm sandwich tins

 

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 180C/Mark 4/Fan 160C. Grease and base-line 2 x 18cm sandwich tins. Beat together the butter and sugar until pale. In a separate bowl sift the cocoa, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of salt, mix well. Add to the creamed butter and sugar.

2. In a measuring jug whisk together the eggs, vanilla, soured cream and syrup. Pour over the dry ingredients and beat altogether.

3. Divide the mixture equally between the tins. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until springy. Leave to cool for a few minutes in the tins, then transfer to cooling racks and cool completely.

4. For the buttercream, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Leave to cool slightly. In a large bowl, beat the butter and icing sugar together until creamy. Beat in the chocolate and vanilla bean paste.

5. For the chocolate curls, melt the white and dark chocolates separately as above, then pour each on to a small plate, leave to curl until firm but not completely solid, then using a peeler or sharp knife, run the blade over the chocolate to make a curl, transfer to a lined plate and chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

6. When you are ready to serve, transfer one of the cakes to a serving platter, spread one quarter of the buttercream on top, then top with the other cake. Then use the remaining buttercream to ice the top and sides of the cake. Top with the chocolate curls.

Recipe courtesy of Nielsen-Massey

 

Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste

Good news, the days of scraping vanilla seeds from a pod are over. Keen cooks will be pleased to hear that vanilla extract specialist - Nielsen-Massey, has launched Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste. A welcome addition to every cooks’ store cupboard, the Madagascan pure vanilla bean paste is a high-quality, convenient and economical replacement to vanilla pods.

One tablespoon of Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste = one vanilla pod. So, no more slicing and scraping, simply spoon in and stir. The paste not only adds the intense pure vanilla flavour that Nielsen-Massey is renowned for, but it also has distinctive vanilla seeds that will add a gourmet appeal to all homemade cooking and baking.

Nielsen-Massey uses an exclusive cold extraction process to extract the vanilla from carefully selected pods. For the paste, once extracted, the vanilla combined with the seeds is infused into a thickened base to create a pure vanilla bean paste – a perfect alternative to vanilla pods.

Use Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste to make firm favourites such as custard, ice cream and crème brûlée or in any other recipe that requires a vanilla. It comes in 118ml jars and costs £5.99 from Lakeland, Harvey Nichols and independent stores nationwide.