Inspired by the faultless recipes from Rachel McGrath (AKA DollyBakes), and having bought some Chocolate Halva from Lidl recently, I adapted Rachel’s Chocolate and Peanut Butter cake slightly to make this slightly Greek variation. I only have Nordicware Bundt tins as they’re fantastic quality and, prepared correctly, my cakes never stick. To prepare them, you can use either my HomeMade Cake Release, or simply butter the inside of the tin and sprinkle lightly with flour or flour/cocoa mixture.
- 225g Butter
- 350g Caster Sugar
- 100g Soft brown Sugar
- 4 Eggs
- 300g Plain Flour
- 50g Cocoa Powder
- ½tsp Vanilla Powder
- ½tsp Bi-Carbonate of Soda
- ½tsp Salt
- 3 tbs Aero Hot Chocolate Powder
- 250ml Vanilla Yoghurt
- 1 Jar Cadbury’s Chocolate Spread
- 75g Halva
- Preheat your oven to 160℃.
- Butter and flour coat the inside of your Bundt tin.
- In a stand mixer, cream your butter, caster and brown sugars until light and fluffy.
- With the mixer running, add the eggs one at a time, and beat until fully incorporated before adding the next one.
- In a large bowl, mix together the plain flour, cocoa, vanilla powder, bi-carbonate of soda, salt and Aero hot chocolate powder.
- In a large jug, mix together the vanilla yoghurt and 2tbs of the chocolate spread from the jar.
- To the stand mixer, add ⅓ of the flour and cocoa mixer and beat until thoroughly mixed.
- Add ½ of the yoghurt and chocolate spread mixture and beat again.
- Repeat steps 7. and 8. above, finishing with the final ⅓ of the flour and cocoa mixture.
- Pour ¾ of the cake mixture into your Bundt tin and ease it gently up the sides and centre tube of your tin to create a small well all the way around.
- Crumble your Halva and sprinkle this into the circular well you’ve just created in the cake mixture.
- Top with the final ¼ of your cake mixture.
- Tap the tin onto the worktop a couple of times to remove any large air bubbles.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the cake has started to come away from the sides of the tin and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the deepest part of the cake.
- Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then invert the cake onto cooling rack and remove the tin.
- Leave the cake until cold.
- To glaze the cake, gently heat the chocolate spread in the microwave for 20 seconds.
- Pour the chocolate spread over the cake to coat it. Add texture to the finish if required with a spoon/spatula.
I always use my Kenwood Major Stand mixer to make large cakes, as the powerful motor is more than adequate to cope with the work. You can find a range of stand mixers and other Kenwood appliances on the John Lewis website. Just search for ‘Kenwood’ or ‘stand mixer’.
