Cappuccino Cake another wonderful Mary Berry bake

I had seen this cake in Mary Berry’s baking bible for a while and wanted to try it, but was a little hesitant. Chocolate sponge cakes have not always been my friend as you know, if you follow my blog. Do you remember my Chocolate Mousse Cake disaster from earlier this year? I try to forget it.

This recipe called for using an 8 inch sandwich cake tin. I did not have one so I decided to use my 9 inch instead. Due to the change in size, I needed to adjusted my bake time, which I will tell you about a little later in the post. I prepared the cake tins by creasing them with butter and lining the base with parchment paper. I preheated my oven to 355F.

I started by first mixing the cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl with the boiling water to form a paste like consistency. The recipe stated to then add all remaining ingredients and to beat until combined. I did as directed, however I would not suggest adding everything else all together. This resulted in the chocolate paste forming lumps that did not easily combine with all of the other ingredients. I therefore started over. This time, I still mixed the cocoa powder to a paste but I then added the milk and eggs first and mixed them together a little. Once they were combined, I then added all of the other ingredients. This worked much better and everything blended together more easily. Once combined please note the batter will be thick. Be sure to just mix until everything is combined, don’t over mix it.

I divided the batter evenly between the two prepared baking tins.. It says to bake for 25-30 minutes using 8 inch tins. Since I was using 9 inch, I reduced my bake time to 20 minutes since it will baked faster using a larger tin. As we all know oven temperatures do vary so keep that in mind. Once baked, I removed from the oven and left in the baking tin for 5 minutes before releasing and letting them cool completely on a wire rack for about 1 hour before assembling the cake.

To decorate the cake the recipe called to use double cream. I find that cakes, using double cream alone do not hold their shape well, especially if you want to do some decorative piping work. I therefore adapted the recipe and decided to make a mascarpone frosting. To do this, I whipped the mascarpone cheese and double cream together on medium speed first and increased to high speed slowly until it formed firm peaks. Once the cream is of the right consistency, I folded in the dissolved coffee mixture with a spatula. The addition of the coffee gave the cream a wonderful cappuccino color and flavor.

I used a little under half of the cream for the filling of the cake. The remaining cream I used on the top and the side. On the side of my cake, I gave it a semi naked finish but you could do what ever you like. To finish I piped some rosettes on top and decorated with chocolate orange slices and dusted a little cocoa powder.

This cake did not disappoint, it was wonderfully moist sponge but it was the coffee infused cream frosting that really made the cake. I could easily see myself buying this in a bakery or even a slice in cafe with some afternoon tea. If you are interested in baking this Mary Berry treat I would highly recommend it. Below is a list of the needed ingredients.