Treasure Box

It is my nephew's 4th birthday today.  Prior to that, I had promised him that I'll make him a treasure box for his birthday. When my cousin, his mom, asked me what's a treasure box, I convincingly told her, "You'll see, it'll be a nice surprise".  She didn't look very convinced, and asked me again "Have you done it before ?", to which I replied "No worries, I've got it all sorted out".  What was I thinking ? Truth is, I had no clue. But a promise is a promise, and I was planning on keeping mine.  Days before the D-day, I still had no idea.  Luckily, I vaguely recalled an image of a cake which I had come across previously (sorry, but I can't remember where).  Phew.  Double phew :P. 

It wasn't difficult for me to decide on celebratory chocolate as the theme.  I applied this chocolate cake recipe from How to Eat by Nigella Lawson for the box, which I frosted with chocolate ganache. The treasures then came in the form of Smarties and M&Ms which I topped on the box.  In my attempt to cover up my flaws make the entire thing look box-like, I stuck ladyfingers on the sides of the cake.  Looks convincing enough for a treasure box ? The final cake looked more like picket fences with coloured pebbled stones to me.  But hey, if the birthday boy's convinced, I'm happy.

Now this is the cake I wished I had when I was four.  Happy 4th Birthday, K.  Auntie R hoped you like your treasure box. How would you like to Bomb(e) Alaska next year? :P Bisous xx

You will need:

Cake
225 g self raising flour
30 g best cocoa
200 g castor sugar
100 g unsalted butter
200 g condensed milk
100 g best quality dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
2 eggs, beaten

Chocolate Ganache
250 g best quality chocolate
250 ml double cream

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 180 deg Celsius.  Put the kettle on.  Butter a 20 cm cake tin (or 2 sandwich tins) and line the base with parchment paper.

Sieve flour, cocoa and a pinch of salt into a large bowl and set aside.  Put the sugar, butter, condensed milk, 100 ml just boiled water and the chocolate in a saucepan and heat until melted and smooth.  Then, using a wooden spoon, stir this robustly but not excitably into the flour-cocoa mixture and, when all is glossily amalgamated, beat in the eggs.

Pour into cake tin and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, less if you are using shallower sandwich tins.  When its ready, the top will feel firm.  Don't expect the skewer to come out clean, indeed, you wouldn't want it to.  And don't worry about any cracking surface, the ganache will cover it later.

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto the rack.

When completely cool, split into half horizontally (not neccessary if you used 2 sandwich tins).

To make the ganache, chop up the chocolate and put in a medium sized bowl.  Heat the cream to boiling (but do not let it boil) and pour it over the chocolate.  Leave for 5 minutes, and then, using an electric mixer, beat until combined, coolish, thick and glossy.  You want it thin enough to pour but thick enough to stay put.

Pour some ganache over the cut side of one-half of the cake, using a palate knife to spread, and then plonk the other half on top.  Pour the rest of the ganache over the top of the cake, letting it drape over, swirling the overspill with your palate knife to coat the sides.

Leave for a couple of hours or till set.

Note: For my treasure box, I doubled the recipe, and made three layers instead of two per the recipe.