Chequerboard cake

Chequerboard cake





This impressive cake looks like you may need a professional degree to turn it out right. In fact, as long as you have two icing bags and three 8 inch round cake tins, you don’t need to be an expert at all.



Prep 50 minutes

Bake 20 minutes

Makes 16 servings



2 ¼ cups flour

2tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¾ cup milk, and a little extra

1 ½ tsp vanilla essence

1 ½ cups sugar

¾ cup butter or margarine, softened

3 large eggs

2 square (about 60g) dark or semi-sweet chocolate, melted

1 square (about 25-30g) bitter or unsweetened chocolate, melted chocolate frosting (for a tried-and-tested recipe we love, see Fudge Frosting in ‘Small Wonder’, in our November 2005 issue)

1. Preheat oven to 175c (350f). Grease all there cake tins and line bottoms with waxed paper. Grease paper lining and dust pans with flour.

2. Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Mix ¾ cup milk with vanilla essence.

3. Beat sugar and butter until light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Add flour mixture alternately with milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Beat just until smooth.

4. Set aside half. Stir melted chocolates and 1 tablespoon milk into rest.

5. Spoon vanilla batter into large icing bag ½ -inch opening (or use thick ziplock bag with corner snipped for opening). Spoon chocolate batter into similar bag. Pipe 1 ½ inch-wide band of chocolate batter around inside edge of 2 cake tins, then pipe vanilla band next to it. Pipe enough chocolate batter to fill centre of each tin, repeat process, but with vanilla batter outermost.

6. Place cake tins on two racks’2 on upper rack and 1 on lower rack so tins are not directly above one another. Bake 20 minutes, or till toothpick inserted in centre is almost clean. Cool in tins on wire rack for 10 minutes. With small knife, loosen sides; invert onto wire racks. Remove waxed paper and let cool completely.

7. Meanwhile, make chocolate frostling. Place one of two identical layers on plate; spread with ½ cup frostling. Top with remaining layers; frost sides and top of cake remaining frosting.