down. If you’re having a rustic or barn reception a naked cake
could be a perfect centrepiece but they work equally well
in more grandiose settings. Easy on the eye and generally
easier on the pocket than traditional cakes they are fairly
straightforward to make. You can also vary the decoration on
them and mix it up with different types of fruit, different layers or
colours of cake and add in fresh flowers or cake toppers.
This two tiered naked chocolate cake would work equally as
well for a birthday or other summer celebration and serves
around 35-40 people. Make it the day before your celebration to
ensure it is nice and fresh for your guests.
Method
Assembling the cake
1.
1.
rease and line with baking parchment three 8”
G
round cake tins and three 6” round cake tins.
2. P
ut all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl or
a standing mixer and stir together.
3. Melt the butter, pour it into the dry mixture along with
the water, eggs and vanilla essence. Mix until the
batter is well combined, brown and glossy. It will be
fairly runny at this stage.
4. Pour the mixture equally into the six tins so they are
all roughly the same depth, roughly 1” deep.
5.
ook in an oven at 180c for around 45 minutes or
C
until well risen and a knife inserted comes out clean.
For the Chocolate Ganache
Buttercream
1.
lace the double cream in a microwaveable bowl
P
and heat in 30 second blasts, stirring each time until
the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth
and glossy. Allow to cool slightly.
2. P
ut the unsalted butter in a large mixing bowl or
standing mixer and gradually add the icing sugar and
vanilla essence. Beat until the mixture is light and
fluffy. If it seems t oo stiff you can add a little milk to it
to loosen it up.
evel all layers of cake by cutting the tops off with a
L
serrated knife.
2. If you are using a piping bag and nozzle then fill this
with the ganache buttercream. Pipe a layer of icing
onto two layers of each size cake or spread over with
a knife.
3. Stack the layers of cake on top of each other and use
a spirit level to ensure they are level. Pop the cakes
onto the thin cake boards and put in the fridge to set
for a couple of hours.
4. W
hen you are ready to assemble the cake take it
out of the fridge. Insert a dowel in the bottom tier
and mark it where it is level with the top of the cake.
Pull it out and snap it to size. Using this dowel, cut
four more of a similar length. Push the dowels back
in to the bottom tier – one in the middle and four
space evenly around. This will ensure the top tier is
supported and doesn’t sink into the bottom tier.
5. Use a little icing to stick the bottom tier to the 12”
board and then stack the 6” top tier on top, using
more icing to secure.
6. Pipe or spread patches of icing all over the cake and
start stacking on your fruit.
7. Finish off with a sprinkle of icing sugar over the cake.
3. Combine the buttercream and chocolate ganache
adding a little chocolate ganache at a time until you
are happy with the taste. You may find you don’t need
all the ganache, it depends on how chocolatey you
want to go!
B
y Fay Millar
brightoncakes.com
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