Loco For Cocoa Cake

Well, I did promise I'd post it today.

I can't tell you how much better my new kitchen is for taking pictures.  That big window is saving me a fortune on lamps!

As far as I can tell, this Birthday cake went down well, there's about 3/8ths of it left.  It provided a few drink related jokes "I'll have 3 fingers of Cake please" and even broke Kris' dad's pact of "no chocolate before anniversary cruise."  Enjoyed by many so far...

...despite the probably horrific weight watching damage.

So before I get down to business and post this bad boy, I should clear up a few things:

1. It's not low fat.  It's a birthday cake.
2. It's not low sugar.  It's a birthday cake.
3. It's not particularly healthy.  It's a birthday cake.

Also:

1. It contains a little bit of chocolate.
2. You should definitely sieve your cocoa powder, or it will go lumpy in the cake.
3. It looks harder to make than it is - it's actually pretty simple!
4. The sponge absorbs the chocolate fudge to create heaven on earth.
5. If you don't have the time to make your own chocolate fudge centre, there's no harm in melting down some shop bought fudge, adding a bit of butter and cocoa powder to save on time.

Now there is an order to making this.  For example.  If you make the fudge sauce first, it's going to be hard and un-spreadable by the time you come to being able to use it.  You can't put butter icing on a hot cake either, so you have to wait for the sponges to be cooled before decorating.

I've tried to put the order as helpfully as possible in the recipe but if you have any queries just do the usual and send me an email or comment.

Ahh up above, I see I forget to mention the vanilla essence, my apologies, it was a late night!  For the icing - add the vanilla just before the icing sugar.

Anyway, I better go, I've got a ton of work to get through.

Here's some other pictures

Have a great week!