It was my brother’s 26th birthday last week and my sister was organising his party and asked me to do his cake. She told me to keep it in line with her “blue and silver theme” to which I though yeah right?! ain’t nobody got time for that. So instead I created this and by created, I mean I copied someone else’s recipe and made it my own!
I scoured the internet for ages looking for a good drip cake recipe and it was surprisingly hard to come across. I found this one from Sugar High Desserts and am really happy with how it turned out. Ok, so my ganache is a little dodgy but the cake itself is REALLY delicious and the Nutella buttercream is superb.
The cake itself is really easy to make and doesn’t require any extravagant ingredients. I used two 6 inch cake tins and doubled the recipe, which you must do to achieve a tall enough cake. I then topped it with whatever I wanted. You definitely need to have some height with your toppings and then you can just start piling things on that you love. Pretzels and caramel popcorn are always aesthetically pleasing and you could use things like donuts and macaroons for pops of colour.
I had issues with my ganache not being runny enough. I would suggest making it just before you’re going to use it so it doesn’t have time to thicken but also so that it has cooled enough (it can’t be warm otherwise it will affect your buttercream). It should slowly drip off a spoon but not run or drop. You can put it in the microwave to make it a bit runnier but do it in very short 5 second bursts and stir between each time. Also, you want to use a tablespoon to start dripping around the edges and then fill in the middle before sticking all your toppings in.
This is a great recipe for the amateur decorators amongst us like myself and produces a really delicious cake. I’ll be using this cake recipe for many more attempts at different drip cakes in the future!
Enjoy xoxo
Nutella Drip Cake
Ingredients: (double recipe for this cake)
2 cups of plain flour
2 1/2 cups of sugar
3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of salt
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of vegetable oil (I find canola oil best)
2 eggs
1 cup of boiling water
For Nutella buttercream:
500g unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 cups of icing sugar
1 cup of nutella
Ganache drip:
150g dark chocolate
1/4 cup of cream
50g Salter butter
Serve with your choice of toppings (I used Kit-Kat, Maltesers, Ferrero Rocher’s, caramel popcorn, white and dark chocolate thins and pretzels)
Method:
1.Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease two six inch cake tins with butter and lightly flour.
2.Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, salt & baking powder to your mixing bowl. Using your mixer with the whisk attachment, mix until well combined.
3.Add milk, vegetable oil and eggs and mix together until combines. Reduce the speed and carefully add bouiling water to mixture. Once added, Beat on high for about 1 minutes to add air to the batter.
4.Distribute cake batter evenly between two prepared cake tines. Baked for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (You will have to repeat these cakes to double the recipe).
5.Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin to cool completely. These can be made ahead of time and frozen.
6. To make Nutella Buttercream: Whisk the butter in a mixer until light and fluffy. Add icing sugar and Nutella and whisk until combined.
7. For ganache: Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and stir continuously until the mixture is combined and completely melted. Don’t take your eyes of it otherwise it will burn!
8. To assemble. Secure your bottom cake layer to your cake board with a smear of buttercream and gently press in place. Cover the cake with a thin layer of Nutella buttercream and then add other cake layer. Repeat with all four cake layers. Use an offset spatula to apply generous amounts of buttercream to the outside of your cake. Using a cake scraper gently smooth the top and sides until you’re happy with it! Put in the fridge to set until firm. Take out and repeat with another layer of buttercream and then set in fridge again.
9. Remove from fridge once set and start dripping your ganache down the edge of the cake. Use a tablespoon to create individual strands down the side. Start around the outside edge of the cake first and gently fill in the top of the cake with remaining ganache. You can gently push some of the ganache off the edge like I did as well.
Fill with all of your favourite toppings!
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