This afternoon, Brunton number one declared that he had a hankering for something sweet. His immediate reaction was to grab some Angel Delight from the cupboard – if you didn’t grow up on this stuff, it is a sweet, powdered custard that you whip up with milk and leave to set. Although it may have been my favourite thing when I was about six, I’m less of a fan now (although top tip – if you have guests over for dinner and have forgotten to make pudding, mix the chocolate one up with double cream and melted dark chocolate, it’s remarkably good). Instead, I decided to whip up a chocolate cake.
Rather than do a plain chocolate sponge which I have always found to turn out a little dry, I decided to mix it up with a little maple syrup. So here it is – chocolate maple cake!
Chocolate Maple Cake
Ingredients:
– 175g self raising flour
– 50g cocoa powder
– 225g butter
– 225g caster sugar
– 4 medium eggs
– 80g dark chocolate
– 2 tbsp maple syrup
For the icing:
– 3 tbsp maple syrup
– 200g icing (confectioner’s) sugar
– 80g dark chocolate
– 2 tbsp butter
– 50ml milk
Method:
– Grease a 22cm cake tin and preheat the oven to 180°.
– Cream together the butter and sugar – beat until it is pale and fluffy.
– Beat in the egg until smooth, then slowly fold in the flour and cocoa, incorporating lots of air.
– Melt together the chocolate and maple syrup, and slowly fold into the cake mixture.
– Pour into the tin and bake for 40 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean.
For the icing:
– melt together the butter, chocolate, and two tbsp of the maple syrup.
– Beat this mixture into the icing sugar and mix in the milk. Leave to cool.
– When the cake is cool, slice it in half through the middle. Beat the last tbsp of maple syrup into the icing and spread half over the middle of the cake. Sandwich the two pieces together and then spread the remaining icing over the top.
Top tip: While spreading the icing, it will lift easily off the cake, picking up crumbs. To stop this, try and spoon it evenly on the cake, and then wet the knife you use to spread the icing to stop it sticking.
Adventures in Bruntonia 
Ok, I’ll try again. Only eat Choccy Angel Delight with Brandy and whipped cream. Just saying. Your cake sounds gooooood
Brandy sounds like an excellent addition! My mum used to make it as a ‘posh dessert’ and it really is surprisingly good when you add in the double cream and chocolate – it’s like cheat’s chocolate mousse really. The cake is pretty delicious – don’t think it will last long in Bruntonia!
I did not cheat…..I customised the recipe! I will be further customising it by adding brandy in future 🙂 By the way the butterscotch angel delight works well with double cream and chopped up fudge, and the strawberry one with fresh strawberries that have been frozen and defrosted.
Butterscotch sounds good. Never been a huge fan of any artificial strawberry flavours, so I think I would actually rather eat the strawberries as is!
Just to clarify – you can make me ‘customised’ chocolate angel delight any time. NO complaints here 🙂