Farewell cake for Dallas, Fiona & Carl

On Friday, we lost 3 people from our team - Dallas, Fiona and Carl. I was working interstate on the day, so I made a cake in advance and left it in the fridge for everyone to share at the team lunch.

The cake I chose for the occasion is a chocolate cake that I have made before from The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook. However, I have not previously posted the recipe, so it is set out below (I halved the original quantities). It's a terrific cake, because it is rich and chocolatey solely from cocoa powder - there is no chocolate in this cake:

It is also a breeze to make. I decorated it with a simple chocolate glace icing (which I also used to sandwich the two layers together), letters cut from strawberry fruit bars, and a symbol for each person leaving - a chocolate Kiwi for Dallas (he hails from NZ), a sugar flower for Fiona and a four leaf clover cut from "plastic icing" for Carl (he's Irish). The stray green sprinkles that I hope look like grass are there because I tried to do the four leaf clover using a template and sprinkles - which failed twice.

I picked up the Kiwi chocolates while in New Zealand - they are Cadbury's chocolate (my favourite!) and are studded with pieces of dried Kiwi fruit:

The cake recipe is as follows:

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee powder
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup cold water
100g butter, softened and cubed
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tablespoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius and grease and line the base of two 18cm cake tins.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt together and set aside.

Combine the coffee powder, hot water and cocoa and mix until smooth, then mix in the cold water. Set aside.

Cream the butter and the sugar, adding the sugar in three lots. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla.

Fold the flour into the batter alternately with the cocoa mixture in four lots, starting and ending with flour. Divide the batter equally between the two cake tins, and bake for approximately 45 minutes. Don't panic if the tops of the cakes bubble up or look spongy - this settles down during baking and cooling. Remove the baked cakes from the oven, and leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Ice and decorate the cakes as you please.