The base of the cake is a simple chocolate sponge cake which we've decorated with Smarties. Smarties are really easy to stick onto the cake because we've included a little golden syrup into the icing mixture. The smarties stick really well and don't bleed on the icing. Don't worry if you haven't got any Smarties, you can always use M&Ms or Skittles, just use your imagination. Lining up the Smarites in a uniform way across the cake makes for a lovely rainbow effect.
13 ingredients6 steps
Vegetarian
Method
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C, 350°F, gas mark 4). Grease and line a 20cm square baking tin.
Step 2
Mix the cocoa with the boiling water. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda and set aside to cool.
Step 3
Whisk the eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla in a mixing bowl until blended. Fold in the flour and the cocoa mixture until smooth.
Step 4
Pour into the tin and bake for 40 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
Step 5
For the icing, melt the butter and golden syrup together with 1 tbsp water. Beat in the icing sugar, to make a smooth icing. Add a little extra boiling water if needed. Spread over top and sides of the cool cake.
Step 6
Decorate the top and sides with a pattern of Smarties and leave to set.
Ingredients
MetricImperial
For the Cake
75gCocoa powder
200mlBoiling water
3 tspBicarbonate of soda
4Eggs
370gBillington's Unrefined Dark Muscovado Sugar
180mlSunflower oil
1 tspNielsen-Massey Vanilla Extract
275gAllinson's Self-Raising White Flour
For the Decoration
2 tbspCocoa powder
50gUnsalted butter (softened)
2 tbspSilver Spoon Golden Syrup
300gSilver Spoon Icing Sugar
300gChocolate decorations (approx 8 tubes)
Utensils
20cm square baking tin
Mixing bowl
Whisk
Cooling rack
9 Baker Ratings
I’ve recently eaten this cake and it was delicious. Plan to make ahead and freeze before decorating later. Anyone tried this?
Love this?
Can you use 300g of dark brown soft sugar instead of 370 cause that seems alot.
Baking Mad
As baking is an exact science, we would always recommending following recipes and ingredient measurements precisely to ensure that you achieve the best bake. If you were to alter the quantity of an ingredients it is likely to affect the outcome of your cake.
