Magic Mushroom Cake
Chocolate cake! In this recipe, you’ll learn just how easy it is to make buttercream mushrooms! Looking back at this cake, I’m realizing more and more I go through phases with cakes. This phase was creating sculptured elements on a cake using buttercream. So easy, and so cute!
Nick’s favorite thing…
Where do I even begin?? This cake is made of my chocolate cake recipe. But let’s move past how incredibly delicious it is. Cos this cake LOOKS stunning! This is a magic cake! Magic because of the gravity defying buttercream fairy mushrooms on top. Which are completely made of buttercream btw. There’s buttercream grass and flowers. AND! I have chocolate bark that goes around the entire sides of the cake to make it look like a gorgeous tree stump. I mean, if there’s anyone looking for fairies, they’re in this cake.
What does Chocolate cake taste like?
So yum! This cake is made of my chocolate cake recipe which is moist and decadent. The buttercream decorations are made of my yummy American buttercream recipe which is really easy to make and holds it’s shape really well for decorations like this. Overall, the cake is really yummy, but this cake is in essence a looks queen. It’s all about the faires!
What are the ingredients I need for the Chocolate cake?
All-purpose flour – also known as plain flour.
Caster sugar – also known as superfine sugar. Granulated is fine too.
Cocoa powder – I used a good quality, unsweetened cocoa powder.
Bicarb soda – This is used to help the cake rise.
Salt – I used fine salt.
Unsalted butter – Make sure your butter is softened.
Eggs – I used large eggs. Make sure they’re at room temperature before using.
Milk – I used cow’s milk. But plant-based milk will work too. Make sure it’s at room temperature before using.
Mint slice cookies –
Swiss meringue buttercream frosting –
American buttercream frosting – this is the ideal frosting for making buttercream decorations.
Food gel coloring – I used Americolor food gel. A little goes a long way.
Dark Chocolate – I used Nestle Dark chocolate buttons. In some countries this is known as semi sweet.
My Top Tips!
Buttercream Mushrooms
A common question I get about the buttercream mushrooms on top is whether they can withstand warm whether. The answer is no. They will melt and collapse. The mushrooms need to be piped in a cool environment and the cake needs to be kept chilled once they’re put on top.
Other Tips!
- When making the chocolate bark, make sure you make them on baking paper. Makes taking them off easier.
- When cutting the bark, use a knife dipped in hot water
Other Recipes You Might Like!
- Fairy bread lamingtons – cake cubes covered in sprinkles! So colorful and fun!
- Fairy Bread Pavlova – inspired by the classic Aussie treat!
- Rubber Ducky Cake from Bluey!
- Strawberry Birthday Cake Cupcakes – the perfect funfetti birthday treat!
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Instagram @thescranline, Facebook and watch and subscribe to my videos on YouTube!
I hope you guys enjoyed this simple but delicious Chocolate cake recipe with me. Please comment in the comments section below, or feel free to share with your family and friends on social media.
I’ll see you all on the following recipe. Happy baking!
N x
Magic Mushroom Cake
Serves 30
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 1/4 cups caster sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp bicarb soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 2 cups chopped mint slice cookies
Frosting
- 2 batches Swiss meringue buttercream frosting
Magic Mushrooms
- 1 batch American buttercream frosting
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 5 drops red food gel
Grass Frosting
- 1 batch American buttercream frosting
- 4 drops green food gel, Light Green Frosting
- 4 drops green foodgel + 2 drops blue food gel, Green Frosting
- 4 drops green foodgel + 2 drops blue food gel + 3 drops purple food gel, Dark Green Frosting
Flowers
- 1/4 batch American buttercream frosting
- 2 drops blue food gel
- 2 drops pink food gel
- 2 drops yellow food gel
- 2 drops orange food gel
Chocolate Bark
- 2 1/2 cups dark chocolate, melted
- 1 cup white chocolate + 100g (1/2 cup) dark chocolate, melted together
Learn How To Make it! [VIDEO]
Instructions
Magic Mushrooms
- To make magic mushrooms set aside 2 tbsp of white frosting in a small bowl. Add cocoa powder to the rest of the frosting and mix until well combined. Split the frosting in half and add the red food gel into the frosting. Mix until evenly coloured.
- Fit the end of a piping bag with a large round tip and pipe long upright stalks of light cocoa frosting onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Chill.
- Fit the end of another piping bag with a large round tip and pipe low, wide bulbs of red frosting. Add little blobs of white frosting to make the little white spot details. Chill the stalks and mushroom heads for about 40 min. Get them really chilled.
- Once the stalks are chilled use a very sharp knife to cut off the very top, creating a nice flat surface. Add a little dab of frosting on top of the stalk and stick the mushroom head on top. Keep chilled until ready to use.
Chocolate Bark
- Add a long piece of baking paper on a flatwork surface. Drizzle the melted dark chocolate on top and use a large offset spatula to spread out the chocolate. Give it time to completely set. Use a fork to add some grooves in the set chocolate before you add some random light chocolate on top. Use the back of a tablespoon to spread it around. Let that second layer set completely before you use a sharp knife dipped in boiling water to cut different shaped rectangles of the bark. Kind of like random sized pieces of wood flooring.
Cake
- Please note: this chocolate cake recipe makes1 batch. You’ll need two batches of chocolate cake to make this 6 layered cake.All other ingredients in the recipe are measured up to make the full 6 layer cake.Preheat a fan-forced oven to 140°C / 280°F or 160°C /320°F for a conventional oven. Spray three 8” cake tins with oil spray and line the bottom with baking paper.
- Add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarb soda and salt to a large mixing bowl and mix together using a hand mixer to combine.
- Next add the softened butter and mix on low speed until mixture reaches a crumbly sand like texture.
- Add the eggs and milk and mix on low speed until no dry ingredients are showing. Scrape down the bowl and mix for another20 seconds.
- Fill three 8” cake tins with batter. I find using an ice cream scooper to help me do this makes it easy to distribute the batter evenly so that everything bakes at the same time.
- Bake for 50-60 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If the pick comes out with wet batter, bake for a further 10 min at a time until baked fully. Allow the tins to cool for 2 min and then carefully flip the cake tins over on to a cooling rack to cool completely before using. Chilling your cakes overnight before decorating means they’ll be easier to trim and decorate. So I bake my cakes the day before I trim them.
- To trim your chilled cake use a cake leveler or large serrated knife to carefully trim the first layer of cake by trimming it in half. Then trim the crust off the second layer so that you end up with two layers from each baked cake. When trimming make sure you aim to get both layers of cake the same height. Keep that in mind when trimming the first layer so the next layer will still be the same height as the first when trimming the crust off. Once you’re done trimming your three baked cakes you should end up with 6 layers of cake altogether.
- To prepare crumb coat, add a dab of chocolateSwiss meringue buttercream frosting onto an 10” cake board or serving plate. Add the first layer of cake. Pipe a ring of frosting around the first layer and fill the center of the cake with more frosting. Use a small offset spatula to spread around a little before adding some chopped mint slice cookies. Add the second layer of cake and repeat with the remaining layers. Add more frosting around and top of the cake. Use a your small spatula to smoothen out the top and bottom of the cake before using a cake scraper (otherwise known as a bench scraper) to smoothen out the frosting. Get it as neat as you can. This should just be a neat thin layer of frosting which is aimed at trapping any cake crumbs so that random bits of cake crumbs don’t show up on the outside of the cake. Chill for 2 hours or overnight.
- Add a fresh layer of frosting using a small offset spatula. Use a cake scraper to smoothen out the frosting around the sides. Then smoothen out the top using the cake scraper.
- Stick the chocolate bark all around the cake.
Grass Frosting
- Split the frosting up into 3 bowls. Use the colour formulations to colour the three different shades of frosting.
- Fit the end of a piping bag with a grass tip.Line half of the inside of your bag with the dark green frosting. Line the other half with the green frosting. Fill the centre with the light green frosting
- Pipe grass on top of the cake and around the bottom.
Flowers
- Split the frosting up into 5 bowls. Use the colour formulations to colour the 5 different shades of frosting. Fit the end of four separate piping bags with very small round tips. For the pink flowers fit the end of a piping bag with a small star tip. Pipe random mini blobs of each colour in the grass.
- Add the buttercream mushrooms on top to finish.
Notes
Nutrition
2 comments
This is a fantastic recipe. The chocolate cake is delicious. The only problem I’ve had so far (I’ve made the mushrooms, the bark, and the cake is cooling and I’ve been taking nibbles here and there) is that I made two batches as instructed here and it definitely made enough cake batter for a massive party with cake-loving lumberjacks. The batter spilled over as it rised and there was enough burnt batter over the edges of the cake pan and on the oven floor to make a whole other cake. So I’d stick to one batch of batter. The recipe is very quick and easy so if you end up needing more cakes, you can easily make another batch.
Thanks so much Sage! Sorry to hear it spilled out. I’ve made this a couple times and it’s worked out. Did you use three 8-inch cake tins? Nx