FUEL FOR THOUGHT: Home-Made Spelt Birthday Cake

This weekend it was my fiancé's birthday and I decided to make a spelt based birthday cake for him! For regular readers of my blog, you probably know by now that I make everything that is flour based with spelt flour as a wheat free option and this cake turned out super scrummy! I opted for a chocolate loaf cake as it made a handy size for just the two of us. I could tell if I made a huge Victoria sponge, we would be eating it for days!

INGREDIENTS

For loaf:

175g unsalted butter, melted

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

140g white spelt flour

85g ground almonds

0.5 tsp of baking powder

100ml semi-skimmed milk

4 tbsp cocoa powder

100g milk chocolate, grated

150g Nestle Smarties

2 packs of Cadbury's Chocolate Fingers

For frosting:

250g icing sugar

75g butter

Splash of milk

Hot Chocolate powder to flavour 

1. Set your oven to 160 degrees (fan oven) or Gas Mark 3. Line a loaf tin with baking parchment.

2. Whisk together the melted butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Add in the eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder, milk & cocoa powder and mix together until fully blended.

4. Add in the grated chocolate and once fully mixed together, pour into the loaf tin.

5. Bake for one hour, checking regularly past 45 minutes. Use a skewer to check the centre is cooked.

6. Whilst the loaf is cooling, start to make the hot chocolate frosting. Pour into a bowl the icing sugar and butter (softened or melted) and mix thoroughly until whipped together. Then add a few spoonfuls of hot chocolate powder (I opted for Cadbury's Wispa) and add until you reach your desired flavour.

7. Once the loaf is cooled, using a palette knife smear the icing sugar around the sides of the loaf. This will be the glue to add the Cadbury's Chocolate Fingers. These will form the chocolate biscuit 'wall'.

8. Next, smear the reminder of the frosting over the top of the cake and apply the Nestle Smarties all over to finish!

This cake is extremely chocolately and the dense form of the loaf means a small slice is plenty, which in turn makes the treat guilt free (well in my eyes anyway!).


Lipstick Runner.