Kids and Chocolate Cake

The neighbours have visiting kids who have been checking out all the wildlife and generally having a laugh. They are between the ages of 6-9 - a great time to be a kid! At 9am we heard the kids making some noise and scratching their stomachs. Apparently scratching your stomach attracts wallabies - or so the kids had been told! We were invited to a BBQ with the visiting family. The youngest asked me
"Mr Steve we heard you make nice cake, can you please make some for us?"
It's not that difficult to make cake so I thought why not. They asked for a chocolate cake but I thought I would make a plum sponge - a childhood favourite. When I opened my pantry and looked at what was available I changed my mind and thought the chocolate cake would be better. But not a normal chocolate cake.

Steve's Mosaic Chocolate Cake

Basically a black forest gateaux mixture - however I did put more cocoa in it and I think that made it a little dry.

Then I whipped up some cream and melted down some chocolate. I put some of the melted chocolate into the whipped cream - along with extra sugar and whipped it further. That made the frosting.

I thought I would be tricky and make some chocolate scrolls for the top. That means tempering chocolate - which I have never done. So I heated the chocolate up to the right temperature and then then spread the chocolate on some wax paper to start setting. The chocolate was too warm so I let it sit 'till it started to harden. Unfortunately I left it too long and it went too hard to manipulate, and I didn't have a hairdryer to warm it slightly. So the idea for the scroll was thrown out the window and I decorated the cake in a mosaic look and put some dried off frozen berries in the middle.

I think with a little more work and better chocolate it would be nicer. The photo doesn't really do it justice.