BBC Good Food

19 September 2008

Tested

"In answer to wag-one I recently used this recipe to make a 3 tier wedding cake for my daughter. For a 12 cake I used 625g Chocolate, 625 g butter, 250g Self-raising flour, 250g plain flour, 625g muscovado sugar, 625g caster sugar, 75g cocoa powder, 10 eggs 15 tbsp buttermilk, 3tbsp coffee in 12oz water and 3/4tsp bicarbonate of soda. For the ganache 625g chocolate, 750 ml cream and 6tbs caster sugar. It took 3 hours to cook so I rested a sheet of baking parchment over to top to stop it burning. The icing doesn't need almond paste, but you can use a second coat of chocolate to get the perfect finish. I made some up in advance and left it in the fridge overnight so that it was firm and used this to cover the sides, otherwise the ganache just runs off. Later I put on a second coat which you can just pour on and leave. One word of warning. Make sure the cream isn't too thick. It makes very thick ganache which doesn't flow."