I’m happy with my original description of this as an elegant cake that stands out from the crowd, but it’s equally true to describe it as a tasty bit of gold chocolate bling. Take your pick. And it’s still great for Christmas, or any other time.

One thing I especially like about this cake is the fact that it can be so easily “personalised” by adding whatever “shop bought” decorations that take your fancy. At Christmas time there’ll be lots to choose from. I also like the idea of limiting the colours to gold, brown and white. But, adding some red and green wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Servings: 10 – 12
Time: 90 minutes
Difficulty: Moderate
Credit: Adapted from a recipe in “Amazing Cakes” magazine

Ingredients

100g butter, softened
225g caster sugar
200g self-raising flour + 1 tbsp
30g cocoa powder, sifted
half tsp ground cinnamon
2 medium eggs, beaten
150ml full fat milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
270ml double cream
400g good quality dark chocolate, grated or finely chopped
Gold and/or Silver edible glitter spray or similar (optional)

Directions

Night before:

Brush a plain bundt style circular cake tin with melted butter and put in fridge for half an hour. Brush again with more better and leave in fridge longer, overnight is ideal. Next day, before using, dust lightly with either flour or cocoa powder.

On the day:

N.B. The ganache can take several hours to cool ready to use, so you may wish to make that first (see step 5)

Pre-heat oven to 180C/Fan 160C /Gas 4.
Cream together the butter and sugar, then sift in the flour, cocoa powder and cinnamon. Mix well.
In a different bowl mix together the beaten eggs, milk and vanilla, then add to the dry ingredients and mix well, again.
Spoon or pour mixture into tin, smooth and bake for around 35 minutes, until just springy to the touch. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes then turn out on to a wire rack to cool fully. When fully cool, slice in half horizontally.
For the ganache filling/topping, heat the cream in a saucepan and bring just to the boil. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Cover and leave for two minutes to melt. Beat or stir vigorously until well combined, leave to cool and thicken. Don’t put in the fridge.
Sandwich the cake halves together using half the ganache. Put the assembled wreath onto a board or plate and cover with the remaining ganache.
It’s your choice how you decorate, but virtually any form of chocolate should work well. You may choose to spray the pieces with gold and/or silver edible glitter spray, either before or after adding them into the ganache.