The perfect berry & chocolate cake for a summer BBQ...

Hello everyone,

A couple weeks ago my boyfriend's family hosted a bake off and myself and Sam decided to create a summer BBQ cake inspired by Itslittlelauren.co.uk. I thought why not share the recipe here with you all on my blog.

Ingredients

-6 eggs

-self raising flour

-caster sugar 

-cocoa powder

-butter 

-2 packs of chocolate fingers

-strawberries

-blueberries 

-milk chocolate 

-white chocolate 

Method: For the cake 

1. I usually start by weighing the 6 eggs and then however much the eggs weigh, I will then weigh the butter and caster sugar and then mix together until light and creamy.
2. Now add in the eggs one by one and mix together until all of the eggs are combined.
3. Next, weigh the flour to however much the eggs weighed and sift this into the mixture.
4. Add around 3 heaped tablespoons on cocoa powder and fold through.
5. Add the cake mixture to circular baking tins lined with grease proof paper. You will need 4 larger cake tins and 3 smaller ones. If you do not have enough just wait until the first batch are baked and then start again.
6. Bake the larger cakes for around 15-20 minutes and the smaller cakes for about 10-15 mins on Gas mark 5 or 190 degrees C. 
7. Once the cakes are baked, place them onto a cooling rack and only begin to decorate when they are fully cool.

Method: For the Decoration

1. Whilst the cake is baking, begin to melt some milk chocolate, either in the microwave or in a bowl over boiling water.
2. Once the chocolate has melted, take around 6-7 strawberries and coat them in the milk chocolate.
3. Place on a sheet of parchment paper and pop into the fridge for about 10 minutes just to allow the chocolate to set.
4. Now we can melt a bar of milk chocolate and pop it into a piping bag.
5. Place the chocolate fingers in a row and begin to pipe the white chocolate onto the chocolate fingers.
6. Now you can remove the strawberries from the fridge and pop the chocolate fingers in there to set.
7. Using the same white chocolate, do the same for the strawberries and then place them into the fridge again to set.

Method: For the frosting 

1. Take around 2 tablespoons of butter and whisk until light and fluffy.
2. Add the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time to ensure it doesn't fly everywhere.
3. I usually guess how much icing sugar to put into my buttercream and just taste it as I go, I usually know there is enough icing sugar when the taste of butter as disappeared. 
4. I will sometimes add a dash of milk if i'm struggling to combine the icing sugar with the butter.

Assembling the cake 

1. Begin by popping a little bit of buttercream onto the cake board to ensure the cake will not move.
2. Add the first layer of cake and add a small layer of buttercream on top, doing this for each layer.
3. Pop into the fridge to allow the cake to set, for around 10 minutes.
4. Now you can ice around the cake making sure there are no gaps in the icing.
5. I tend to do about two layers of icing around the edge of the cake just so all the crumbs are locked in.
6. Now you can place the chocolate fingers around the top and bottom cake, leaving a small gap at the front of the top cake.
7. Now place the strawberries and blueberries on the top of the cake, and also place some in the gap left on the side of the top cake.
8. For a finishing touch you can add a sprinkling of home made chocolate curls...

I really hope you enjoyed this cake recipe, if you would like to see more baking on my blog then please do let me know, or if you have any ideas of what I could bake next! 

Cristy x x