Chocolate and Rose Cake

A very rich, luxurious cake with a subtle rose flavour

To celebrate the start of a new season of The Great British Bake Off, we are going to attempt some of the show stopper challenges as the season goes along. In the first episode, the show stopper challenge consisted of a chocolate cake with a chocolate decoration, so here is my unofficial entry!

You will need:-

For the Sponge,

227g of Self-raising flour

227g of caster sugar

113g of margarine

113g of low fat Greek yogurt

4 eggs

85g of cocoa powder

1 tablespoon of rose water

For Butter icing,

70g of butter

100g of icing sugar

30g of cocoa powder

1 teaspoon of milk

For chocolate ganache,

150ml of double cream

150g of dark chocolate

For chocolate decorations,

50g of dark chocolate

For the the Turkish Delight rose,

6 pieces of rose flavoured Turkish delight

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease/line two cake tins. Cream together 113g of butter, 133g of yogurt and 227g of sugar in a large bowl. Then sieve in the 227g of flour and 85g of cocoa powder into the bowl and add the eggs and rose water. Combine this, using the spoon to get as much air into the mixture as possible. Pour the mixture evenly into the two cake tins, cook for 20-25mins until firm.

Whilst the cakes are baking, slice each piece of Turkish delight into 3 pieces (the slices need to quite thick to stay in shape). Take three slices and line the up side by side, then roll them around each other to form the center piece of the rose. Pinch the bottom and spread the "leaves" so the base in compact. Line up three more pieces and roll them around the center piece, making sure to press the bass again. Do this until all there are several leaves on the rose and spread the top of the rose. Dust with icing sugar to ensure the leaves don't stick together.

When the cakes have baked, remove them from the oven and leave them to cool. Now you can make the ganache icing and chocolate decorations. Heat the cream and sugar over a very low heat until the chocolate has melted, then remove from the heat. Whisk the mixture until it thickens and turns glossy, then place in the fridge.

Melt 50g of chocolate in a bain-marie, then place into a piping bag. Pipe twig shapes onto grease proof paper and pipe small triangles onto the twigs to form thorns. Leave these to set in a cool place.

When the cakes have cool, mix the 70g of butter, 100g of icing sugar, 30g of cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon of milk in a large bowl. Spread this thickly over the base cake and place the top tier on the icing. Then use a spatula to spread the ganache icing over the top and sides of the cakes. Then, place the rose in the center of the cake and the chocolate twigs around (sprinkle icing sugar over if desired).

Tip: When slicing the Turkish delight, sprinkle the board with icing sugar to stop them from sticking.

Enjoy! x