Chocolate Sponge Cake with Salted Caramel Fudge

Here’s a simple sponge cake recipe that all the family will love. And if you involve little hands in the decoration it’s bound to get appropriately messy. We’ve used our own Salted Caramel Fudge, Peanut Brittle and Salted Caramel Drinking Chocolate Pearls (which, by the way, are good enough to eat straight from the jar!) to decorate this cake as we’re rather partial to the chocolate and salt pairing, but feel free to get as creative as you like.

To make the cake

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170˚C for fan assisted ovens / Gas Mark 3.
2. Grease and line 2 x 20cm springform cake tins with baking parchment, using a circle cut for the base and a long strip cut for the edge ensuring a minimum of 5cm additional height above the tin edge.
3. Add the butter and sugar to a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric hand-held mixer until creamed.
4. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl to check their quality and then add to the butter.
5. Add a tbsp of the flour to the mixture and mix until combined.
6. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the mixture and, using a long-handled metal spoon, stir in a figure of eight to add air to the mixture.
7. Spoon equal amounts into each cake tin and smooth to the edges with a spatula.
8. Bake in the oven for up to 30 minutes. The sponge is ready when the top is springy to the touch and a skewer comes out clean from the centre.
9. Remove from the tins and place onto a cooling rack to cool.

To finish the cake

1. Add the cream and 2 tbsp of sugar into a mixing bowl and whisk until it forms soft peaks.
2. Choose which cake be the top and turn the other over so that it is flat side up.
3. Use a piping bag, pipe the cream over the base in rosettes, working in a circular pattern from the edge to the centre or simply spoon on and smooth over.
4. Carefully place the top cake onto the cream and decorate with fudge and brittle pieces and sprinklings of chocolate pearls.