This is an extra special edition of WIP Wednesday, because, after 8 weeks of knitting, I have officially finished my Porcelain Sweater x Bridgerton Advent project! For this project, I made a Porcelain Sweater (pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe), using the 2025 Bridgerton Advent from Castle View Yarns as the contrast colour(s).

In today’s post, I’ll be chatting about the final stages of making the jumper, as well as sharing some photos of the finished product! I’ll also be taking a look back at all of the things I’ve learned while working on this project.

Progress

I have finished my Porcelain Sweater! Woohoo!

In the eighth week of working on this project, I finished off the second sleeve (including the second band of colourwork and the ribbed cuff). I weaved in all of the ends (which was definitely the most time-consuming job of the week) and blocked the sweater, so it’s completely ready to be worn!

Yarn Usage

With the sweater finished, I was able to work out how much of each of the yarns I used.

Overall…

I used approx. 505g (i.e. 10 balls + a very very small amount of the 11th) of the main colour (DROPS Merino Extra Fine, Off White 01).

I used an average of 2.9g per colour (range: 1.8g – 4.6g) of the Advent mini skeins I used in the first colourwork band (i.e. not on the sleeves).

I used an average of 5.3g per colour (range: 3.7g – 7.4g) of the Advent mini skeins I used in the second and third colourwork bands (i.e. on body AND sleeves).

There is quite a large variation in the usage of each of the mini skeins, which I suppose is based on what the colourwork design involves on each row: rows with more stitches worked in the contrast colour will inevitably use more than the rows with more minimal usage.

In general, the first colourwork band uses less of each colour because it is only worked on the body, not the sleeves.

Post-Knit Thoughts & Musings

With the jumper now completely finished, I thought I’d share some of my final thoughts about the finished product and the project as a whole.

Finishing the Knitting

The second sleeve worked up even faster than the first sleeve, because I’d done all of the mental effort (figuring out where best to work the decreases, when to change colours, how many rows to work etc.) already. This meant I could just follow my notes and do exactly what I’d done before!

Once the sleeve was finished, I’d officially finished all of the knitting for this project, because I worked the neckband beforehand.

Weaving in the Ends

With the knitting all finished, it was time to weave in all those ends. And boy, were there a lot of ends…

I’ll be honest— I didn’t enjoy this stage of the process, but I knew I wouldn’t. Weaving in ends isn’t my favourite job at the best of times and there were soooooo many to weave in here. However, it was a necessary step in the process— the penultimate task left on my to-do list before I could actually wear this thing!

I decided to be strict and not let myself procrastinate, which I may or may not have been known to do in the past with this particular job. I have to say, one thing that helped me shove my procrastinating tendencies aside was my desire to finish this jumper within that 8 week/2 month mark, just because it feels like such a nice, round timeframe. I know it sounds a bit silly as motivations go, but it worked for me (and I’ll accept any help I can get when it comes to my predisposition to putting things off)!

The simplest ends to weave in were definitely the ones in the ribbing, because it’s super easy to hide them in amongst the textured fabric.

The sheer number of colourwork ends made this part of the job a long one, but it wasn’t too tricky to hide them in amongst all of the floats. I would have loved to get a slightly neater finish overall on the inside of the sweater, but I think there’s a limit to how invisible you can make the darned ends without compromising how securely they are woven in. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself… Either way, the outside of the sweater looks super neat, so it doesn’t really matter, because I’m the only one who will see the inside!

Oddly enough, the ends I found the trickiest to weave in were the ends of the DROPS yarn (the main colour) that didn’t sit within any of the colourwork bands. It was really hard to make them look seamless because there was absolutely nowhere to hide: just a blank canvas of purl bumps! I did my best, but they still make me cringe a little when I see them… Oh, well.

Weaving in the ends definitely helped to even out the colourwork jogs that I had been a little worried about. Just tightening up those first/last stitches and securing them into the fabric made everything much neater, so, in the end, the much-dreaded, darning-in process was both a structural necessity and a visual luxury, which is a bit of a silver lining.

Blocking the Sweater

To block the sweater, I used this laundry soap from SOAK. It’s quite expensive (so I use it very sparingly), but it’s a really good, no-rinse formula that works super well for hand-washing knits. It’s stocked by lots of small, yarn-based businesses here in the UK.

Along with the SOAK soap, I also added a colour catcher into the water when I blocked the sweater. I don’t really think this was necessary, because the colours didn’t run at all when I did my swatch, but I didn’t want to risk it!

Once the sweater had soaked for a bit, I took it out of the water and squeezed out as much as I could, being careful to support the weight of the sweater as much as possible, to prevent it from stretching out. I popped it into my mum’s spin dryer to get as much water out as possible, then I spread it flat on a blocking frame to dry.

I didn’t pin it out, because I didn’t want it to crease (and because it didn’t seem super necessary). When I measured the gauge after I’d spread it out, it was perfect, so I figured it was okay to just let it do its own thing.

After a day or so, the sweater was completely dry and ready to try on!

Fit & Gauge Issues

If I’m being 100%, completely, truly honest, I’m a little disappointed with the fit of my jumper.

That’s not to say I don’t love it— I do! I’m really pleased with how the design turned out and I’m really proud of it. It’s one of the prettiest things I think I’ve ever made, and I think the gradient of colours looks really beautiful. It still looks lovely on and it does fit me, it’s just that that fit isn’t quite what I was expecting/intending.

As it turns out, it’s all because of my gauge!

I really, honestly do not know how this happened, but the horizontal (stitch) gauge on my finished jumper was out by 3! Whole! Stitches!

I swear that I measured my gauge multiple times on both my swatch and my sweater (while it was spread out on the blocking mat, post-soak but pre-dry) and the horizontal gauge was perfect (or even if it was ever so slightly off, it definitely wasn’t 3 stitches off, because… there’s no way I would have started knitting knowing that?!). However, when I measure my horizontal stitch gauge now, on my blocked and dried sweater AND my blocked and dried swatch from way back when, my horizontal gauge is off on both.

I must have made a mistake somewhere along the line, whether I measured my gauge incorrectly, or stretched the knitting as I blocked it, or misread the pattern— something must have gone on, but I have no idea what!

I admit, my vertical row gauge was off from the start, but I knew that and factored it into the pattern as I knitted. The proof is in these WIP Wednesday posts— I’ve talked about having to knit extra rows to compensate for this and how worried I was that I would run out of yarn because of that multiple times (though, on the bright side, I didn’t run out of yarn!).

I know that a 3-stitch difference doesn’t sound like a lot, but, in knitting gauges, that’s an enormous difference to the fit. The result of that 3-stitch difference is that the fit of the jumper is quite different to how I expected it. It’s not tight, but it’s more fitted than the sample shown in the pattern. I guess this isn’t necessarily a bad thing— it’s still very wearable and it will be easier to wear a jacket over it, but I am a little disappointed.

I am very pleased, then, that I decided to make the larger of the two sizes I was choosing between, because my Porcelain Sweater has about 10-15cm less positive ease than I was aiming for. In the pattern, there’s a note on choosing sizes, which states that the jumper has an intended positive ease of 15-20cm (though it does also state that the Porcelain Sweater in the pattern photos has a positive ease of 25cm). For me, it was a choice between a Medium (18cm of positive ease, with my measurements) and a Large (28cm of positive ease, with my measurements). Because I wanted my sweater to look more like the pattern picture, and I knew that my row gauge was a little tight, I opted to make the Large size and boy, am I glad of that now!

If I made the jumper again (with this particular yarn), I would definitely size up the needles or make a larger size overall. It’s ironic really, because I was super paranoid about the jumper stretching out loads after blocking (I read some crazy horror stories about this online!). I mean, I did use superwash yarn, so maybe I could “accidentally” stretch it out… just a little? Or is that dangerous territory?

I also think that, particularly on the sleeves, I should maybe have sized up my needles for the colourwork panels, because they do pull in slightly (again… maybe I could stretch this?).

However, I do think that the sleeve decreases are emphasising the problem, because the colourwork bands on the body are much less ‘pulled in’. Perhaps it was something to with how I wove in all those ends on the smaller circumference of the sleeves…?

To end on a positive note, though, one thing that I really do love about the fit of this jumper is that it sits very evenly on my body. I sometimes struggle with the hemline of jumpers looking a bit uneven, because my chest pulls the hemline up at the front, while the back stays low. I don’t have that problem with this jumper, which I’m so pleased about! I had considered this problem before I started, but I couldn’t think of a way to work around that (with short rows, bust shaping etc.) without getting in the way of all of the colourwork elements, so I opted to just make it as instructed and hope for the best, which is what I got in the end!

Lessons Learned

Time to look back over the last 8 weeks of knitting and pull out the biggest lessons I’ve learned! Even if I’m not 100% happy with how a project turns out, I always learn something and I know I’m becoming a better knitter with every project (and mistake) I make. I try to remind myself of this often, because I am someone who really hates making mistakes!

Obviously, this time around, the most important lesson I’ve learned is to be extra careful when gauge swatching. Measure multiple times! Ask for second opinions! Make clear notes and write them down for future reference, so you have a better foundation for figuring out problems later on! Don’t stretch your swatches! Read the right pattern! Periodically check your gauge as you go! Then, cross your fingers and send a prayer to the knitting gods!

Gauge has a huge impact on fit (as we’ve all learned today), so mastering gauge swatching feels like it will be a really important step for me on my knitting journey. In all honesty, I’ve always struggled a little with getting my knits to fit really well, so that’s definitely something I’d love to get better at.

On a more technical level, while making this sweater, I learned a lot about making folded neckbands (which I think are very cool)! I also expanded my knowledge of colourwork charts a bit, because the ones in the Porcelain Sweater pattern did contain some notation that I had never seen before. Of course, I also furthered my knowledge of how to construct a knitted sweater! I haven’t made a huge number of jumpers in the past, so this is still relatively new ground for me, but I’m getting more and more confident with each one I make.

Final Thoughts

And with that, my Porcelain Sweater x Bridgerton Advent project comes to an end!

I’ve really enjoyed working on this project (even if I didn’t enjoy every step of the process quite as much…). I loved knitting the colourwork bands, watching the gradient of colours develop and using my treasured Advent yarns for such a special, exciting project!

I also really enjoyed sharing this project with you in a longer format— it’s a bit different to how I’ve done things in the past, but I think it’s a good way of keeping my slow, mindful hobbies… well, slow and mindful! It’s also nice to share all of the ups and downs that come with creating something— I’m not a super advanced knitter and I’m still learning, so I am forever making mistakes (much to my chagrin), and I think it’s nice to show the reality of that online.

For the next month or so, I’ll be working on smaller, festive projects— ones that I cannot wait to share with you in December(!), so there won’t be any WIP Wednesday posts in November. 

However, if all goes according to plan, WIP Wednesday will be back in December, because my next ‘big’ knit is going to be a festive jumper that I want to knit in the build up to Christmas, during Advent. This will be my first time working on a designated ‘Advent‘ project and I’m really excited about it! I probably won’t get the whole sweater done before Christmas (I mean, this one took me 8 weeks!), but it’ll be fun to see how far I can get! The next jumper is much less experimental than this one, but I’m really excited about the finished product (and I promise that I’ll triple check my gauge swatch this time around…).

I can’t wait to share the moodboard, pattern and yarn with you!

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Porcelain Sweater pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Porcelain Sweater here.

You can check out Castle View Yarns here.

Gemma

xxx

This is a big cake. It needed to serve 25 people, and you don’t serve 25 people with a normal-sized cake. For this reason, I’m calling it my Tiramisu Celebration Cake: it’s probably not the type of cake you make for a casual Sunday afternoon, but it is absolutely the kind of cake you make for a party or event— it’s a cake that was born to be part of a celebration.

Having said that, you could absolutely scale this recipe down and have yourself a nice little Sunday Afternoon-Appropriate Tiramisu Cake, if you wanted. Tiramisu for all occasions!

Before we get started, I know that today is a Wednesday, so you would probably have been expecting a WIP Wednesday post! I have officially finished my Porcelain Sweater x Bridgerton Advent project (!!!) but (alas) I haven’t had a chance to take any photos of it yet. I’ll try and get that done ASAP, so you can see it all finished and beautiful (spoiler alert: I’m so pleased with how it has turned out!). In the meantime, though, I offer you… cake!

Here’s the recipe for this Tiramisu Celebration Cake!

Components

This Tiramisu Celebration Cake is made up of 5 components:

• Vanilla cake layers
• Coffee soak
• Mascarpone icing
• Dark chocolate flakes
• Cocoa powder (dusted on top)

Basically, you’ve got all the elements of a classic tiramisu, just adapted slightly into a layer cake-friendly format. Instead of sponge fingers, there are thin layers of vanilla cake. Instead of the egg & mascarpone mixture, there’s a whipped cream & mascarpone icing (which means that this cake is a perfect alternative if you/any of your guests are worried about consuming raw eggs). The coffee soak and the cocoa powder are pretty true to the original dessert, but I’ve included some dark chocolate flakes too, because I like a bit of straight chocolate in a tiramisu!

Ingredients

To make this cake, you will need the following ingredients…

For the Vanilla Cake Layers

The vanilla cake layers are made using a super simple cake recipe (it’s actually the very first recipe I ever learnt to bake!). To make it, you will need:

• Stork baking spread

I generally like to use Stork for cakes, because I think it makes a lighter, fluffier cake than regular butter. However, you can absolutely use softened, unsalted butter instead, if you prefer. You’ll also need a little extra Stork/butter to grease the cake tin(s).

• Caster sugar

I like to use golden caster sugar for this cake, because I think it has a better flavour, but white caster sugar will also work.

• Eggs

I always use large eggs.

• Self-raising flour

It’s important to use self-raising flour (not plain), so that the cakes rise nicely.

• Baking powder

Even though we’re using self-raising flour, I like to add a little bit of baking powder to give the cakes even more lift.

• Fine sea salt

A small amount of salt helps to enhance the other flavours.

• Vanilla extract

A small amount of vanilla is added to counteract the egginess in the cakes. Don’t be too heavy handed with it though, because traditional lady fingers (which we’re trying to ‘mimic’ here), actually have a hint of egginess! You don’t particularly want the cake to taste like vanilla, you just want to tone down the egginess a little. A small splash should do it!

For the Coffee Soak

This soak is essentially a coffee sugar syrup— much like how lady fingers are soaked in a coffee mixture before going into a tiramisu, here the cake layers are brushed generously with the coffee sugar syrup as they are stacked up with the icing.

• Espresso

I have a Nespresso machine, so I made espresso using the Ristretto Decaffeinato capsules (you don’t need to use decaf coffee here, though they work perfectly well— they’re just the strongest capsules I had on hand!). You could also just use really strong coffee for this.

• Instant coffee granules

Tiramisu is supposed to be punchy, so to get even more coffee flavour, I like to add some instant coffee granules to the espresso.

• Caster sugar

I used golden caster sugar, but white caster sugar would work just as well here.

• Fine sea salt

A pinch of salt brings out the flavour of the coffee and balances out the sweetness of the soak.

• Marsala

I’ve used marsala as the alcoholic element in this soak, which is the traditional choice for a tiramisu, but you can use whatever alcohol you would like. My usual favourite is amaretto, but this cake needed to be nut-free, so I used marsala instead and it was still super delicious! If you’d like, you can omit the alcohol entirely (in fact, apparently tiramisu was not originally made using any alcohol at all!)— if you do this, I would recommend adding a little more of the instant coffee granules, just to amp up the flavour.

For the Mascarpone Icing

The cake layers are sandwiched together with this super easy mascarpone cream. Unlike the traditional mascarpone mixture in a tiramisu, this icing doesn’t contain any eggs, so there’s no need to worry about consuming raw eggs!

• Mascarpone

Mascarpone is a soft, Italian dairy product— somewhere between a cream and a cheese. It has a milder flavour and smoother, silkier consistency than cream cheese, but still has a slight tang. I love it!

• Double cream

If you’re in the US, use heavy cream.

• Icing sugar

Icing sugar helps to give the icing structure and stability, which is important for a layer cake! Make sure you sift it beforehand, because it can be quite clumpy.

• Fine sea salt

Like the other elements of the cake, a small amount of fine sea salt helps to balance out the sweetness of the icing and enhance the other flavours.

To Assemble

To assemble the cake, you will also need:

• Dark chocolate flakes

You can buy chocolate flakes in lots of shops now (they’re usually in the ‘Hot Chocolate’ section— just make sure they’re 100% chocolate and not a drinking chocolate mix). However, I sometimes find that the ‘flakes’ are more like little nubbins, because the chocolate has been ground, rather than ‘flaked’.

You can absolutely use those (it’ll make this recipe easier and quicker if you do!), but I prefer the texture of the true flakes, so I opted to make my own here.

To do so, I used a bar of 72% dark chocolate to make my Easy Chocolate Curls, which I then put into a sealed container.

I gave the container a really good shake, which broke the curls up into lots of little flakes.

You could also just grate the chocolate over the top, but I do not enjoy grating chocolate (it melts all over your hands and I don’t like it…), so I opted for my curl-shaking method instead.

• Cocoa powder

I used an everyday cocoa powder for this (specifically this one, from Green & Blacks). You only need a small amount— just enough to dust over the surface of the cake.

Making the Vanilla Cakes

For this cake, you need two 13 x 9-inch cakes. You’ll split each cake horizontally into 3 layers, leaving you with 6 very thin cake layers (I told you it was a big cake!). I only have one 13 x 9-inch tin (and my oven only fits one at a time, anyway), so I baked each cake separately.

To make the first cake, start by greasing and lining the cake tin with Stork (or softened, unsalted butter) and baking paper. Preheat the oven to 160°C (conventional, not fan).

Place the Stork (or softened, unsalted butter) and caster sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. You can also make this cake using a hand mixer, if you prefer.

Cream the Stork and sugar together on medium-high speed until they are well-combined, paler in colour and super fluffy.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and vanilla extract together in a large jug.

Turn the mixer down to medium-low and gradually add the egg mixture into the Stork and sugar. Don’t worry if it splits a little towards the end— it will smooth right out after we add the dry ingredients.

Sift in the self-raising flour, baking powder and salt, then mix on a low speed until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.

Use a spatula to give the cake batter a final mix, going right down to the bottom of the bowl and making sure that everything is combined. You don’t want to over-mix the batter at this point, or your cake will be tough (not the vibe!).

Transfer the batter to the prepared tin and smooth out the surface using an offset spatula or butter knife.

Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes. You can tell when it is cooked, because: a) it will spring back when pressed lightly, b) a skewer inserted into the centre will come out clean and c) the cake will be pulling away from the edges of the tin slightly.

Allow the cake to cool for a while in the tin, then, when it is cool enough to handle, turn it out onto a wire rack, peel the baking paper off the bottom and leave it to cool completely.

Once the cake is out of the tin, you can wash it up, re-grease and line it, then bake the second cake!

Making the Coffee Soak

The coffee soak is super easy to make— you basically just stir everything together! It’s easiest to make the soak while the espresso (or extra strong coffee) is still warm, as that will help everything to dissolve.

Start by dissolving the instant coffee granules in the warm espresso.

Add the caster sugar and salt and stir to dissolve, then set the soak aside to cool a little.

Just before you’re ready to use the soak, add the marsala (or your chosen alcohol) and stir it in. That’s it!

Making the Mascarpone Icing

Just like the coffee soak, this mascarpone icing is super easy to make— you just whisk everything together.

Put the mascarpone, double cream, sifted icing sugar and sea salt into a large bowl.

Use a hand mixer to whisk the ingredients together. Whip just until the mixture is holding its shape— it will continue to thicken as you spread it on the cake/pipe it, and it can start looking a little split if it is over-whisked. Err on the side of caution (but also remember that the cocoa powder dusted over the top of the cake will hide a multitude of sins, so don’t worry too much!).

The icing will also thicken as it sits, so I recommend making it in 3 batches, only whipping up each batch when you’re ready to use it. You’ll use the first batch to fill layers 1-3, the second batch to fill layers 4-5 and crumb coat the cake, then the third batch to add the final coat of icing and the piped border.

Assembling the Cake

With all of your components ready to go, it’s time to assemble the cake!

Start by levelling each of the vanilla cakes and dividing them horizontally into 3, thin layers. This can be a little fiddly, because the layers are so thin— chilling the cakes beforehand (making sure they are tightly wrapped in clingfilm, so they don’t dry out) can help make the cake layers a little less fragile, which makes this process easier.

Spread a small amount of mascarpone icing on your serving board, then position the first cake layer on top, making sure it is centred.

Use a pastry brush to soak the entire surface of the cake with the coffee/marsala sugar syrup. Try to ensure every inch of the cake is evenly covered in a generous amount of syrup— this might take a little while, but it’s worth it, I promise!

Spread a layer of mascarpone icing on top of the cake.

You might find that the cake is a little more delicate now that it has been thoroughly soaked, so take your time and be gentle. Don’t worry too much though, because everything’s going to meld together eventually, so nobody will notice any imperfections!

Sprinkle over some dark chocolate flakes. Don’t be too generous and cover the whole surface here, or the next cake layer won’t stick. Make sure there’s some exposed icing to help sandwich the layers together.

Add the next cake layer, making sure it is centred on the cake below.

Soak with the coffee syrup again, then spread on the icing, followed by a sprinkling of the chocolate flakes.

Keep going like this, stacking a cake layer, soaking it with syrup, spreading on the icing then sprinkling over the chocolate flakes, until you reach your final cake layer.

Soak the final cake layer with the syrup and spread over a thin layer of icing, but don’t sprinkle on any chocolate flakes. This will be the top surface of the finished cake.

Spread a thin coat of icing over the sides of the cake as well (a ‘crumb coat’), to lock everything in and prevent the cake from drying out in the fridge.

Place the cake into the fridge to chill for 20-30 minutes, just to make the decorating stage a little easier for yourself.

Making the Stencil

While the cake is chilling, you can prepare your stencil (if you wish to use one).

Print your design out on paper. I recommend choosing a design with thick, clear lines, preferably one that can be cut out in as few pieces as possible, to make things easier for yourself. The simpler the design, the easier the process will be!

For this cake, I’ve used the word ‘Thirty’, because it was for a 30th birthday. Because the letters are joined together, there are only three sections to this stencil: the capital letter ‘T’, the remaining letters and the dot on the ‘i’. Removing the stencils from the cake can be a bit stressful, especially if you aren’t super confident/have shaky hands like me, because there isn’t really a way to undo any mistakes. Minimising the number of times you have to remove the stencils can make things easier, so try to limit the number of separate pieces in your stencil.

Use masking tape to secure the paper with your design to a craft cutting board. Then, tape a piece of baking paper over the top, making sure it is nice and smooth. You should be able to see your design through the baking paper.

Use a craft knife to carefully cut out your design. Take it slow and steady, but remember you can always start over if needed!

You’ll be left with baking paper versions of your letters/designs. These are your stencils! We’ll place these on the cake before we dust it with cocoa powder, then remove them to reveal the negative-space design.

Decorating the Cake

To decorate the cake, start by applying the final coat of icing on the top and sides. The sides can be as smooth or as messy as you like, but, if you are planning to stencil a design on to the top of the cake like me, try to make the icing on top of the cake as smooth and even as you can.

Once you’re happy with the final coat, transfer the remaining icing to a piping bag, fitted with a large, round piping tip.

Pipe dollops of icing all around the perimeter of the top of the cake to make a border. Try to keep all of the dollops a similar size.

Place the cake back into the fridge for another 15-20 minutes or so, just to give the icing time to firm up a little. This will make the stencilling process easier.

When you’re ready to finish the decoration, position your baking paper stencils on top of the cake. Press them down gently to ensure that they are sitting smoothly against the surface.

Place a spoonful of cocoa powder into a fine sieve, then shake it all over the top of the cake. Aim for a light, even coverage— if there’s too much cocoa around your design, you run the risk of messing it up when you remove the stencils later.

Use a pair of tweezers to carefully remove the baking paper stencils from the cake, peeling them away in one slow, but confident, movement for best results. If you’re a bit shaky, like me, try using your non-dominant hand to support your dominant wrist as you do it!

When you’re finished, you’ll find that you have a lovely, tiramisu cake, dusted with cocoa powder and featuring a personalised, negative-space design where your stencils were!

Of course, if you’d rather skip the stencilling step, you can just dust the whole thing with cocoa powder. Alternatively, you don’t need to make your own stencils— try using things you have at home, like paper doilies or cookie cutters, as makeshift stencils to create fun designs!

Make Ahead

The finished cake needs to be stored in the refrigerator (there’s a lot of fresh mascarpone and cream in it, after all), but it will keep there for 3-4 days, as long as both the cream and the mascarpone are still within their ‘use by’ dates.

This is a large cake with quite a few different components, so you might find it easier to break up the making process and bake it over a couple of days. I actually made this one over 4 days!

• The vanilla cakes can be made up to 2 days in advance (probably longer, in terms of food safety, but they will start to dry out over time). Wrap each cake tightly in clingfilm to keep them fresh and prevent them from drying out too much. I recommend storing them in the fridge, even though it’s not technically necessary because: a) it will keep them fresher for longer and b) cold cakes are easier to level/divide, so you’ll be ready to assemble the cake whenever you need.
• The chocolate flakes can be made well in advance. Just be sure to store them in a cool, dark place so they don’t melt or soften.
• The soak can technically be made in advance (store it in a sealed container in the fridge), but it’s so quick and easy to make that it probably isn’t necessary.
• The icing should not be made in advance, because it will thicken up and harden in the fridge. Use the icing to assemble/decorate the cake as soon as you make it. However, once the cake has been assembled, it’s fine to store it in the fridge for a few days (icing and all), because you won’t need to be spreading/disrupting the icing once it has firmed up.

Recipe

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Tiramisu Celebration Cake

A big, tiramisu-inspired layer cake, perfect for a celebration! 6 layers of vanilla cake, each soaked with a coffee-marsala syrup, sandwiched with a mascarpone cream and sprinkled with dark chocolate flakes. The cake is decorated with a piped border, a dusting of cocoa powder and a simple, stencilled design.

Course Dessert

Cuisine British, Italian

Keyword Chocolate, Coffee, Marsala, Mascarpone, Tiramisu, Vanilla

Prep Time 3 hours hours

Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Chill Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 30

Equipment

• 13 x 9 x 2-inch cake tin (see Note 1).

Ingredients

For the vanilla cakes:

• 600 g Stork, plus extra for greasing (see Note 1).
• 600 g caster sugar
• 12 eggs
• Vanilla extract
• 600 g self-raising flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• Fine sea salt

For the coffee soak:

• 600 ml espresso, still hot (see Note 2).
• 3 tbsp instant coffee granules
• 200 g caster sugar
• Fine sea salt
• 2 tbsp marsala (see Note 3).

For the mascarpone icing:

• 1500 g mascarpone
• 750 ml double cream
• 450 g icing sugar, sifted.
• Fine sea salt

To assemble:

• Dark chocolate flakes (See Note 4).
• Cocoa powder

Instructions

Make the vanilla cakes:

• You will need to make two 13 x 9-inch vanilla cakes for this recipe. I like to make them separately, one after the other, because I only have one tin. The quantities listed in the 'Ingredients' section are for both cakes combined, so I've listed the amounts for one cake in the method here. Just remember to do it all twice, so you end up with two cakes!
• Preheat the oven to 160°C (conventional, not fan). Grease a 13 x 9 x 2 inch tin with Stork (or softened, unsalted butter) and line with baking paper. Set aside.
• Place the Stork (300g) and caster sugar (300g) in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until well-combined, pale and fluffy.
• In a large jug, whisk together the eggs (6) and vanilla extract (1 small splash).
• Turn the mixer to medium-low and gradually pour the egg mixture into the butter mixture. Don't worry if it splits a little towards the end, it will come back together once you add the dry ingredients.
• Sift in the self-raising flour (300g), the baking powder (2 tsp) and the salt (1 pinch). Mix on low speed until just combined, then scrape down the base and sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is well-combined.
• Tip the batter into the prepared tin and smooth it out. Bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, until the cake just springs back when pressed lightly, a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and it is beginning to pull away from the edges slightly.
• Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 30-45 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
• Repeat this process to make a second cake.

Make the coffee soak:

• Dissolve the instant coffee granules in the warm espresso. Add the sugar and salt and stir until dissolved. Allow to cool slightly, then stir in the marsala.

Make the mascarpone icing:

• This icing will thicken up and become hard to work with over time, so I recommend making it in 3 separate batches: 1 batch for filling layers 1-3, 1 batch for filling layers 4-5 and crumb coating the cake and 1 batch for the final coat and piped border. The amounts listed in the 'Ingredients' section above are the total of all 3 batches. I will list the quantity for 1 batch in parentheses here in the method.
• Place the mascarpone (500g), double cream (250ml), sifted icing sugar (150g) and salt (1 pinch) in a large bowl. Whip with a hand whisk until the mixture is just holding its shape— be careful not to over-whip it, or it will become hard to spread and look split.

Assemble the cake:

• Level both vanilla cakes, then split each into 3 layers horizontally, leaving you with 6 layers of cake.
• Spread a small amount of mascarpone icing on the serving board, then place the first layer of cake on top. Brush the cake evenly with coffee soak, then spread on a layer of mascarpone icing. Sprinkle with chocolate flakes, then place the next cake layer on top.
• Repeat this process, stacking up the cake layers with the soak, icing and chocolate flakes, until you come to the final cake layer. Brush the final layer with soak and spread on a thin layer of the icing (you will add more in the next step), but do not add chocolate flakes. Apply a thin crumb coat on the sides of the cake, then chill for 20-30 minutes.
• Apply a final coat of icing, making sure the top is as smooth as possible. Transfer the remaining icing to a piping bag and pipe dollops around the perimeter of the cake, to form a border. Chill the cake for a further 15-20 minutes.
• If you are using a stencil, position it on the cake now, making sure it is flat and level. Dust the cake with an even layer of cocoa powder, then use a pair of tweezers to remove the stencil and reveal your design.
• The cake must be stored in the fridge. It will keep for 2-3 days.

Notes

1. I used this one, from Silverwood.
2. I like to use Stork instead of butter in cakes like this, because I think it makes them lighter and fluffier. Feel free to replace it with an equal amount of softened, unsalted butter, if you prefer.
3. I make espresso using Nespresso Ristretto Decaffeinato capsules (because they’re the strongest ones I tend to have on hand!). 1 capsule makes about 100ml of espresso, so you’ll need approximately 6 capsules for this. Alternatively, you can just use really strong coffee.
4. Marsala is traditional, but you can use whatever alcohol you like (I often use amaretto!). Alternatively, omit the alcohol entirely and increase the instant coffee slightly to amp up the flavour. 
5. I made these chocolate flakes using a 72% dark chocolate. To make them yourself, follow my Easy Chocolate Curls tutorial, then tip the curls into a sealed container and shake them hard to turn them into small flakes. Alternatively, you can buy chocolate flakes ready-made. 

It’s week 7 of making my Porcelain Sweater (pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe), using the 2025 Bridgerton Advent from Castle View Yarns as the contrast colour(s). 

Last week, I made the neckband of the jumper (you can find that post here). In today’s post, we’re talking all things sleeves!

Progress

In the seventh week of knitting this project, I…

• Made the whole left sleeve (!)
• Made about half of the right sleeve

I’m super happy with my progress this week! I was a little worried about making the sleeves, because there are two bands of colourwork on each one, as well as the section of 1×1 rib for the cuffs, so I thought they might take a little while to work up. Fortunately, I was wrong! The smaller circumference really makes them fly by (even with the colourwork/rib), which I’m very pleased about!

Mid-Knit Thoughts & Musings

Just like with the neckband, picking up the stitches for the sleeves around the armholes was… a little bit of an ordeal. You’re supposed to pick up approximately 3 sts for every 4 rows, but my row gauge is a bit off (something I’ve had to keep in mind throughout the whole project), so mine was a bit different. For the majority of the armhole, I picked up the stitches in the following pattern:

Pick up 1, skip 1, pick up 2, skip 1.

I did pick up all 3 of the stitches at the underarm, because I wanted to make sure the seam was nice and strong there, which can often be a weak point.

I also picked up 3 extra stitches, which I spaced out evenly (one at the shoulder and one at the halfway point between the underarm and the shoulder on each side), just to get to the right stitch count.

It’s a bit complicated, but it’s what worked for me! The aim was just to keep the picked up stitches as evenly distributed as possible.

On the bright side, unlike the neckband, there were no diagonal sections, so it was much easier to work out where to pick up the stitches from this time around.

Once the stitches were picked up, it was time for some plain stockinette— I worked 14 rows.

Then, it was colourwork time!

I have to say, when I saw the charts for the sleeves… my heart sank. They looked so intimidating!

Luckily, I got used to them pretty quickly— the motifs themselves are exactly the same as the body charts, they’re just laid out in their entirety (rather than as a repeating motif) to make it easier to work the different sizes. Once you figure out the pattern repeat on each round, it gets a lot easier (you just have to pay a bit more attention at the beginning and end of each round!).

The sleeves are shaped using centred double decreases. I enjoy working these decreases and they look very neat, but they are a little bulkier than a regular decrease (because they use 3 stitches instead of 2).

For my size (L), you’re supposed to work the decrease on the third round of Chart B, but, because you decrease right at the end of the row/start of the next row, I couldn’t quite figure out how that fit in with the colourwork in the chart. In the end, I worked that particular decrease at the end of round 2/start of round 3 instead, which I think fit better? Who knows!

All of the other decreases within the charts (there are two decrease rows in each one) fall in the blank sections of the colourwork, so I just worked the other three decrease rows as instructed.

One thing that I was super happy about was that, on the sleeves, you don’t have to alter the stitch count for the leaf motif— it just fits in! I was so pleased, because I found changing up the stitch count on the body a bit fiddly (it took me far longer than it should have to work out the logistics of) and I was kind of dreading having to do it again.

For the stockinette section in between the bands of colourwork, I worked 24 rounds, which is the same number of rounds that I worked between the bands on the body (this is more than the pattern calls for, because of my tighter row gauge).

After working Chart C, I worked 16 rounds of stockinette before beginning the cuff. I actually forgot to change to the smaller needles on the final round of stockinette, so I had to tink back…

There is an obvious jog in the colourwork at the BOR, but I do think that is exacerbated by the colour changes and loose ends. I’m hoping that when I weave in all of the ends it will even out the jog a little!

I worked the ribbed cuffs using the same technique I used for the hem and the neckband, knitting the knit stitches English-style (i.e. my usual technique) and purling the purl stitches continentally, to keep everything nice and neat.

I worked the same number of rounds as I had worked for the hem (30) to keep everything uniform, then bound off with HiyaHiya Grandma’s Super Stretchy Bind Off again.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, the sleeves are knitting up so much more quickly than I expected: I thought I’d probably have to write one weekly update on the first sleeve and another on the second, but I’m already halfway through the second sleeve! Ah, the joys of a smaller circumference (and not needing to manipulate stitch counts to accommodate colourwork charts)!

I still find picking up stitches a bit stressful— it’s definitely a task I find myself putting off. It took me a good few times to get right on the first sleeve, but at least then I knew exactly what to do for the second sleeve and could get right to it!

And that’s where I’m at! I’m hoping to finish the final sleeve pretty quickly so that I can sew in all the ends (…rip…) and block the jumper as soon as possible!

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Porcelain Sweater pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Porcelain Sweater here.

You can check out Castle View Yarns here.

Gemma

xxx

It’s week 6 of making my Porcelain Sweater (pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe), using the 2025 Bridgerton Advent from Castle View Yarns as the contrast colour(s). I finished the body last week (check out the post here), so today’s post is all about the neckband!

Progress

In the sixth week of knitting this project I…

• Made the neckband!

This was a small job, but a slightly complex one. The neckband is worked directly onto the jumper, folded and knitted down to create a really neat finish— it’s not super tricky, but it does require a bit of focus!

The pattern suggests working the sleeves after the body, but I opted to work the neckband first. I’m hoping this will make it easier to visualise the fit/length while I’m working on the sleeves.

Mid-Knit Thoughts & Musings

The neckband has definitely been the fiddliest part of this project so far, but I do think it’s worth it— it looks so neat and professional!

I definitely recommend watching the recommended video on www.leknit.com (you can find it here), because I found it incredibly helpful to see what was happening, rather than just trying to work it out from the pattern. The audio is in Danish, but you can turn on auto-translated subtitles that will give you the gist of it, plus you can still get a good idea of the technique just from watching the process.

I actually recommend watching both of the suggested videos in the pattern as you reach them: there is another video for picking up the stitches along the left shoulder that I also found very helpful (you can find that one here).

Honestly, the most difficult part of this neckline was picking up the stitches. It was fine when I was picking up stitches on the straight edges but, as soon as the diagonal edges crept in… chaos ensued.

Ultimately, it just took a lot of trial-and-error to decide how/where to pick the stitches up— I prioritised neatness (how seamless does the join look?) and strength (how loose/hole-y does the fabric look?), and tried to stay as consistent as possible with my approach throughout the whole neckline.

I did find it helpful to use lockable stitch markers to mark out where each section was: the pattern gives you the approximate stitch counts for the back, front and sides of the neck (so helpful!), which means you can break the process down into stages.

For the sides, I found it helpful to divide them up even further. I placed one lockable stitch marker halfway through each section, then another two to divide each side in half again, giving me four equal sections. I aimed to pick up an even (or as even as possible— the maths didn’t quite work out perfectly) number of stitches in each quarter, which helped keep to keep me on track

Honestly, the picking up stage took me a good while (I think two evenings!), because I had to keep going back, restarting and reattempting it. I was almost relieved to get back to the 1×1 rib when I finally finished!

Almost. I was almost relieved, because, yep, I still find 1×1 rib slow and vaguely soul-destroying. Sigh.

Just like with the ribbed hem at the bottom of the body, while I was knitting the rib, I worked the knit stitches in my usual method (English-style) and the purls continentally, which I find keeps my rib looking neater.

The ribbed section did take me a little while, but it was definitely nice to be working on a smaller circumference than the hem! I used a short circular needle for this to keep everything as neat and speedy(ish) as possible.

Once the ribbing was done, it was time to… pick up more stitches. I found this process a little easier (though still trickier on the sides!) this time around, because I already had a clear guideline: the seam I created during the first picking-up session.

The process of knitting the folded neckband down was a little fiddly, but it was actually quite a straightforward technique— that is, I understood what I was doing easily (after watching the video) but actually doing it made me feel a little like I was all fingers and thumbs! Nevertheless, it gave a really neat finish and I think the neckband looks super professional— I’m really happy with it!

I did switch back to purling with my usual method (English-style) when binding off the neckband, because I wanted to make sure it was as stretchy as possible (purling continentally tightens up the stitches, which makes for a neat finish but isn’t quite so conducive to a stretchy neckline!).

Final Thoughts

And that’s the neckband of my Porcelain Sweater officially finished! It was a little tricky, but I’m so happy with how it turned out— I think it looks really good and I love the way that the internal seam ends up entirely enclosed within it (what a genius design!).

I definitely feel like I’m getting closer to the finished product now! Just the sleeves to go!

Plus, you know, weaving in all those ends… but let’s not think about that just yet…

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Porcelain Sweater pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Porcelain Sweater here.

You can check out Castle View Yarns here.

Gemma

xxx

I didn’t share a WIP Wednesday post last week because I was busy with Wedding Cake Week: Season 2, so this post will be covering weeks 4 & 5 of making my Porcelain Sweater (pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe), using the 2025 Bridgerton Advent from Castle View Yarns as the contrast colour(s). 

Progress

I definitely feel like my progress has slowed down a bit— the more excited I get to finish this project, the slower I seem to knit!

In the fourth and fifth weeks of knitting, I have…

• Finished the 1×1 rib section on the body
• Cast off!

In my defence, I spent most of the first week making another wedding cake, so I only managed to knit about 6 rows that week— most of this progress took place in the second week (Week 5).

Also: now the ribbing is done, you can finally see the third colourwork band in all its glory! Wahoo!

Mid-Knit Thoughts & Musings

My goodness… I forgot how interminable 1×1 rib feels!

There’s a pretty hefty chunk of rib at the base of the body and, honestly, I didn’t love working it. The stitches were flying off my needles while I was doing the stockinette/colourwork sections, but I really had to dig deep to get the ribbed section finished.

In fairness to 1×1 rib, white it is usually slower than regular stockinette, there were a couple of extra things slowing me down this time around…

Firstly, for most of the ribbing, I was using a circular needle with ever-so-slightly too long a cable, so I was kind of yanking the work around the needles a lot. I knew this was happening, but I couldn’t believe it was enough to slow me down quite that significantly, so I stuck with it for about 3/4 of the ribbing… big mistake! Eventually, I made the swap to the shorter needles and… it was a lot quicker. I could have saved myself a lot of time if I’d done that earlier.

Secondly, I wanted my ribbing to be really neat, so I opted to use a technique I’ve been trying out recently where you knit the knit stitches normally (for me, that means English-style, or ‘throwing’) and purl the purls continentally (also known as ‘picking’). This can help tighten up the ribbing, which makes it look neater.

I actually really like this as a technique and have been doing it for most of my ribbing recently, but it does make the process take longer because you have to keep changing the direction of the yarn (and you have to remember to purl into the back of the purl stitches, because the continental method reverses their position on the needles!).

All-in-all, 1×1 rib is super slow, but I managed to make it even slower for myself. I’m just a glutton for punishment, I suppose.

After the ribbing, the pattern suggests using a tubular bind-off. I have done this technique before, with my Braidy Loop Sweater, but I didn’t love it: it felt like a lot of work, involved grafting with a very long piece of yarn and I think it has quite a tight, firm feel to it that isn’t my favourite.

Instead, I used HiyaHiya Grandma’s Stretchy Bind Off, where you purl the knit stitches and knit the purl stitches, always moving the working yarn behind the stitches as you work them, then pass the initial stitch over the second stitch. You can see the technique in action in this YouTube video by Carrie Ramirez (in the video, this technique is used for 2×2 rib, but it works for any ribbed pattern).

This bind off still has its own faffs (mainly the constant slipping of stitches back and forth to get the working yarn in the right position), but it doesn’t require any setup rows, it’s not a sewn cast off (so no trying to manage ridiculously long lengths of yarn!) and it has a soft, even feel and neat appearance, so I still think it’s preferable to a tubular bind-off!

Final Thoughts

Essentially, the ribbed section at the bottom of this sweater took me 2 whole weeks to finish (though, as I mentioned, there was a wedding cake-shaped distraction in that first week!). I didn’t really enjoy this stage of the process, because it just felt so endless and a little bit foreign to my fingers after all of that dreamy stockinette.

Nevertheless, it is done! Now I can move on to making this sweater body into an actual sweater: just the neck and sleeves to go!

If you're interested...

You can purchase the Porcelain Sweater pattern by LE KNIT by Lene Holme Samsøe on Ravelry here.

You can find the Ravelry project page for my Porcelain Sweater here.

You can check out Castle View Yarns here.

Yesterday, I shared the recipe for Florrie & Mohit’s main wedding cake: an 8-inch round, 2-layer chocolate cake, filled with a cardamom-infused buttercream and a homemade cherry jam, decorated with dark chocolate curls and fresh cherries.

Today, I’m sharing the recipe for the scaled up version of that cake: all the same flavours and components, just in a bigger, 13 x 9-inch rectangular cake. I made this cake for the wedding, to be kept in the kitchen and sliced once the main cake was cut, so that there was enough cake for all of the guests. This is an approach I’ve taken before, with the Orange & Olive Oil wedding cake I made last year. I think it’s really great, because it means the couple can have exactly what they want for their ‘official’ cake, without needing to worry about size/servings.

This is a big cake, so the recipe probably won’t be super useful to you if you’re looking for a gentle Saturday afternoon bake… However, sometimes you need a big cake (I’m thinking parties, events, large family gatherings?), so I wanted to share the share the recipe for this version with you as well!

Because this cake is exactly the same as yesterday’s recipe, I won’t be going through all of the ins-an-outs of the ingredients in this post. If you want to read about that, check out yesterday’s post! In this post, I’ll be focusing on the specifics of this particular size cake: working with large amounts of batter, handling bigger bakes and the logistics of scaling the recipe up to line up with your required servings.

Enough chit-chat: let’s make a ginormous chocolate cake!

A Note on Customising Serving Sizes

The recipe below makes 1 x 13 x 9-inch chocolate cake. Once the cake is cool, the top is levelled and the remaining cake is cut in half horizontally, leaving you with two separate cake layers.

Technically, the cake I made for Florrie & Mohit’s wedding was 1 + 1/2 of the recipe I’m sharing today, because I made it with three layers of cake (I made 2 cakes, cut each in half horizontally and used 3 of the resulting 4 layers). For ease, I’m just giving you the recipe for the single rectangular cake, with 2 layers, but you can adapt it to suit your required servings super easily.

For reference, the 2-layer version of this cake should yield about 50 wedding servings. The cake I made was designed to yield about 75 wedding servings. 2 x 2-layer cakes would yield about 100 servings, and so on.

Obviously, there is a limit to how many cake layers you can realistically stack on top of each other. Three layers was absolutely fine, but I probably wouldn’t push it too far past that. If you want 100 servings or more, I’d recommend making multiple cakes, each with 2-3 layers!

Whatever you’re doing, just remember to multiply up/down the buttercream and jam too, so that you have enough of it. For a three layer cake, you’ll need 1.5x the quantity of both buttercream and jam listed in the recipe.

Components

This rectangular cake is made up of 4 components:

• Chocolate cake layers
• Cardamom-infused buttercream
• Homemade cherry jam
• Handmade chocolate curls

All 4 of these components are exactly the same as the main cake: it’s the same chocolate cake batter, the same cardamom buttercream, the same cherry jam and the same chocolate curls— there’s just much, much more of each one!

Unlike the main cake, I didn’t bother putting fresh cherries on top of this cake, because it wasn’t on display and they were a more of a style-over-substance addition. Instead, I just covered the surface with as many chocolate curls (which have both style and substance) as I possibly could!

Making a 9 x 13-inch Chocolate Cake: The Differences

This cake is made using the exact same chocolate cake batter as yesterday’s round cake recipe, but, as I’m sure you’ve gathered by now, is much bigger (not to mention rectangular!). Because of this, there are a few differences in the baking process between the two cakes:

• Oven temperature

This cake is baked at a lower temperature (150°C) than the 8-inch round cakes, which are baked at 180°C (both temperatures are conventional oven, not fan). This is a pretty standard rule for baking: the bigger the cake, the lower the temperature you bake it at to ensure it is cooked through.

• Baking time

Much like the oven temperature, the bake time changes based on the size of the cake too. This cake takes much longer to bake (90-95 minutes) compared to the 8-inch round cakes (50-55 minutes), because, again, it is so much larger (and because with the 8-inch cakes, the batter was divided between two tins. In this cake, it’s all in one, big tin, so the heat needs more time to permeate through it!).

• Lining the tin

This is mainly personal preference: for round cakes, I find that I usually only need to line the base of the tin with a circle of baking paper, after greasing the bottom and sides. For rectangular cakes, I tend to line the whole tin, base and sides, with the paper, just because it’s easier to cut the baking paper for and because it makes it easier to get the cake out of the corners. I still grease the whole tin with Stork (a margarine baking spread— but you can use softened butter instead) though!

• Releasing the air bubbles

This particular cake batter is a little prone to ‘tunnelling’, where large air bubbles bake into the cake and form these harmless, but kind of random, ‘crater-like’ holes. Truly, no one is going to notice them, but the perfectionist in me wants them gone, so I always tap the tins down on the work surface to help release the air.

The problem with this cake is that a) it’s very heavy, so it’s kind of hard to tap down and b) it’s big, so there’s even more space for air bubbles to form. Ultimately, with a cake this large, I find that it’s easier to give it a few taps (if you can manage), then run a blunt knife back and forth through the batter to pop any lingering bubbles. I know it sounds like a bit of a faff, but it really does help!

Assembling the Cake

In theory, this cake is assembled in exactly the same way as the main cake, so:

Cake + icing + jam + cake + icing + jam + chocolate curls

However, the process is a tiny bit different because of the size difference.

Just like with the main cake, you start by levelling the cake. For this, I levelled the domed top off, then cut the remaining cake in half horizontally, leaving me with two thinner layers of cake. It’s easier to get a clean cut if the cake has been chilled in the fridge (wrap it tightly with clingfilm to keep it fresh and moist), though this does make it a little harder to cut through, because the butter in the layers hardens up. Pick whichever way you prefer, but be aware that these layers will be a bit more fragile than the round ones, because of their increased surface area, so be careful when handling them!

You’re welcome to leave the domed top on, if you’d prefer. Just remember that you can’t add another layer of cake on top of that domed layer, or it won’t sit flat: if you’re keeping the dome, it needs to be at the top.

Then, spread on half of the icing.

Make sure it’s in a flat, even layer.

I wanted to make sure I had an even distribution of jam across the cake, so I made myself some guidelines using a blunt knife.

I added the jam along those lines (in a kind of haphazard manner, but the thought was there!).

Then I started my swirling by dragging the jam through the buttercream perpendicular to the original lines.

With a pretty even coverage established, I finished swirling the jam through the buttercream. I recommend swirling the jam in, instead of adding a whole layer of jam with a buttercream dam, because a) I think it’s nice to be able to see the jam once the cake is stacked up and b) it will make your cake much more stable.

Then, I added the second layer of cake and repeated the whole process, all over again.

Once you’ve added the icing and swirled in the jam, if you’re following the recipe below, you’ll be done and you can get on with decorating the cake (aka: throwing copious amount of chocolate curls on it).

However, if, like me, you’re making an extra tall cake, you’ll need to repeat the process all over again with a third layer of cake.

Then it’s time to decorate. As I mentioned, there are no fresh cherries on this one, because the cherries were more for the aesthetic on the main cake, so it’s all down to the chocolate curls. Again, just like with the main cake, the goal is to be exceedingly liberal: more is more!

And with that, your giant Chocolate, Cherry and Cardamom Cake is done! Just like the main cake, it can be stored at room temperature or in the fridge, preferably in an airtight container, where it will keep for a few days before it starts drying out.

Baking Giant Cakes 101

In case you still weren’t 100% sure, this cake is big.

Really big.

It’s weird, because a 13 x 9 inch tin doesn’t look that big, but somehow, when it’s filled with the (very heavy) chocolate cake batter… it seems bigger.

I remind you of this because I find that you kind of have to adjust your mindset when making big cakes like this. There are a few things you really need to consider ahead of time, otherwise everything’s going to start going south pretty quickly:

• Bowl sizes

You need a lot of batter to fill this tin. Because of that, you really need to use the biggest bowls you can find to make it! I’ll tell you now: the bowl of a KitchenAid stand mixer is not big enough. I had to crack out the big guns, the big bowl for this one.

Put your dry ingredients into the biggest bowl, because that’s the one that all the batter will be mixed in eventually. Whisk your wet ingredients together in your second biggest bowl (preferably one with a spout, for easy pouring!).

• Weight

This sounds silly, but this cake is heavy. It’s heavy before it goes into the oven and it’s heavy afterwards: it’s a dense, heavy cake (but, like, in a delicious way).

Be super careful when taking it in and out of the oven— make sure that you have a good grip on it and aren’t going to drop it all over your oven. If you happen to be baking with kids, this is definitely a job for an adult!

• Baking time

The cake takes a long time to bake: 90-95 minutes to be exact. It really does need that amount of time (and it’s at a relatively low temperature, 150°C, if that makes you feel any better about the energy usage…?) to ensure the cake is cooked through. On the bright side, that’s 90-95 minutes of completely passive work, which is always nice!

• Cooling time

As long as the cake takes to bake, it takes even longer to cool. Literally, hours. It’s big, it’s dense and it’s going to retain heat. Just be patient, keep it away from any pets/hungry family members, turn it out onto a wire rack once it’s cool enough to handle (probably about an hour or so), then leave it until it’s really, truly cold before icing/storing it in the fridge (wrapped in a tight layer of clingfilm, of course).

Recipe

Print

Chocolate, Cherry and Cardamom Cake (Rectangular Version)

A big, rich, chocolate sponge, filled with cardamom-infused buttercream and a homemade cherry jam, topped with fresh cherries and homemade dark chocolate curls.

Course Dessert

Cuisine German

Keyword Cake, Cardamom, Cherry, Chocolate

Prep Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Infusing Time 12 hours hours

Total Time 16 hours hours

Servings 50 wedding servings

Equipment

• 13 x 9 x 2 inch rectangular cake tin (see Note 1).

Ingredients

For the cardamom-infused milk:

• 45 cardamom pods
• 80 ml whole milk

For the chocolate cake layers

• Stork or softened butter, for greasing.
• 1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee granules (I used decaf).
• 450 ml boiling water
• 150 g cocoa powder (see Note 2).
• 210 g salted butter, diced.
• 600 g plain flour
• 690 g golden caster sugar
• 1 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 450 g buttermilk
• 180 g sunflower oil
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 eggs

For the cardamom buttercream:

• 400 g unsalted butter, room temperature.
• 800 g icing sugar, sifted.
• 6 tbsp cardamom-infused milk (see above).
• 1/4 tsp lemon juice
• 1 pinch fine sea salt

To assemble:

• 240 g cherry jam (approx. 1/2 of my Homemade Cherry Jam recipe- see Note 3).
• Dark chocolate curls (see Note 4).

Instructions

Infuse the milk for the buttercream:

• Bash the cardamom pods to crack open the pods. Place them in a heatproof container along with the milk and microwave for 10 seconds on high until the milk is hot. Cover, cool to room temperature, then leave in fridge overnight to infuse.
• The next day, strain the milk through a sieve, pressing down on the cardamom pods to extract as much flavour as possible. Discard the pods and keep the milk to use in the buttercream later.

Make the chocolate cake layers:

• Preheat the oven to 150°C (conventional, not fan). Grease a 9 x 13 x 2 inch cake tin with Stork (or softened butter) and line completely with baking paper. Set aside.
• Place the instant coffee granules into a medium bowl. Pour over the boiling water and stir to dissolve. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.
• Gradually add the diced butter to the hot cocoa mixture, whisking in each addition until all of the butter has been added and everything is smooth.
• Sift the flour, caster sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Whisk together until well-combined, then set aside.
• Add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract to the warm cocoa mixture. Whisk until incorporated.
• The cocoa mixture should now be cool. Add the eggs and whisk thoroughly, until completely incorporated.
• Pour the cocoa mixture into the dry ingredients gradually, whisking all the time, until the batter is smooth and well-combined, with no lumps of flour.
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin. It will be pretty full, but it shouldn't overflow when baking. Firmly tap the tin down on the work surface a few times to help release any large air bubbles, then drag a blunt knife back and forth through the mixture a few times. This helps to prevent 'craters' from forming in the cake when it is baked (but don't worry too much— no one will notice once it's filled with icing anyway!).
• Bake the cake in the centre of the preheated oven for 90-95 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs. The cake will be very domed and the surface will be quite cracked— don't worry, that's how it's supposed to be!
• Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about an hour or so, then run a palette knife around the edge of the tin to loosen it before turning it out onto a wire rack. Allow the cake to cool completely before assembling (or wrapping tightly in clingfilm and storing)— this is a large, dense cake so it will take a long time to cool (like… 3-4 hours!).

Make the cardamom buttercream:

• Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high until smooth, fluffy and noticeably paler in colour.
• Turn the speed to low and gradually add the icing sugar, mixing all the time until it is incorporated.
• Add the cardamom-infused milk, lemon juice and sea salt and mix on low until incorporated.
• Turn the speed up to high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge. The chilled icing should be brought to room temperature and given a gentle whip on low speed before using.

Assemble the cake:

• Start by levelling and splitting the cake. Use a cake leveller or serrated palette knife to trim the domed surface off the cake, then cut the cake in two horizontally. The cake layers will be a little fragile (because of their large surface area), so handle them with care.
• Spread a thin layer of buttercream on the serving board, and place one cake layer on top. Spread half of the remaining buttercream on top of the cake, then swirl half of the cherry jam through the icing.
• Place the second cake layer on top and spread the remaining buttercream on top of that layer. Swirl the remaining jam through the icing, then generously top with the chocolate curls, remembering that more is more!

Notes

This recipe makes a 2-layer rectangular cake. You can increase this to 3 or 4 layers by doubling the chocolate cake ingredients and baking a second cake, which is then cut into two layers, horizontally, like the first. For the wedding, I made two cakes, cut each in half and used 3 of the resulting 4 layers to get the right amount of servings.

Leftover cake can be stored in the freezer and defrosted overnight/warmed in the microwave for a delicious and easy sweet treat!

1. I used this tin from Silverwood.
2. Using really good cocoa powder will take your chocolate cake from amazing to absolutely incredible. My favourite is the Valrhona cocoa powder, but it is… very expensive. I did use it for this recipe (because I figure weddings deserve the best stuff!), but you can use a cheaper alternative if you prefer— your cake will still be delicious, just not quite as amazing!
3. You can find my Homemade Cherry Jam recipe here. If you’d prefer to use store-bought jam, that’s absolutely fine— just get the most delicious one you can find!
4. I made the curls for this cake using a 72% dark chocolate, which I think contrasts nicely with the sweet icing and brings out the chocolatey-ness of the cake. However, you can absolutely use whatever chocolate you prefer to make your curls! You can find my chocolate curl tutorial here.

In today’s post, I’m sharing the recipe for the main wedding cake: a 2-layer, 8-inch round chocolate cake filled with a cardamom-infused buttercream and homemade cherry jam, then decorated with dark chocolate curls and fresh cherries.

Let’s not hang around— it’s chocolate cake time!

Components

This cake is made up of 5 individual components:

• Chocolate Cake

I used my go-to chocolate cake recipe for this cake: it’s intensely chocolatey, incredibly moist and super stable, so it’s great for wedding/celebration cakes like this that need to be made in advance. I developed this recipe for my brother’s wedding cake and it has become one of my most popular recipes here on the blog!

The original recipe was for a 10-inch round cake, but I’ve scaled it down here to make an 8-inch version.

• Cardamom Buttercream

This is a classic, American buttercream made with cardamom-infused milk, which adds a really subtle, earthy spice. I opted to infuse the milk with cardamom pods, rather than add ground cardamom directly to the icing, because I didn’t want the icing to be dappled with the little flecks of cardamom. However, you could absolutely skip the infusing step and add a small amount of ground cardamom instead, if you prefer.

• Cherry Jam

I used a homemade cherry jam for this, because I wanted the cake to be extra special, but there are some lovely ready-made cherry jams available, so you could absolutely use one of those instead to make things a little easier!

You’ll only need about 1/4 of a batch of my Homemade Cherry Jam recipe, so you can either scale it down or keep the rest for toast, scones, porridge, etc.

• Dark Chocolate Curls

These dark chocolate curls are SO easy to make, but they look pretty fancy and really elevate the cake. All you need is a bar of chocolate and a large, sharp knife! Check out yesterday’s post for the tutorial.

• Fresh Cherries

A handful of fresh cherries are placed on top of the cake as a super easy and simple decoration. The cherries just need to be washed and dried completely before you use them.

Ingredients

To make the cake batter, you will need the following ingredients:

• Instant coffee granules

I use decaf coffee here, but caffeinated coffee will also work. You won’t be able to taste the coffee, it just enhances the chocolate-y flavour.

• Boiling water

Boiling water is used to dissolve the instant coffee granules, bloom the cocoa powder (adding a hot liquid to cocoa helps it to release its flavour) and dissolve the butter. The water should be freshly boiled, so that it’s still nice and hot, to accomplish all of this.

• Cocoa powder

I hate to say it, but the type of cocoa powder you use makes a huge difference! Ideally, you want a rich, dark cocoa powder that has been ‘dutched’ (a process where the cocoa is alkalised to reduce the natural acidity), because this will give you the most intense, chocolatey flavour. Unfortunately, the best quality cocoa powders can be very expensive, so you do have to weigh up the flavour vs the price. A chocolate cake made with the best cocoa powder will be absolutely amazing, while a chocolate cake made with a regular, run-of-the-mill cocoa powder will still be good (it is chocolate cake, after all), just not quite so incredible.

My favourite is the very expensive, but absolutely incredible, Valrhona cocoa powder, which is what I used for this cake. However, there seems to have been a bit of a mass shortage of this cocoa powder over the past 6 months or so, so it can be a bit tricky to obtain. By the looks of it, it’s coming back onto the market a bit more readily now (you can buy it here, on Amazon), which is a big relief!

• Salted butter

Salt is an important ingredient in chocolate cake because, like coffee, it helps to bring out the chocolate-y flavour of the cocoa. Instead of adding salt manually, I just use salted butter for this recipe and I find that it incorporates just the right amount of salt!

• Plain flour

Don’t use self-raising flour here, or the ratio of the raising agents will be thrown off.

• Caster sugar

I used golden caster sugar, because I prefer using that in my cakes (I think it gives a nicer flavour), but white caster sugar would also work.

• Bicarbonate of soda

This is the only raising agent in the cake. Don’t use baking powder— it needs to be baking soda (i.e. bicarbonate of soda).

• Buttermilk

Buttermilk helps to keep the case really moist, which is perfect for a wedding cake like this, when you want to make it ahead of time but don’t want it to dry out!

• Sunflower oil

Using butter and oil as the fat in the cake means you get the superior flavour of the butter and the increased moisture from the oil, so it’s the best of both worlds!

• Vanilla extract

Much like coffee and salt, vanilla also enhances the flavour of the chocolate. The aim is not for the cake to taste like vanilla, but for it to taste even more like chocolate.

• Eggs

I use large eggs.

To make the icing, and to fill/decorate the cake, you will need:

• Whole milk

You can use skimmed/semi-skimmed milk, but whole milk will give you a richer, creamier buttercream.

• Cardamom pods

I’ve used the whole pods for this recipe, because I didn’t want my buttercream to be speckled with the ground spice. If you prefer, you can skip the pods and the infusing step and just add a little ground cardamom to your icing instead.

• Unsalted butter

I like to use unsalted butter for buttercream, so that I am able to control the amount of salt.

• Icing sugar

Make sure to sift the icing sugar first, because it can get quite clumpy.

• Lemon juice

American buttercream can be very sweet. To mellow out that sweetness a little bit, I added a very small amount of lemon juice. The tartness of the lemon balances out the sweetness of all the sugar, making the buttercream a little more rounded.

• Salt

Just like the lemon juice, I added a small amount of salt to the buttercream, just to temper the sweetness a little. It’s important to use a fine salt here so that it doesn’t affect the texture of the buttercream.

• Cherry jam

I used my Homemade Cherry Jam for this, which I specifically developed to be full of cherry flavour and have quite a firm set, so that it works well in a layer cake. If you want to skip the extra step of making jam, you can absolutely use a shop-bought jar— just try and find a really delicious one!

• Dark chocolate curls

I used a 72% dark chocolate to make the curls for this cake. You can find my tutorial on how to make the curls here.

• Cherries

I’ve decorated this cake with a handful of fresh cherries. I used black cherries for this, because I think that they’re the prettiest (and they tend to be the most readily available cherries here in the UK!).

Chocolate Cake Layers

This cake uses a scaled-down version of my favourite chocolate cake recipe. It’s a super chocolate-y, super moist cake that keeps really well, so it’s perfect for wedding cakes.

The original recipe was for a 3-layer, 10-inch round cake. For that cake, I made each layer separately, because I can only fit one 10-inch tin in my oven at a time. For this cake, you need 2 x 8-inch layers, which you fortunately can bake at the same time in a standard oven!

The process for making the batter itself is exactly the same and I have a photo tutorial in my ‘The Chocolate Tier’ post from the first Wedding Cake Week, if you’d like to check out the in-depth instructions!

8-inch Cake vs 10-inch Cake

The only differences that you need to be aware of with this cake (compared to the original ‘Chocolate Tier’ recipe) all stem from the change in size:

• Tin size

For this version, you’ll need 2 x 8-inch round tins.

• Oven temperature

The 8-inch cakes are baked at 180°C (conventional, not fan). This is because the cakes are smaller, so they can be baked at a higher temperature.

• Bake time

The cakes take 50-55 minutes to bake, which is ever so slightly less time than the 10-inch cake (though the oven is more full, because we’re baking two at a time, so it kind of balances out!).

• Batter quantity

Despite the fact we’re making fewer, smaller layers than the original recipe, the batter quantity at the start is actually greater, because we’re making both 8-inch cakes at once, as opposed to making each 10-inch layer individually. All this means is that you need to use both a bigger jug (for the wet ingredients) and a bigger bowl (for the dry ingredients)! I actually used a large bowl with a spout instead of a jug for the wet ingredients, to make sure I had plenty of room for whisking.

A Note on Cracking

This chocolate cake recipe is really delicious: it’s super chocolate-y, moist and structurally strong, making it a perfect option for layer cakes. However, it is unusual in that it is specifically baked to form a super cracked top, which I know can be disconcerting, because we’ve all been taught that the cracking/volcano-esque explosion is persona non grata when it comes to cakes! You just have to trust me on this one though— it’s what makes this cake so great!

Typically, cakes form large cracks for one of two reasons: either the oven temperature is too hot or the batter contains too much raising agent. I’ve tested this recipe many, many times, using less bicarbonate of soda and varying lower oven temperatures and it simply does not work as well: the cake still cracks and the crumb just ends up kind of gummy (ew…) or too dry. With this method, yes, you get cracks, but the interior of the cake is perfectly cooked and perfectly moist, and you’ll be trimming off the cracked parts anyway, so it’s definitely my preferred approach.

Making the Cake Layers in Advance

These cake layers are great for making in advance, because they stay super moist. For best results, wrap each individual layer tightly with clingfilm. This will keep the edges of the cakes from being exposed to the air and drying out.

You can store the wrapped cakes at room temperature or in the fridge. If you’re making your cakes in a hot environment (like I was, thanks to the heatwave!), I’d recommend storing them in the fridge to keep them as fresh as possible. Cold cakes are also easier to level neatly, so that’s a plus! If you’re making the cakes in cooler weather, they’ll be absolutely fine at room temperature for a couple of days.

Cardamom Buttercream

This buttercream is a simple, American-style buttercream. To get the cardamom flavour, milk is infused with cardamom pods overnight, then strained the next morning and added to the buttercream.

This icing can be made in advance (which is very handy when you’re making a wedding cake!). Once you’ve made the buttercream, transfer it to an airtight container and store it in the fridge. It will last for about a week. You just need to let the icing come to room temperature and give it a gentle beat with the mixer on low speed before you use it.

Infusing the Milk

Start by bashing the cardamom pods with the end of a rolling pin (or a similar, heavy object/mortar and pestle). The aim is just to crack the pods open and expose the seeds.

Heat the milk in the microwave for about 10 seconds on high, until it is hot. If you don’t have a microwave, you can warm the milk in a small saucepan.

Pour the milk over the cardamom pods, cover and leave to cool to room temperature before transferring to the fridge to chill and infuse overnight.

The next morning, strain the milk through a fine sieve, pressing down on the cardamom pods to extract as much flavour as possible.

The cardamom pods can now be discarded. Thank you for your service, pods! The cardamom-infused milk is now ready to be used in the buttercream.

Making the Buttercream

Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. The butter needs to be at room temperature (or softened ever so slightly), so that it will whip up evenly.

Beat the butter on medium-high speed until it is smooth, fluffy and noticeably paler in colour, like this.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then turn the speed down to low and gradually add in the sifted icing sugar, mixing all the time until everything is well-incorporated. The icing will be very stiff at this point, but don’t worry— we’re about to add the milk!

Add the cardamom-infused milk, lemon juice and salt and mix in on low speed until everything is combined, then turn the mixer up to high speed and beat the buttercream until it is light and fluffy.

At this point, you can either use the icing immediately or transfer it to an airtight container to be stored in the fridge for another day.

If your buttercream looks slightly split, don’t worry! I find this can happen when you add lemon juice to buttercream, but it’s easily remedied. Just place a spoonful of the icing into a microwaveable bowl, and heat it for 10-15 seconds on high until it has melted. Pour the melted icing back into the bowl with the rest of the buttercream, then mix it in on the lowest speed, until everything is smooth and emulsified. This technique also helps to get rid of air bubbles, making your buttercream super silky!

Assembly

With the chocolate cakes baked, the cardamom buttercream made and the cherry jam, chocolate curls and fresh cherries to hand, it’s time to assemble!

Levelling the Cake Layers

My chocolate cake recipe bakes up quite domed, so the layers do need to be levelled before you can stack them up. Actually, I only levelled one of the cake layers for this cake— I left the dome on the top cake so that I could achieve the look of a big pile of icing on top without needing to use a ridiculous amount of buttercream that would overpower the rest of the cake.

To level the bottom cake layer, I used a cake leveller. If you’re better than me at cutting in a straight, horizontal line, feel free to use a large, serrated knife instead! The aim is to be left with a perfectly flat surface, but to cut off as little cake as possible (though any cake you do cut off can be snacked on as you work so… maybe that’s not wholly necessary!).

Even though I didn’t level the top cake layer, I did use a small, serrated knife to carve away some of the sharper edges around the cracks on the surface. This isn’t strictly necessary, but those edges can be a little bit crispy and I wanted to keep the texture of the cake as consistent as possible. This also helped to smooth out the domed shape of the cake, making the ‘pile’ of icing look a little more perfect.

Layering Up

Once the cake layers are ready to go, it’s time to stack them up with the delicious fillings!

I always use a little smear of buttercream to stick the first cake layer to the cake board. This just makes it easier to move the cake around without it slipping and sliding everywhere (which is particularly important when, like this one, the cake needs to be transported to a venue).

Place half of the cardamom buttercream on top of the first cake layer.

Then use an offset spatula to spread the icing out evenly. It doesn’t need to be perfect— in fact, with this style, I actually think imperfect is better!

Dollop half of the cherry jam on top of the icing, allowing some to drip over the edges so that you can see it when the cake is assembled. Use a blunt knife to ripple the jam through the buttercream. Doing this not only means that every slice gets some of the cherry jam, but also ensures that the cake is nice and stable, because there is still lots of contact between the buttercream and the next cake layer.

Add the second, domed cake layer on top, making sure it is centred.

Top that with the remaining buttercream, again, spreading it out with an offset spatula.

Add the remaining cherry jam and swirl it through the buttercream, just like before.

Now it’s time to decorate! I had some pretty big drips of cherry jam on the serving board, so I cleaned those up first.

Then, position the fresh cherries on top. Make sure you’ve washed and thoroughly dried the cherries before adding them. I put one cherry in the centre and then arranged six others around the edge.

Once the cherries are stuck on, you can add the chocolate curls. I am firmly of the opinion that more is more here, so be as liberal with the curls as you can!

With that, the cake is ready!

Storage Instructions

The cake can be stored at room temperature or in the fridge, ideally in an airtight container, to help stop it from drying out. It will keep for 2-3 days before it starts drying out a little (remember that the sides of the cake are undecorated and, as a result, exposed to the air, which will cause it to dry out quicker!).

If the weather is warm, I would recommend storing it in the fridge. This will keep it fresher, but it will also ensure that the buttercream stays firm and the cake doesn’t start slipping around. However, the cake is best enjoyed at room temperature, so make sure to take it out of the fridge an hour or so before you plan to serve it.

Recipe

Print

Chocolate, Cherry and Cardamom Cake

A rich, chocolate sponge, filled with cardamom-infused buttercream and a homemade cherry jam, topped with fresh cherries and dark chocolate curls.

Course Dessert

Cuisine German

Keyword Cardamom, Cherry, Chocolate

Prep Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes minutes

Infusing Time 12 hours hours

Total Time 14 hours hours 25 minutes minutes

Servings 24 wedding servings (approx. 10-12 regular servings)

Equipment

• 2 x 8-inch round sandwich tins

Ingredients

For the cardamom-infused milk:

• 35 cardamom pods
• 60 ml whole milk

For the chocolate cake layers:

• Stork or softened butter, for greasing.
• 1 tbsp instant coffee granules (I used decaf).
• 300 ml boiling water
• 100 g cocoa powder (see Note 1).
• 140 g salted butter, diced.
• 400 g plain flour
• 460 g golden caster sugar
• 1/2 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
• 300 g buttermilk
• 120 g sunflower oil
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 eggs

For the cardamom buttercream:

• 300 g unsalted butter, room temperature.
• 600 g icing sugar, sifted.
• 4 tbsp cardamom-infused milk (see above).
• 1/4 tsp lemon juice
• 1 pinch fine sea salt

To assemble:

• 120 g cherry jam (approx. 1/4 of my Homemade Cherry Jam recipe, see Note 2.)
• 7 fresh black cherries, washed and dried.
• Dark chocolate curls (see Note 3).

Instructions

Infuse the milk for the buttercream:

• Bash the cardamom pods to crack open the pods. Place them in a heatproof container along with the milk and microwave for 10 seconds on high until the milk is hot. Cover, cool to room temperature, then leave in fridge overnight to infuse.
• The next day, strain the milk through a sieve, pressing down on the cardamom pods to extract as much flavour as possible. Discard the pods and keep the milk to use in the buttercream later.

Make the chocolate cake layers:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional, not fan). Grease two 8-inch round sandwich tins and line each with a circle of baking paper. Set aside.
• Place the instant coffee granules into a medium bowl. Pour over the boiling water and stir to dissolve. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.
• Gradually add the diced butter to the hot cocoa mixture, whisking in each addition until all of the butter has been added and everything is smooth.
• Sift the flour, caster sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Whisk together until well-combined, then set aside.
• Add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract to the warm cocoa mixture. Whisk until incorporated.
• The cocoa mixture should now be cool. Add the eggs and whisk thoroughly until completely incorporated.
• Pour the cocoa mixture into the dry ingredients gradually, whisking all the time, until the batter is smooth and well-combined, with no lumps of flour.
• Divide the batter evenly between the two tins. They will be pretty full, but they shouldn't overflow when baking. Firmly tap each tin down on the work surface a few times to help release any large air bubbles. This helps to prevent 'craters' from forming in the cakes when they are baked (but don't worry too much— no one will notice them once they're filled with icing anyway!).
• Bake the cakes in the centre of the preheated oven for 50-55 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs. The cakes will be very domed and the surface will be quite cracked— don't worry, that's how it's supposed to be!
• Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for 20 minutes or so, then run a palette knife around the edge of the tins to loosen them before turning them out onto a wire rack. Allow the cakes to cool completely before assembling (or wrapping tightly in clingfilm and storing).

Make the cardamom buttercream:

• Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high until smooth, fluffy and noticeably paler in colour.
• Turn the speed to low and gradually add the icing sugar, mixing all the time until it is incorporated.
• Add the cardamom-infused milk, lemon juice and sea salt and mix on low until incorporated.
• Turn the speed up to high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge. The chilled icing should be brought to room temperature and given a gentle whip on low speed before using.

Assemble the cake:

• Level the top of one of the cake layers so that it is completely flat. Use a small, serrated knife to gently carve away any particularly sharp cracks on the surface of the other cake, leaving the domed surface intact.
• Use a smear of buttercream to stick the levelled cake layer to the serving board. Spread half of the buttercream on top of the cake, then swirl half of the cherry jam through the icing.
• Place the second, domed cake layer on top and spread the remaining buttercream on top of that layer. Swirl the remaining jam through the icing, then arrange the fresh cherries on top. Generously top with the chocolate curls, remembering that more is more!

Notes

1. Using really good cocoa powder will take your chocolate cake from amazing to absolutely incredible. My favourite is the Valrhona cocoa powder, but it is… very expensive. I did use it for this recipe (because I figure weddings deserve the best stuff!), but you can use a cheaper alternative if you prefer— your cake will still be delicious, just not quite as amazing!
2. You can find the recipe for my Homemade Cherry Jam here.
3. I made the curls for this cake using a 72% dark chocolate, which I think contrasts nicely with the sweet icing and brings out the chocolatey-ness of the cake. You can of course use whatever chocolate you prefer to make your curls! You can find my chocolate curl tutorial here.

Yesterday, I shared the recipe for my Homemade Cherry Jam, which is used to fill and decorate the cake. Today, I’ll be talking all about how I made the chocolate curl decorations: there’s no tempering and no melting, so it’s a really quick and easy process!

I can’t take credit for this technique— I learned it from ✨Jamie Oliver✨, but I’m pretty sure it’s a classic chef technique? Nevertheless, I did want to share it with you, along with the tips & tricks that I picked up during my own curl-making process. However, if you’re more of a visual learner, you can find the video tutorial on the Jamie Oliver YouTube channel!

What You’ll Need

To make these chocolate curls, you only really need two items:

• A bar of dark chocolate

Obviously, the main thing to look for when you’re choosing your chocolate is the flavour: a good chocolate will make the most delicious chocolate curls! However, for this particular technique, it’s also important that the bar has a large, flat surface, like this one.

• A large knife

You’ll need a knife with a large, flat-edged blade that you can drag across the surface of the chocolate evenly. If you don’t have a large knife, a kitchen bench scraper would also work.

While those two items are the only essentials, I also recommend using two chopping boards, one large one as a base and one smaller one (that can fit on top of the larger one), as a barrier. This will just make the process a lot easier (and prevent you and your clothes from getting too messy!).

The Technique

First, you need to set up your workspace. Place the large chopping board in front of you on the work surface, then set the smaller chopping board on top of that larger board, positioning it at the end closest to you, like above.

Then, unwrap the chocolate bar and place it flat side up, with one of the short ends pushed up again that smaller chopping board.

Allow the edges of both chopping boards to push against your lower abdomen. This will provide resistance, which will allow you to make the curls without the bar of chocolate flying across your kitchen! You can do this without the extra chopping board ‘backstop’, as Jamie Oliver and Kerryann Dunlop (from the YouTube video) both do, but you then run the risk of getting your clothes all chocolate-y which… is not for me! I found that the extra chopping board worked well for me, but choose whichever method works best for you. The aim is just to stop the bar of chocolate from moving around as you make the curls.

Rest the blade against the surface of the chocolate, at about a 45° angle. You can adjust this angle to change the size/shape of your curls a little, but 45° is a good starting point!

Hold the dull side of the blade of the knife with one hand on each end. Obviously, you’re working with a knife here, so be careful, but at no point should your fingers be close to the sharp edge of the blade itself.

Apply an even pressure and carefully drag the knife down the length of the chocolate bar. As you drag, you’ll see the curl forming!

Repeat this process until you have as many curls as you need (or until your chocolate bar gets so thin that it breaks— whichever’s first!). I find it easiest to transfer the curls to a container as I go, otherwise I think everything gets a bit overcrowded, but do whatever works for you.

The curls can be stored in a cool place at room temperature, just like a regular chocolate bar. Don’t leave them in a super warm/sunny spot, or they’ll just melt together, but, as long as the weather’s cool enough, they don’t need to be stored in the refrigerator.

Variations

In my chocolate-scraping endeavours, I found that the temperature of the chocolate bar had a big effect on the finished size, shape and colour of the curls:

• Colour

Slightly warmer chocolate creates curls with a darker colour, more similar to the original colour of the chocolate bar. Cold chocolate creates curls that have a slight ‘bloom’ to them, which dulls the colour.

• Shape

Cold chocolate makes stronger, more defined curls. Slightly warmer chocolate makes less defined curls, but they can be gently nudged back into a proper curl shape.

• Texture

Slightly warmer chocolate creates smooth curls. Cold chocolate creates curls with a more jagged surface, showing off the hitches of the knife during the ‘dragging’ process.

• Size

Slightly warmer chocolate makes slightly longer curls, while cold chocolate makes slightly shorter curls.

For reference, I tried this technique with three different temperature chocolate bars: the first bar was at room temperature during a 30°C+ heatwave (the temperature it was when I made this wedding cake— can you believe it?!), the second bar was right out of the fridge and the third bar was at a pretty humid, but otherwise gentle, summery room temperature (about 22°C).

The fridge-cold bar was the easiest to work with, but I wasn’t happy with how much the colour of the chocolate was dulled down. The heatwave bar made the darkest, prettiest curls, but they were a bit more fiddly to make. The 22°C bar was somewhere in between the two. I found that the colder the chocolate was, the more I had to increase my angle (bring the knife closer to 90°) to get the curls. I assume that there’s a scientific reason for this, but I’m a linguist at heart, so who knows? My favourite were definitely the curls I made during the heatwave, which were the ones I used for this wedding cake.

However, because it was a heatwave, I did spread the curls out onto trays lined with baking paper and give them a blast in the fridge after I made them, just to make sure they didn’t melt! After an hour or so in the fridge, I transferred them to an airtight container, where they sat at (a still very warm!) room temperature perfectly happily, so make of that what you will!

And that is everything I learned while making the chocolate curls for the top of the wedding cake! I love this method: I think the curls look so professional and fancy, but they are so, unbelievably easy to make!

Gemma

xxx

If you missed yesterday’s post, I recently made another wedding cake (my third overall!) and I’m sharing all of the recipes/behind-the-scenes info with you this week!

This time around, the cake in question was a Cherry, Chocolate and Cardamom Layer Cake: a rich chocolate sponge, filled with a cardamom buttercream and homemade cherry jam, then decorated with heaps of chocolate curls and fresh cherries.

In today’s post, I’m sharing the recipe for the Homemade Cherry Jam! Making your own jam isn’t strictly necessary for the cake: if you’re short on time, or want to make the process a bit quicker/easier for yourself, you can absolutely use a good, store-bought cherry jam (insert Ina Garten meme here)— I recommend looking for one made with morello cherries for the most delicious results! However, if you have time, making your own jam is pretty straightforward and makes your cake extra special (and extra delicious!).

Using Jam as a Cake Filling

Jam is a super common cake filling (Victoria Sponge, I’m looking at you!), but it can be a little tricky to work with when you’re aiming for a super stable finished product. While jam is very sticky (all that sugar!), it’s more… slippery?… than buttercream, which can lead to your cake layers sliding a bit if you use too much of it to sandwich the layers (a little bit like lemon curd… which, if you were here for the last Wedding Cake Week, you’ll know is my ultimate nemesis!).

To avoid this problem, particularly because the cake had quite a long distance to travel to get to its destination, I opted to swirl the jam into the buttercream: you still get all the flavour of the jam, but it’s the buttercream that’s doing the heavy work keeping the cake upright, so you’ve got the best of both worlds!

This is a chunky jam, but the chunk is controlled: instead of a more natural-style jam, where the cherries break up a little, but not completely, as it cooks, I’ve made a smooth jam and then added diced cherries to it part of the way through the cooking process. There were two main reasons for this: aesthetics and taste. The smoother jam (with intentional chunks) looked a lot better on the cake, while the added pieces of cherry really amplified the overall flavour. If you’d prefer to make a more natural-style jam, though, go for it— it will still taste lovely!

Ingredients

To make this homemade cherry jam, you will need the following ingredients:

• Frozen cherries

I like to use frozen cherries, because they’re available year-round and I find them more convenient. I prefer to buy the darker cherries, because I think they give the jam a better colour, but as long as they’re pitted, any type will do.

• Dried cherries

Cherries have quite a subtle flavour so, to amp up the intensity of this jam, I use a small amount of dried cherries alongside the fresh fruit.

• Caster sugar

I like to use white caster sugar when making jam, because I find that golden caster sugar adds too much of a caramel flavour and is more prone to burning.

• Lemon juice

Cherries are pretty low in pectin, so I add a little bit of lemon juice to help the jam set properly. The tartness of the lemon juice also helps to balance the sweetness of the jam, so it’s a win-win!

• Water

The water is just there to help everything melt and cook together into a delicious jam.

How to Make Homemade Cherry Jam

Before you start making the jam, place a small plate into the freezer. This will be used later on to check whether the jam is ready or not.

To make the jam, put all of the ingredients into a large saucepan and place it over a medium heat.

Stir the mixture every now and then until the sugar has completely dissolved and the frozen cherries have defrosted— you should be able to squish them pretty easily with a wooden spoon.

Use a slotted spoon to remove about 1/3 of the cherries (just the frozen ones, not the dried ones) from the mixture and transfer them to a chopping board. Set them aside to cool slightly.

Use a stick blender (or whatever blender you have, really) to purée the remaining mixture in the saucepan, aiming to get the jam as smooth as possible.

Strain the puréed jam mixture through a heatproof sieve into a clean saucepan, using the back of a spoon to push as much of the pulp through the sieve as you can.

Finely dice the reserved cherries (they should be cool enough to handle now!), then stir them into the strained jam mixture. This method allows you to control the size of the cherry chunks, while still ensuring that the jam base is perfectly thick and smooth.

Set the pan back over medium heat and bring the mixture to a rolling boil, stirring gently every so often.

Once the mixture reaches a rolling boil, keep it on the heat and monitor the temperature. I tend to use a digital probe thermometer for this, because I find it the most accurate and easy to use, but a regular candy thermometer would also work.

You might find that a layer of foam starts forming on the surface of the jam as it cooks— use a spoon to skim as much of it off as you can, but don’t worry about it too much!

When the jam reaches 105-110°C, remove the pan from the heat and grab your plate from the freezer. Place a small spoonful of jam onto the cold plate and leave it for 1 minute. After 1 minute, push the jam gently with your finger. If the surface wrinkles, your jam is ready! If it doesn’t wrinkle, return the plate to the freezer and the pan to heat for a further minute, then test it again. Repeat this process until the jam wrinkles.

Once the jam is ready, pour it into a heatproof container. Cover it with clingfilm or a lid, then allow it to cool to room temperature before transferring it to the fridge, where it can chill until you’re ready to use it.

Troubleshooting

Making jam isn’t hard, but it can feel a bit overwhelming at first! The main difficulty is getting the right set on it and, while it doesn’t need to be perfect, there are a couple of things you can do if you run into problems.

If your jam is too liquid:

The most likely culprit for this is that the jam was not boiled to the correct temperature: it needs to hit at least 105°C, at which point it should ‘pass’ the wrinkle test on the frozen plate. If your jam is too liquid, you can put it back on the heat and boil it again, testing it every minute or so until it passes that test.

Your jam will also stay more liquid if you omit the lemon from the recipe. Cherries don’t contain much pectin, which is what helps jam to set. Lemons, on the other hand, contain lots of pectin, so the juice is not just a flavour-based addition here: it’s a vital ingredient!

If your jam is too firmly set:

This jam recipe was specifically designed as a cake filling, so it is a little more firmly set than your average jam. You’ll probably find that, once it’s been chilled in the fridge, it is too firm to work with: that’s what you want! It gives you the ability to warm it up slightly, work with it, then let it firm back up to give your cake more structure and stability.

To get your jam to working temperature, warm it for 10 seconds in the microwave. It will be perfectly drizzle-able!

Recipe

Print

Homemade Cherry Jam

A homemade jam, made with frozen and dried cherries, perfect for filling a cake.

Course Component

Keyword Cherry, Jam

Prep Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 475 grams

Equipment

• Handheld blender (or your preferred blending device)
• Digital probe thermometer (see Note 1)

Ingredients

• 600 g frozen cherries, pitted.
• 120 g dried cherries
• 320 g white caster sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice, freshly-squeezed.
• 60 ml water

Instructions

• Before you start making the jam, put a small plate into the freezer. This will be used for testing the consistency of the jam later on.
• Place all of the ingredients into a large saucepan and cook on medium heat, stirring every now and then, until the frozen cherries have defrosted and the sugar has dissolved.
• Use a slotted spoon or tongs to remove about a third of the frozen cherries (not the dried cherries) from the mixture and set aside on a chopping board to cool slightly.
• Use the handheld blender to purée the jam, making it as smooth as possible.
• Strain the mixture through a sieve into a clean saucepan, using the back of a spoon to push as much of the pulp through as possible.
• Finely dice the reserved cherries, then add them to the strained jam mixture in the new pan.
• Set the pan over medium heat and bring the jam to a rolling boil, stirring gently. Use a metal spoon to remove as much foam as possible from the surface of the jam as it cooks.
• Use a thermometer to monitor the temperature of the jam as it boils. Once it reaches between 105-110°C, remove the pan from the heat and grab the plate from the freezer.
• Place a small spoonful of jam onto the frozen plate, let it sit for 1 minute, then gently push the jam with your finger. If the jam wrinkles, it's ready. If not, return the plate to the freezer and the pan to the heat. Boil the jam for a further minute, then test again. Repeat this until it passes the 'wrinkle test'.
• Once the jam is ready, pour it into a heatproof container. Cover and leave to cool to room temperature before placing into the fridge until ready to use.
• The jam will firm up significantly in the fridge. If it is too firm to use when it first comes out of the fridge, just give it a 10 second blast in the microwave to thin it back out a little.

Notes

1. You can use a regular candy thermometer for this, but I prefer to use a digital probe thermometer, like this one, because I think it is easier to use and gives a more precise measurement. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can still make this jam, you’ll just need to rely more heavily on the ‘wrinkle test’ to check if it’s ready!

If you’re new here, I am by no means a professional baker, but I did stumble into the world of wedding cake baking last year, when I made the cake for my brother’s wedding (a deconstructed, three-tier, chocolate, coffee & lemon cake that you can find here!). I then fell even further down the wedding cake rabbit hole later on in the year, when I made an Orange & Olive Oil cake for a family friend’s big day!

Before this year, then, the number of wedding cakes I had made was a grand total of… 2. Over the last month, that total has doubled, because from mid-August to mid-September, I made another two wedding cakes! After my brother’s wedding, a couple of his friends asked me to make their wedding cakes (SO exciting!!) and I got to working on the designs & recipes straight away. Both weddings have now taken place, vows have been made and cakes have been sliced, so I can finally share the recipes with you!

So, with that…

Welcome to Wedding Cake Week: Season 2!

Over the next 4 days, I’ll be sharing all of the recipes, techniques and behind-the-scenes info for the first of the wedding cakes: the Chocolate, Cherry and Cardamom cake that I made for Florrie and Mohit.

This cake was inspired by a recipe created by Meera Sodha for a chocolate cake that is filled with a cardamom & mascarpone cream icing and cherry jam. My version is made using my all-time favourite chocolate cake recipe (the one I developed for my brother’s wedding cake!), a cardamom-infused American buttercream, a homemade cherry jam and an abundance of chocolate curls (which, as it turns out, are incredibly easy to make at home!).

Tuesday: Homemade Cherry Jam Recipe

Wednesday: Easy Chocolate Curls

Thursday: Chocolate, Cherry and Cardamom Cake Recipe

Friday: Chocolate, Cherry and Cardamom Cake (The Rectangular Version) Recipe

A little note: because we’ll be deep in chocolate curls on Wednesday, there won’t be a WIP Wednesday post this week! Don’t worry though, you won’t be missing anything— in Week 4 of making my Porcelain Sweater, I knit a grand total of… 6 rows of rib. Check back in next week for some more interesting progress (hopefully!).

Florrie & Mohit specifically requested a simple, 8-inch round cake as their main cake, so, to ensure that there was plenty of cake to go round all of their friends and family, I also made a bigger, rectangular version of the cake that could be sliced in the kitchen and served to the guests once the main cake had been cut (kind of like a loaves-and-fishes situation, where the cake just miraculously keeps coming!).

I used this approach with my last wedding cake and I think it’s a really neat way of doing things because it gives you SO much more flexibility with the size of the main cake. Because of this, you guys get two recipes for the price of one: an 8-inch round version of the cake (on Thursday) and a 13 x 9-inch rectangular version of the cake (on Friday)!

I hope I’ll see you back here tomorrow to talk all things cherry jam!

Gemma

xxx