Liquorice Allsorts Cake (with Chocolate Fudge Frosting)

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Liquorice Allsorts Cake (with Chocolate Fudge Frosting)

Ingredients

Cake:

280g (2 cups) flour (see note 1)
80g (1 cup) cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
300g (1½ cups) white sugar
90g (½ cup) brown sugar
250ml (1 cup) milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
180ml (¾ cup) vegetable oil
3 eggs (large)
45g (½ cup) chopped liquorice-flavoured chocolate (see note 2)
250ml (1 cup) hot brewed coffee (see note 3)

Frosting:

100g (3½ oz) butter
100g (3½ oz) cream cheese
100-200g 1-2 cups icing sugar (confectioners'/ powdered sugar)
50g (½ cup) cocoa
70g (¾ cup) chopped liquorice-flavoured chocolate (see note 2 )

Decoration:

Liquorice Allsorts (or any other kind of liquorice candy)

Instructions

Cake:

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line or grease two 20cm (8") inch pans.
Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl.
Stir in the white and brown sugar.
In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, vanilla, oil and eggs until well combined.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together. Add the chopped chocolate.
Finally, slowly add the coffee or hot water (it should be recently boiled) and stir until everything comes together.
Don't over mix, there will still be a few lumps left in the batter (also note that the batter is supposed to be runny, so don't panic).
Divide between the two prepared pans as equally as you can and then bake for around 30-35 minutes in the lower part of the oven.
The cakes are ready when they bounce back when gently pushed on the top, and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and leave the cakes in the pans for around 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

Frosting:

Beat the butter and cream cheese together until nice and smooth (I used my stand mixer).
Sift 100g (1 cup) of icing / powdered sugar and cocoa together and beat it in. Add more icing sugar as needed until you have a thick, spreadable consistency.
Finally, add the chopped chocolate and stir in.

Assembly:

On the flat side of one of the cakes, smooth over around ¼ of the frosting.
Place the second cake on top and cover the sides and top with the remaining icing. If you wanted, you could crumb coat the cake, but I didn't bother this time. You don't need tons of frosting, just enough for the candy to stick to. Too much and the sweets will sink in and be covered by frosting.
I used whole Liquorice Allsorts on top of the cake and chopped up some others and stuck them to the side.
Pop in the fridge for a while just to allow the frosting to harden so the candy stays in place, then enjoy!

Notes

I have converted grams to cups/ounces/tablespoons using online converters. Although I have no reason to believe they are inaccurate, please be aware that I have not made this recipe with imperial measurements.

1. This cake was made with regular flour. However, since writing the recipe back in 2017, I now use spelt flour in all of my cake recipes. Therefore, you can do a straight swap with spelt flour. For the sake of transparency: I have not made this recipe using spelt flour.

2. I used chocolate flavoured with liquorice for a milder taste. If you love liquorice, use regular milk chocolate but add a touch of liquorice extract/essence instead.

3. If you don't have brewed coffee, use the same amount of hot water with one or two tablespoons of instant coffee. Or, just use hot water or even milk with no coffee (although coffee really does accentuate the chocolate flavour).

This recipe for Liquorice Allsorts cake was originally published on my former blog, The Culinary Jumble, in March 2017. The recipe remains the same (although I have added the option of using spelt flour), and some of the images have been updated.