Chocolate Cream Cake

4.70 from 13 votes

Every baker needs an easy chocolate sponge cake recipe they can depend on. This cake is reliably delicious however it is presented. Serve it simply, as a chocolate cream cake, or dress it up to mark special occasions.

NOTE: THIS CAKE USES 6-INCH CAKE PANS. SEE MY RECIPE NOTES FOR DIFFERENT TIN SIZES

Prep Time20

Cook Time20

Total Time40

Course: Baking, Dessert

Cuisine: Worldwide

Servings:

Calories: 504kcal

Author: Jane Coupland

Ingredients

For the Cake

120 g (½ cup/ 4 ¼ oz) Baking margarine or butter
120 g (⅝ cup/ 4 ¼ oz) Caster sugar
2 Eggs Large, free-range
3 tablespoon Milk
100 g (¾ cup/ 3 ½ oz) Plain (all-purpose) flour
30 g (¼ cup/ 1 oz) Cocoa powder
1 teaspoon Baking powder

For the Filling

3 tablespoon Jam
250 ml (1 cup) Double (heavy) cream
1 tablespoon Chocolate flakes

Instructions

Make the Cake

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ GM4 and grease & line 2 x 6-inch cake tins
Using electric beaters, cream the butter and sugar together until light & fluffy
Separate the egg white and yolks. Put the whites aside. Add the yolks to the creamed ingredients along with the milk. Beat until just combined
Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into the bowl and gently stir in, using a large metal spoon until thoroughly combined. Take care not to overwork the batter though
Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Take a spoonful and mix it into the cake batter to loosen it, then fold the rest in. Continue to mix until just combined and no obvious patches of egg white are visible
Divide the batter between the cake tins and bake for approx 20 minutes until well risen. A cocktail stick poked into the centre of the cake should come out clean
Remove from the oven when sufficiently baked. Let cool in the tin for 2 minutes, before unmolding. Remove the parchment and allow the cakes to cool completely on a wire rack

Fill the Cake

Put the cream into a medium mixing bowl and whip until the cream holds it’s shaped nicely
Place 1 layer of cake on a plate/ stand and spread with 2-3 tablespoon jam
Top with ⅔ of the cream – either pipe it on or smooth it out with a knife - then top with the second layer of cake
Spread a thin layer of cream across the top and scatter chocolate flakes over, leaving a 2cm border around the cake edge
Pipe the rest of the cream around the edge of the cake (I used a Wilton 8b nozzle)
Best served immediately but this cake can be covered and stored in the fridge for up to 2 days (let sit at room temperature for 1 hour prior to serving)

Notes

Please note that the recipe presented is for a 2 layer cake made in 6-inch pans. It’s a relatively small cake, designed to serve 6 people. The recipe works on the following basis:

per egg add the following:

60g butter/ sugar /
50g flour
15g cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ tablespoon milk

These measures are sufficient to make 1 layer of the cake in a 6-inch pan. So for the 2 layer cake presented, I have simply doubled these quantities. Similarly, I could turn it into a 3 layer cake by tripling these measurements.

But from these measurements, it is also easy to scale up this recipe for a 2-layer cake for several different tin sizes. Here are the measures needed for some common cake tin sizes:

two layers in 6-inch tins (2 eggs + 120g butter/ sugar + 100g flour + 30g cocoa powder + 1 teaspoon baking powder + 3 tablespoon milk)
two layers in 7-inch tins (3 eggs + 180g butter/ sugar + 150g flour + 45g cocoa powder 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder + 4 ½ tablespoon milk)
two layers in 8-inch tins (4 eggs + 240g butter/ sugar + 200g flour + 60g cocoa powder + 2 teaspoon baking powder + 6 tablespoon milk)

Nutrition