Ingredients
2 cups self-raising flour
1¼ cups plain flour
½ tsp bicarb
¾ cup baking cocoa
2 cups caster sugar
250 g butter, chopped and at room temperature
1¾ cups milk
2 tsp vanilla essence
6 eggs
220 g dark baking chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup thickened cream
white pearls, to decorate
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan forced). Line the base and sides of a 22cm square cake pan with baking paper. Sift the self-raising flour, plain flour, bicarb and cocoa into a bowl. Add the sugar, butter, milk, vanilla and eggs. Using electric beaters, beat on low until combined. Increase speed and beat until butter is incorporated.Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan forced). Line the base and sides of a 22cm square cake pan with baking paper. Sift the self-raising flour, plain flour, bicarb and cocoa into a bowl. Add the sugar, butter, milk, vanilla and eggs. Using electric beaters, beat on low until combined. Increase speed and beat until butter is incorporated.
- Pour into cake pan, bake 1hr 5 min - 1hr 15 min or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in pan for 5 min, turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, place chocolate into heatproof bowl. Heat cream in a saucepan until it almost comes to a boil. Pour cream over chocolate and let stand for 2 min before stirring until smooth. Set aside at room temperature for 1hr or until thickened but still spreadable.
- Trim the top of the cake if needed to make a flat surface. Place cake, base side up, onto a serving plate or cake stand. Pour ganache over the top and push over edges of the cake to cover, smoothing as you go. Once ganache is smooth all over, chill 30 min or until firm.
- To decorate, use a sharp knife to score a diamond pattern over the top and sides of the cake.
- Pipe a little ganache onto the corner of each diamond and decorate with a pearl. Pipe around edges with ganache if desired and decorate with more pearls. Cut into squares to serve.
