Birthday butter cake with chocolate ganache

My daughter Mila came up with this one! And it is now the only cake my other daughter will devour. She is quite fussy, obviously. She doesn’t like a cake that is too buttery, too chocolatey, too dense, too fluffy. This is the Goldilocks cake. It has a great texture, firm and crumbly but still soft. Lovely , simple cake flavour, and her favourite type of icing (chocolate ganache) drizzled over. And she adores it when it has sprinkles of course.

So this is the family birthday cake now. And it is really easy!

Double this recipe for a great big b’day cake and cook for an hour at least – test with a skewer and cover the top with foil if it is browning too much. Set the alarm and check it at 40 minutes for this. Depending on the oven I have cooked this for 1 1 /4 hours.

Pictured: Birthday butter cake with chocolate ganache- doubled recipe

125g unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ cups self-raising flour

½ cup milk

Ganache icing – 

100ml double cream

300g chocolate of choice – I like Lindt sea salted caramel, dark

To make ganache – wait until the cake is cooled as it is quick to make - place the chocolate, roughly chopped, into a heatproof bowl. Warm the cream gently, in a small pot on the stove, until it is simmering. Then pour over the chocolate. Let sit for a few minutes to melt. Then mix until smooth and pour over the cooled cake, letting it drizzle down – use a spatula to spread it evenly over the cake.

Preheat oven to 180 °C

Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar til light and fluffy. 

Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each until all combined.

Add half the flour and half the milk, mix carefully on a low speed.

Then add the other half and mix carefully again to not overwork the batter. Stop as soon as it is incorporated.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top.

Bake 35 – 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when you test the middle.

Allow the cake to cool for 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool.

This cake is ready for either a ganache icing like in the picture, or cover with whipped cream and berries of choice.

You could cut it in half and fill with cream and berries, sprinkle the top with icing sugar.

Pictured: Birthday butter cake close up