Enjoy a slice of my Secret Design Chess Cake. Recipe and full instructions on how to make this gorgeous cake all in one place with a video too.
5 from 13 votes
Prep Time 30 minutesmins
Cook Time 20 minutesmins
Decorating Time 30 minutesmins
Course Cakes, Dessert
Cuisine English, International
Servings 12slices
Calories 250kcal
Ingredients
The Cake
225gunsalted buttersoftened
225gcaster sugar
275gself-raising flour
2tspbaking powder
4medium eggs
2.5tbspmilk
1tspvanilla extract
Chocolate Mix
2.5tbspcocoa powder
2tbsphot water
For the icing (or use the ganache recipe below)
50gunsalted butter
30gcocoa powdersifted
4tbspmilk
200gicing sugar / confectioners sugarsifted
Or Chocolate Ganache
300mldouble cream / heavy cream
300gmilk chocolate
2teaspoonsunsalted butter
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/gas mark Lightly grease two 7inch shallow cake tin. Line the bottom with a circle of non-stick baking parchment.
Measure the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs, milk and vanilla extract into a large bowl and beat with a hand-held electric mixer for about two minutes, until well blended. Spoon half into another bowl and set aside.
In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder and hot water together until smooth. Allow to cool slightly, then add to one of the bowls of cake mixture, mixing well until evenly blended.
Spoon the chocolate mixture evenly into the two pans, if you have four tins the same size you can do the vanilla at the same time or wait until the chocolate has baked and wash the tins and repeat. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cake is well risen, springy to the touch and starting to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack, peel off the lining paper and leave to cool completely.
To make the icing, melt the butter in a small pan, add the cocoa powder, stir to blend and cook gently for one minute. Stir in the milk and icing sugar, then remove from the heat and mix thoroughly. If necessary, leave the icing on one side, stirring occasionally, to thicken. Spread the cold cake evenly with the icing.
To make the chess board using 2 round cutters one medium and one small. Cut the same large circle into all the pieces and then cut the smaller circles.
When you have all the pieces – 3 per cake so 12 all together – interchange the pieces so the outer ring would be white and then the middle would be chocolate and the middle white again and vice versa with the chocolate large outside ring. Pile up the layers so they are in contrast with each other.If you want you can put a thin layer of icing between each layer to level the cake and stick the layers together but it isn’t too important. As long as the outside is iced the layers wouldn’t move too much.
Video
Nutrition
Calories: 250kcal
Please note that the nutrition information provided above is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
I would love to hear what you thought about this recipe. Please leave a comment on the blog post.