Anniversary cake ( Devils food cake with coffee liqueur flavoured chocolate buttercream ) with few step by step progress and some holiday pictures

It was our anniversary yesterday and this time I decided to surprise S with a anniversary dinner and a cake. Its 8 years now, so we have passed that stage of suprise gifts and  all but once in a while I do like to surprise him and rarely I do get surpise too :) Luckily for us our anniversary falls during may end which is long bank holiday here so last few years we have been going on holidays to celebrate anniversary making use of the long bank holiday ! This time we set off to Lake district which is a beautiful place, a perfect place for a person who enjoys scenery , all the places were beautiful like a painting and we couldn't stop clicking pictures :)

Anyway after getting back I had only one day to plan something for dinner, so I kept it  simple and  only made some ghee rice and chicken curry . Before going to trip I did try my modelling skills with a trial attempt of a  face as I have never done faces before, since it came out o.k, I decided to go ahead and make a personalised cake with me and S on top, sitting on a couch watching TV with remote in his hands, but lil A got so upset when he found out that he was not on cake and started crying , so I had make a small lil boy and find a room for   him on that small couch too. He was not quite happy with the way I mdae him first time as his face was not quite smiley as he wanted so I had to re do his face again.

Here is few step by step clicks of face which i clicked during my trial attempt, I didnt use this face on the cake as it was too big for my cake :)

Make an oval shape with flesh coloured fondant which I made by adding a pinch of red and yellow to white fondant. I added a bit of cmc to make fondant a bot sturdy, the tools in the picture are quite handy, I made pattern on the hair by scoring it with the first tool , the eyes ,eyebrows and moustache is drawn using and edible pen.

Here is how I made the body of the man :)

I made the sofa with a rice krispy treats and spread some buttercream and covered it in red coloured fondant. I made the sofa first and then made the figurines and made them sit on it. I made the other figurines in a similar way.

Before going to the recipe just want to remind you all that there is a Give away going on here. Please do check it out :)

Recipe source - Nigella

Devils food cake

Ingredients 

Maida / All pupose  flour - 225 gm /  roughly 2 cups

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup

Boiling water 250 ml

Unsalted butter ( softened )- 125 gm 

Vanilla extract - 2 tsp

Dark muscuvado sugar - 100 gm ( tighly packed 1/2 cup) 

Caster sugar - 150 gm ( 1 1/2 cup )

Eggs - 2 large ( at room temperature )

Method

• Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and keep it aside.
• In a bowl measure cocoa powder, dark brown muscuvado sugar, boiling water and whisk. Keep it aside.
• Cream butter and sugar until soft and creamy.
• Beat one egg at a time and beat well ,add a  tbs of  sifted flour and beat for few seconds, break the second egg  and beat well.
• Add vanilla extract and  beat.
• Add  the rest of the sifted flour and beat.
• Finally add the cocoa mixture and fold in.
• Pour the batter into two 8 inch greased cake tins and bake them in a preheated oven at 180 degree celcius for 30 minutes.

Please find the recipe for coffee liqueur flavoured chocolate  butter cream here.

Notes
The cake has a  dark chocolate flavour and is  not a vert  sweet cake, so it might not a be the kind of of cake if want if you are going to make it without icing but with icing its sweet and perfect and soo soo delcious. If you are not a dark chocolate fan and want to make the cake without icing replace a small amount cocoa powder with plain flour according to your liking and add more sugar if you like.