Chocolate Yule Cake
Serves 14, Prep and Cook: 2 hours, 30 mins
1 cup cocoa powder 300g unsalted butter, chopped,
at room temperature 2 cups brown sugar, firmly
packed 4 eggs, at room temperature 2½ cups plain flour 1½ tsps baking powder 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 cup buttermilk Mini white marshmallows, fresh raspberries and extra cocoa powder, to decorate CHOCOLATE BARK 1 cup White Choc Melts (175g),
melted 1 cup Dark Choc Melts (175g),
melted CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM 250g unsalted butter, chopped, at room temperature 200g dark cooking chocolate,
melted, cooled 2 cups icing sugar mixture
1 Grease three x 20cm round cake pans. Line bases and sides with baking paper, extending paper 2cm above pan edges. 2 Whisk cocoa with 1 cup boiling water in a heatproof jug until smooth. Cool completely. 3 Beat butter and sugar in large bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined. Stir in cocoa. Mixture will look curdled at this stage. 4 In two batches, add combined sifted flour, baking powder and soda with buttermilk, stirring until smooth. Divide evenly among prepared pans. Smooth over tops. 5 Cook two cakes in a moderately slow oven (160C) for about 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out cakes onto wire racks to cool. Repeat with remaining cake. 6 To make bark, grease two oven trays. Trace a 13cm x 30cm rectangle onto two sheets of baking paper. Place paper, trace-side down, onto each tray. 7 Spread white chocolate to cover one rectangle. With long side facing you, run a fork in a wavy pattern, upwards through chocolate, to extend 3cm to 4cm above the opposite long side, to give a jagged edge. Refrigerate until set. Repeat with dark chocolate. 8 To make buttercream, beat butter in large bowl of an electric mixer until very pale and creamy. Beat in cooled chocolate. Add sugar. Beat until smooth. 9 Reserve 2 cups of the buttercream. Sandwich cakes with remaining buttercream. Spread reserved buttercream over top and around side. Starting from the centre on top of the cake, run a fork in a concentric circle through buttercream to resemble a ‘cut log’. 10 Break bark into shards. Arrange around side of cake. Dust with extra cocoa. Insert marshmallows into raspberries to resemble ‘toadstools’. Place on top of the cake.