Nutella Ice Cream Sundae Cake

The in-demand school boy, who founded Sugar High Desserts in 2014, already has a four month waiting list for his unique sweets from personalised cakes, delicate tarts, scrumptious cup desserts and his signature ‘Fudge Pops’. Here, we have Jonathan’s Ice Cream Sundae Cake recipe… enjoy!

Serves 15
Duration time 4 hours

INGREDIENTS

For the chocolate cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 and a half cups sugar
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup boiling water

For the Buttercream
500 g unsalted butter at room temperature
4 cups of icing
1 cup Nutella

For the Ganache Drip
150 g white chocolate
1/4 cup of cream
50 grams of butter

For Assembly
Approximately 25 ice cream wafers
Cherries
Sprinkles
Canned Whipped Cream
A few of your favourite confectionaries

METHOD
1 Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius Prepare two 6-inch cake pans by spraying with baking spray or buttering and lightly flouring.
2 Add flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and baking powder to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk through to combine or, using your paddle attachment, stir through flour mixture until combined well.
3 Add milk, vegetable oil and eggs to flour mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the cake batter. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute to add air to the batter.
4 Distribute cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean.
5 Remove from the oven and allow cooling for approximately 10 minutes, removing from the pan and cooling completely. These cakes can be made ahead of time and frozen. This is an advantage, as it will develop moisture as it defrosts.

For the buttercream
1 Whisk the butter in the stand mixer until light and fluffy, scrape down the sides of the bowl halfway through this process
2 Add  the icing sugar and Nutella mixing to combine.

For the Ganache
1 Combine all 3 of these ingredients in a saucepan and stir constantly until all is combined and completely melted

Assembling the cake
1 Place your cake onto a cake turntable and secure the bottom layer of sponge cake onto a cake board or plate with a smear of buttercream underneath and then gently press in place.
2 Cover with a thin layer of buttercream spread right to the outer edges of cake.
3 Place the second layer of cake on top of this and repeat the process until the last cake layer is assembled.
4 Using an offset spatula and a cake scraper, gently crumb-coat your cake with a thin layer of buttercream and set aside in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or until firm.
5 Using an offset spatula, apply a generous amount of buttercream all over the outside of your cake. Now using a cake scraper, carefully smooth the sides and top of your cake until a desired smooth look is achieved.
6 Set this in the fridge until firm and then cover it with the ice cream wafers putting a small amount of buttercream on the back of them. You may need to cut some of these to fit the meeting gap.
7 Pour the ganache over the service of the cake allowing is to drip down the sides.
8 To finish, decorate with your favourite confectionaries topping with whipped cream, cherries and sprinkles. There is no right way to decorate this cake, let your imagination go wild!