Spiced Chocolate Bonfire Cake

Two layer chocolate cake with ginger and cinnamon, decorated with an orange flavoured buttercream that's coloured and piped to look like fire. Perfect for bonfire night!

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Keyword bonfire night, Cake

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 35

Total Time 1 20

Servings

Calories 770kcal

Author thebakingexplorer

Ingredients

For the cake

350 g Baking spread or butter softened, unsalted
350 g Dark brown soft sugar
6 Eggs large
4 tbsp Milk
300 g Self raising flour
50 g Cocoa powder
½ tsp Baking powder
½ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp Ground ginger
2 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Mixed spice

For the buttecream

250 g Butter softened, unsalted
500 g Icing sugar
1 ½ tsp Orange extract
2-3 tbsp Milk

For decoration

12 Orange chocolate sticks I used Matchmakers

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 160C Fan/350F/Gas Mark 4, and grease and line two 8" cake tins (that are at least 2" deep)
Make the sponge by mixing the baking spread and dark brown sugar together in a mixing bowl until fluffy (around 3 minutes), ideally using an electric mixer. Or mix in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment
Add the eggs and milk, and mix until fully incorporated
Add the self raising flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, ground ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice, and whisk or fold in gently
Divide the mixture between the tins, use scales for accuracy if you like
Bake them for 35-40 minutes or until a thin skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave them to fully cool either in the tins or remove from the tins and place on cooling racks
To make the buttercream mix the butter on it's own until it's smooth and creamy, for 2-3 minutes. Use an electric whisk or stand mixer with the paddle attachment for best results
Add the icing sugar, orange extract and milk. Mix until smooth. If the buttercream is too stiff then you can add a little more milk
Divide the buttercream equally between three bowls, use scales for accuracy if you like
Colour one bowl of the buttercream red, the second yellow and the third orange. Do this by adding the food colouring to the buttercream and mixing it in with a silicone spatula or a spoon
Place a piece of clingfilm onto your work surface that's around 35cm x 25cm. Lay each colour of the buttercream out in rows in the centre of the clingfilm, making sure that the rows of buttercream touch each other. Roll the cling film around the buttercream and create a sausage shape, twisting the excess cling film at either end
Use scissors to cut open one end of the cling film sausage, exposing the buttercream, then feed that end of the sausage into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle
If the cakes have domed on top, level them off with a cake leveller or a sharp knife
Put one of the sponges on your plate or cake stand and pipe some of the buttercream onto it
Add the other sponge on top and pipe the remaining buttercream on top
Decorate by snapping or cutting each of the orange chocolate sticks into three and arranging them around the outer buttercream swirls
Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in a cool place for 3 days

Video

Notes

Make sure all your ingredients (particularly the butter and eggs) are at room temperature before you start baking.
I used a baking spread for the cake and unsalted butter for the buttercream.
If you can, do use dark brown sugar for the cake as it makes it extra fudgey. Light brown sugar will also work well. But, you can use caster sugar if you can't get hold of either of them.
I decorated the cake with orange matchmakers to match the orange buttercream, and to represent wood on the bonfire. Chocolate fingers could also work, although they are a bit chunkier. You could also use some chocolate strand sprinkles.
You can use any cocoa powder for this cake, of course the better quality it is, the better flavour it will have. Also do make sure you are using cocoa powder and not a hot chocolate powder.
Mixed spice is a British spice blend containing cinnamon, coriander seed, nutmeg, clove, pimento, and ground ginger. If you can't get hold of it where you're based, you can use a Pumpkin Spice mix instead or add more of the other spices.
For the buttercream I used professional grade food colourings. These types of food colouring not only provide excellent colour results, but they are gel based so they do not make the buttercream sloppy. They are also easily available for purchase online. My favourite brands are Pro Gel and Sugarflair. Other good quality brands are Colour Mill and Americolor.
Although I provide cup measurements, I highly recommend weighing your ingredients out using digital kitchen scales*. It is the most accurate way to measure ingredients and will ensure the best results. Digital scales are very low cost and can be purchased for around £12 ($16.50) .
For teaspoon (tsp) and tablespoon (tbsp) measurements, please use measuring spoons* and not the type of spoons you eat with. Again this will ensure accuracy and provide the best results.
If you just want a plain chocolate cake, omit the spices and reduce the milk to 2 tbsp.
You can swap the orange extract in the buttercream for vanilla extract if you prefer.
For piping the buttercream, I used a Wilton 2D nozzle.
You can spread the buttercream onto the cake if you don't want to pipe it.

Nutrition