Honey Bee Rich Chocolate cake

Have been craving for a slice of rich chocolate cake for awhile now. Yes, those with the works, pretty icing on top and all so soft cake inside. ;) Did not want to buy from the nearby bakery store because I have either tried them or the cake is way too BIG to be finished . Anyway, I was due to meet up with my girlfriends to do a cake fondant decoration today, so I thought what better excuse then this for me to bake a chocolate cake to be used for the deco! Yoohoo!

So the night before I have happily baked this rich chocolate butter cake and this morning I woke up extra early (6.30am) to make the chocolate buttercream (you need buttercream to let the fondant to adhere to the cake). But little did I know (lazy me did not turn on my cellphone until 8.30am) that the friend that was suppose to teach us the fondant deco could not make it! *tripe sigh!* So we have to postpone the event....so what do I do with the cake & buttercream? I just did my own deco then...without the fondant though. :)

I search through my pantry and was surprised to find a pack of marzipan! (Sorry, that's me sometimes, buy and forget) With that I came up with a plan on how to decorate the cake....and Vola! I ice the cake as per normal with chocolate buttercream and pipe the flowers and leaves with normal butter cream. And lastly I used the marzipan tinted with yellow and black to mold the bumble bees on top. BTW, can you guess which bee is made by my 5yr old daughter? Not too shabby ai?

The chocolate butter cake is really good by the way, it's chocolaty and buttery taste, very satisfying. And guess what, no egg yolks, pretty healthy huh! Well....that's if you think butter is not too bad, haha. You can most definitely bake the cake and eat on its own.

Ingredients for Chocolate butter cake (for 6" cake):
90g unsalted butter, room temperature
150g caster sugar
75g cake flour
50g unsweetened coca powder
1/2 tbsp baking powder
100ml fresh milk
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and 100g sugar together.
• Sieve the flour, coca powder, salt and baking powder into the butter mixture. Mix well.
• Add milk and vanilla extract and stir till well blended.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter and line a 6 inch round cake pan with parchment paper and butter again.
  
• In a separate bowl, whisk egg white till foamy, add reminding sugar and whisk till shiny and almost stiff peak.
• Gently fold in the egg white to the flour mixture till just incorporated.
• Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes for till tester comes out clean.

I have opt to use half of the chocolate buttercream recipe that I used in my Christmas log cake. Even though it's a lot more work involved then the basic buttercream, the texture is smooth, not grainy where you might taste the sugar, a much better choice. Furthermore, it's also a lot easier to spread on the cake if I do say so myself.

As for the garden decorations on top of the cake, I have use basic buttercream, basically 100g of butter at room temperature and 100g of powdered sugar (sieved) and mix well to become thick paste.
Overall I had a lot of fun decorating the cake, but wish I can get my hands on fondant the next time (with my girlfriends). Fingers crossed...let's hope next week we can do it. ;)

If you see closely, you'll notice I have added chocolate chips in the middle layer of icing for the cake...extra texture and yes, more chocolate, haha! ;D And if you wonder did this cake did it for me....yes, right at the sweet spot, heehee. Anyone out there craving for chocolate?