Black Velvet Spider Web Cake

Ingredients

Enjoy your spooky and delicious dessert!

Cake
● 420g plain flour
● 110g dutch processed black cocoa powder
● 2 tsp bicarbonate soda
● 2 tsp salt
● 800g caster sugar
● 180 ml neutral oil
● 4 large eggs
● 415 ml buttermilk
● 290 ml hot water

Equipment

Tala Performance Silver Anodised 20cm/ 8"  Sandwich Cake Tin 

Tala Indigo and Ivory Mixing Bowl 

Tala Stainless Steel Ice-cream Scoop

Tala Stainless Steel Icing Scraper 

Tala Stainless Steel Angled Spatula 

Buttercream
● 340g butter
● 240g icing sugar
● 60g dutch processed black cocoa powder (if you don’t have this then use normal cocoa
● powder and add more black food colouring)
● 150g dark chocolate (melted and cooled)
● Black gel food colouring / oil based food colouring
● 150g white marshmallows

Method
1. Line three, 8-inch cake pans with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 180 C.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) until combined.
3. Then in a separate bowl, cream the sugar and oil until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and mix until combined, do the same with the buttermilk.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients until a consistent mixture is formed. Then, add in the hot water and whisk until you have a smooth, runny batter.
5. Pour the batter evenly into the cake pans and bake for 40-50 minutes - until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Leave the cakes to cool completely before decorating.
7. While the cakes cool, make your buttercream. Beat the butter with a hand-held or stand mixer for 3-5 minutes, until pale and fluffy.
8. Gradually add the icing sugar, and beat for a further 5 minutes. Then add the cocoa powder and salt, and beat until evenly distributed. Finally, add in the melted chocolate, and beat again until evenly distributed. Add in black food colouring until you get the desired colour.
9. Assemble the cake by spreading a layer of buttercream between each cake and then coating it all over.
10. Place the marshmallows in a bowl and microwave on high for about 20 seconds, until just melted. Allow the marshmallows to cool just a little, so that you can get sticky cobweb-like strands from it. Once stringy, make a web over the top and sides of the cake. This gets quite messy!
11. Leave to set for 10 minutes and then cut and enjoy!