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Chilli chocolate birthday cake


On Wednesday it was my lovely friend Danny's birthday. I was invited to spend a long weekend with him and my favourite person, Emily, in Swansea. Danny's only request for his birthday cake was that it was "new flavours", which led to me and Emily baking Danny a chilli chocolate cake until 1am on Saturday morning. 
Little duckling sheltering from the Welsh weather

 The cake was enjoyed on Saturday evening with everyone and it was super - the chilli isn't spicy at all but just gives a depth to the chocolate flavour that makes the cake taste extra special. The icing doesn't have any chilli in either so it just makes for a lovely celebration cake! It's important to use a good quality chocolate with a high cocoa content as it is so much more delicious than a cheap slab of chocolate; this cake deserves that sort of quality.

 The recipe is based upon one you bake in a Le Creuset but we instead baked it in a cake tin and it turned out perfectly. By all means bake it in a Le Creuset if you so wish though!

 To make a chocolate chilli cake you will need:
200g high-quality dark chocolate (70%)
250g soft butter (at room temperature)
250g brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
200g self raising flour
50g cocoa powder
2 tsp cinnamon
2 medium chillies (approximately 2tsp chopped total)

 300g high-quality dark chocolate (70%)
300ml double cream
150g icing sugar

The Gower cliff walk on Saturday: this photo doesn't give you any idea as to how cold and windy it was

 Start off by preheating your oven to 170C (150C for fan-assisted) and greasing and lining a 20cm cake tin. If you don't have greaseproof paper it also works to butter the tin and shake cocoa around the inside to stop the cake from sticking, which is the method we went for. 

 Rest a pyrex bowl above a pan of simmering water (a bain-marie) and melt the 200g of dark chocolate slowly. Leave to cool while you prepare the rest of the cake.

 Beat the soft butter, brown sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy before beating in the eggs one at a time. 

 Chop the chillies, removing the seeds. Either put in a food processor and blitz to an almost paste-like consistency, otherwise chop as finely as is possible. 

 Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and cinnamon and fold this into the liquid mixture. Add in the chillies. Pour in the melted chocolate and fold the mix until gently combined. 

 Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40-50 minutes. A skewer popped in the centre should come out covered in crumbs (meaning it is moist) rather than sloppy and coated with cake mix. Allow the cake to cool in the tin.

 To make the icing simply pour the cream into a saucepan and gently warm, throw the 300g of dark chocolate and the icing sugar in and give a good old whisk until all combined. As it cools the icing will thicken. Slather all over the cake once cooled, decorate according to your own taste and enjoy.
The birthday boy himself

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