Rocky Road Layer Cake

4 from 2 votes

Utterly decadent rocky road layer cake - chocolate sponge cake layered with ganache frosting and rocky road - perfect for the chocolate lover.

Prep Time1

Cook Time1 30

Chilling Time3

Total Time5 30

Course: Cake, Dessert

Cuisine: British

Servings:

Calories: 1043kcal

Author: Sasha Hooper

Equipment

6 inch cake tin
Food Processor

Ingredients

Cake

225 g unsalted butter
225 g caster sugar
200 g plain flour
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4 large eggs
3 tablespoons milk

Ganache

300 ml double cream
300 g dark chocolate finely chopped (I used 100 g 70% cocoa and 200 g 50% cocoa)
2 teaspoons icing sugar
pinch of salt

Rocky road

300 g dark chocolate chopped
125 g butter room temperature
3 tablespoons golden syrup
200 g ginger nuts (ginger snaps)
100 g mini marshmallows
75 g dried cranberries
1 orange zest, finely grated
50 g white chocolate

Instructions

Cake

Preheat the oven to 160°C fan/180°C/350°F. Grease and line 2 6" loose bottomed cake tins.
It's easiest to make this cake recipe in the food processor. Place the butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarb into the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until fine breadcrumbs are formed.
225 g unsalted butter, 225 g caster sugar, 200 g plain flour, 4 tablespoons cocoa powder, 4 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Add the eggs into the processor one by one, processing briefly after each one. Finish by adding the milk and processing until just combined - you don't want to work the batter for too long.
4 large eggs, 3 tablespoons milk
This recipe makes enough batter to bake 4 6" cakes - so unless you have 4 6" tins and ample oven space, bake two at a time. They should be ready after 20 minutes or if a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool for 5 minutes in their tins before transferring to a cooling rack. Clean the tins, re-line them and then bake the remaining two cakes. Leave to cool.

Ganache

Heat the cream in a small saucepan until just about boiling point, but not quite.
300 ml double cream
Place the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and pour over the cream and leave for 5-10 minutes.
300 g dark chocolate
Stir until smooth and then stir in the sugar and salt. Leave to cool and firm up in the fridge for 1 hour.
2 teaspoons icing sugar, pinch of salt
Transfer the cooled ganache to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or use an electric hand mixer). Whisk on high speed for about 1 minute until the ganache has turned paler in colour and has almost doubled in bulk. Set aside.

Rocky road

Place the butter, chocolate and golden syrup into a heavy-based saucepan. Heat very gently, stirring frequently, until everything has melted. Take care not to overheat this - it should only be warm, not hot. I tend to remove the pan from the heated before everything is melted and let the residual heat take care of the rest.
300 g dark chocolate, 125 g butter, 3 tablespoons golden syrup
Place the ginger nuts into a large freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin until you have a chunky rubble - you don't want the pieces to be too small.
200 g ginger nuts
Stir the biscuits into the chocolate, followed by the mini marshmallows, dried cranberries and grated orange zest. Mix well.
100 g mini marshmallows, 75 g dried cranberries, 1 orange
Have your 6" tins ready. Scoop out about a cup of rocky road mixture and spread out in the base of the tin. Repeat for the other tin so that you have two discs in total. Spread out the remaining mixture on a lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until firm - at least a couple of hours.
Melt the white chocolate. Drizzle over the sheet of rocky road (not the round pieces) and refrigerate until set.
50 g white chocolate

Assembly

Place one of the cakes onto your cake stand or plate. Add a dollop of ganache and spread out. Follow with a layer of rocky road and more ganache. Repeat until you have 3 layers of cake and 2 of rocky road. Spread a little more ganache on the top of the cake.
Cut the leftover rocky road into various sized shards and assemble on top of the cake. You might have to prop them up with skewers. There will be leftovers but that is never a bad thing!
Finish with some festive sprinkles of your choice.

Notes

I'm not going to lie - this recipe is not perfect. Firstly, the sponges are super light and fluffy, but I wish I'd have gone with my gut and drizzled them with a quick simple syrup of orange juice heated with a little sugar. Ah well - next time. Secondly, I kind of wish I'd have made a chocolate buttercream instead of a ganache. But hey, the ganache is delicious - just be careful not to do what I did. I'm not sure where my head was, but I put it back in the fridge after whipping it and it set - not good! I warmed it back up again and it was fine but the texture wasn't quite what I'd hoped for in the end. I'd be tempted to up the quantity of the cream a little next time - maybe to 350 ml, just so that it stays a little softer. Like I said though, it was still fantastic as written!

You'll have a spare cake layer (unless you want to go crazy and build this thing taller!) but it freezes well, just make sure you wrap it well.

I would definitely recommend making the cake and rocky road ahead of time and then assembling just before you want to serve - far less stressful that way :)

Nutrition