Chocolate Flowerpot Cake

Thursday was mum's birthday and of course I couldn't let the occasion past without making a cake. The only problem was, I had about two hours over two days to make it happen so I would need to come up with a game plan. I decided to bake the cake the first day and then decorate it the second. Somehow, I managed to get it all done with about 30 minutes to spare.

 

The cake itself is a pretty simple one. I baked it in a giant cupcake tin (similar to this one) to help with the shape of the flowerpot which definitely helped with the timing issue, even if it wasn't quite as tall as I would have like. I then covered the cake in a thin layer of buttercream, before decorating with fondant, crushed up Oreos for soil and finally some buttercream grass to hide any messy edges.

Chocolate Cake

175g unsalted butter, softened

175g golden caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

3 tbsp golden syrup

40g ground almonds

175g self-raising flour

Pinch of salt

40g cocoa powder

2 tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and line your cupcake tin. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy Gradually, add in the eggs. Stir in the golden syrup and ground almonds. Sift the flour, salt and cocoa powder in a separate bowl, before folding into the mixture. If needed, add in the water to make a dropping consistency. Spoon three quarters of the mixture into the base section of the cupcake tin. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and add the remaining mixture to the top part of the cupcake tin and bake for a further 15 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack. 

Chocolate Buttercream

2 tbsp hot water

2 tbsp cocoa powder

150g unsalted butter, softened

225g icing sugar

Blend the water and cocoa powder together to make a paste. Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add in half the icing sugar and the cocoa powder paste an beat. Add in the remaining sugar and beat until smooth. 

You will also need

About 6-8 Oreos

Different coloured fondant

A little bit of extra buttercream

When the cake has cooled completely, sandwich the two sections together with some buttercream. Cover the whole cake in a thin layer of buttercream. Break up some oreos (just the biscuit part) and press into the top of the cake to create the soil. Cover the side of the cake in brown fondant to create the flowerpot. Then add whatever leaves and flowers you want, using either leftover buttercream or edible glue to secure. I used a little bit of yellow buttercream to create the centre of the flowers, but you could use extra fondant instead. I also wanted to cover up the rough edges at the bottom of the cake so piped on some grass. A ribbon would also do the trick.