Christmas surprise cake

by Blu

This is a chocolate Christmas cake that looks simple from the outside but hiding inside a little surprise, a sweet Christmas tree. To create this cake you need to bake two cakes. The first cake will be cut into slices and then cut into Christmas tree shapes using a cookie cutter. The second cake will contain the trees arranged vertically, will be covered with dough e and the whole thing is baked again.
Ingredients:

1st Cake:
  • 140gr flour
  • 175gr butter
  • 175gr sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ packet of baking powder (ca 8gr)
  • 100ml milk
  • Green food colouring


2nd Cake:
  • 175gr flour
  • 225gr butter
  • 225gr sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 packet of baking powder (ca 8gr)
  • 100ml milk
  • 3 tsp of cocoa powder


Decorations:
  • 2 chocolate bars
  • colored sprinkles
Method:
Heat oven to 160°C. Grease a baking tin and line with a strip of baking parchment. The base recipe for the cake: cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the 3 eggs separately, mixing well after each addition. Sift together 140g flour and 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder, add to the batter 100ml milk.

1st Cake (for the trees): add at last to the batter the green food colouring, then mix until evenly coloured. Pour into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 1 hour until a skewer comes out clean. When cool, cut the cake into slices and then cut into Christmas tree shapes using a cookie cutter (you can eat the leftover green cake).

2nd Cake: repeat the process to make a second cake mixture adding at the end the cocoa powder. Put 1⁄2 of the mixture into the baking tin, then push the bottoms of the trees into the batter in a tightly packed row. Spoon over the remaining cake mixture, covering the trees and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool for 10 mins in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To decorate, melt the chocolate bars, cover the top of the cake and sprinkle with sweet sprinkles. The result is funny, no matter what is hiding inside (tree, stars or other shapes) when you cut this cake the surprise is guaranteed.