Verdict: Nuterocher cake

No, I didn't eat the cake I was supposed to give to Trisha - I finished and decorated one of the cupcakes in the same way to test. It was... well... frankly bad. No, actually, that's definitely far too harsh, but it certainly wasn't great. I think I've lost my touch through lack of practice - somewhere down the line, the cake went hard. I mean, really hard. I think it's a combination of the treacle and overcooking, but it was definitely hard. The cherry brandy did help soften it up a bit, and the hard bits were actually quite nice and chewy after a few bites, but it's definitely a bit of a workout for the jaw and not what I was aiming for! On the plus side though, the treacle flavour was wonderful - surprisingly powerful, given how little of it went in - and the chopped hazelnut/melted chocolate is a definite winner. The cherry brandy and treacle stop it being the Nutella/Ferrero Rocher combination I had initially intended, but the balance is actually rather good. The only real problem with the taste is that it's just a tiny little bit too sweet, but not horrendously, and I think I like my cakes to be a bit less sweet than most people anyway. It's good enough for me to give to Trisha, but not without some warning and a promise of a better cake. I think the best verdict is a mitigated failure though. I think I might bake her another one using a more standard sponge cake recipe and finishing it off in the same way - I think that would work wonderfully!

Nuterocher cake

I decided to bake a little cake for Trisha. This also gives me an opportunity to use my newest cake tin - bought entirely on impulse because it was cheap! But I didn't feel especially inspired and was running a little low on ideas for what sort of a cake to do. It kinda had to be chocolate, I guess, but a plain ol' chocolate cake seems a tad dull. Then I thought back to where it all began, and I had an idea. So, here's what I think would happen if you were to cross Nutella with Ferrero Rocher...

Nuterocher Cake
Ingredients

• 70g Butter
• 70g Dark chocolate
  
• 55g Plain flour
• 1/2 tsp Baking powder
• 70g Caster sugar
• 70g Dark muscovado sugar
  
• 1tsp Black treacle
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
  
• 1 Egg
• 25ml Cherry brandy
  
• Nutella
• More dark chocolate
• Roast, ground hazelnuts*

Method

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together and set aside.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugars in a large bowl and stir in the melted chocolate and butter, treacle and vanilla.
3. Beat the egg and stir in.
4. Pour into a well-greased and lightly cocoa dusted cake tin and bake at ~180C for ~20 minutes.
5. Remove from tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.
   
6. Slice in half horizontally and pour the cherry brandy over the inner surfaces.
7. Spread Nutella over the lower half and replace the upper half.
8. Melt some chocolate and pour/spread over the top of the cake.
9. Sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts over the liquid chocolate and allow to set.
   

*Yes, I could have roasted and chopped them myself, but I was feeling lazy.

Ready for the oven.
But hang on a minute... that smells like burning. Oh yes, cakes rise in the oven, don't they?I think this qualifies as a baking disaster. But looking at the symptoms and having a little think about it, I realised that I'd added far too much baking powder. Baking on such a small scale is so much harder! So time for take two, in which I took a bit more care in measuring out the raising agent and also divided the batter up into the mini ring mould and three cupcake moulds. It looks rather a lot better this time. Not quite perfect, but definitely much better!
It looks quite good after decoration (at least, I think it does!).