My youngest daughter recently turned 9 and I made this Instagram Cake for her birthday party. Needless to say, she loved it.

My little one is a chocoholic and “brownie monster”, so this was the perfect cake for her. The cake is actually a double brownie, covered in chocolate ganache, and topped with coloured chocolates! Yum, right?

Besides the taste, I loved the fact that it was very easy to make. If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that we have recently been travelling around Japan. Well, we got back home the day before my daughter’s birthday and yet, I was able to make this cake without much effort.

The brownie cakes can be made in advance and frozen (which is what I did), the fondant decoration should be made the day before (so that it can be easily moved onto the cake), so the day of the party I only had to decorate it. The most time-consuming thing was to divide the chocolate smarties by colour, so I suggest you do that in advance.

Other than that, it is one of the easiest cakes I have ever made, and I think it looks pretty good too. Don’t you just love it when you can get the maximum results with the minimum effort?

Enjoy and don’t forget to check out my video recipe and to leave a comment to let me know how you like it!

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Instagram Cake

Instagram Cake - a decadent chocolate cake made with a brownie base, covered in chocolate ganache, and topped with coloured chocolates!

Course Cake

Cuisine American

Keyword Birthday, brownies, cake, Cake Decoration

Prep Time 35 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Decorating Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 1 20x20cm - 8 inch square cake

Author Recipe adapted from My Cupcake Addiction

Ingredients

Brownie Cake (makes 2 20x20cm – 8x8 inch cakes)

• 250 gms – 1 cup butter
• 270 gms – 9.5 oz. dark chocolate
• 120 gms – 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 50 gms – ½ cup cocoa powder
• 4 eggs
• 360 gms – 1 ½ cups caster sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Ganache

• 300 gms – 10.5 oz. dark chocolate
• 150 ml – 2/3 cup heavy cream

Decoration

• White Fondant
• Coloured smarties
• Mini Coloured smarties
• Sugar hearts
• Small coloured chocolates

Instructions

Brownie Cakes

1. Put the butter and chocolate into a bowl and melt in the microwave at short time intervals. Start with 30 seconds, mix and then microwave again for 20 seconds, until melted. Mix and keep aside to cool slightly.
   
2. Sift the flour and cocoa powder and keep aside.
   
3. Put the eggs and sugar into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until they have almost doubled in size and are super light and fluffy. At least 7 minutes.
4. Pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and gently fold the two together using big round figure 8 movements.
5. Re-sift the flour & cocoa mixture evenly over the top of the chocolate mixture and fold together, again using the figure 8 action.
6. Pour into 2 brownie tins that have been sprayed with cooking spray and lined on the base with baking paper.
   

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 160°C – 320°F for 20-25 minutes. The top should start to look a little flaky and the middle should spring back lightly when touched. Let them cool down in the tin. 

   

8. When cold, wrap them individually in aluminum foil and freeze. Working with frozen brownies will make trimming much easier.
   

Fondant Decoration

1. Make this the day before, so it dries enough to be able to put it on the cake without deforming it.
2. Print out your Instagram template so that it’s properly scaled to the size of your brownie. Cut out the white outline from the template.
3. Sprinkle corn flour onto your bench, and roll out your fondant so that it’s thick. Place your template over the fondant, and use an exacto knife to cut around the template. Then, use circle cutters for the two circles on the Instagram logo. Keep aside.

Chocolate Ganache

1. Heat up the cream until hot but not boiling.
2. Pour over the chocolate chunks and let it sit, without stirring, for 5 minutes. Then mix until smooth.
   

Assembling

1. Remove your brownie cakes from the freezer.
2. If your cakes have straight corners, use a sharp knife to round off the edges so that they take the shape of the Instagram logo.
3. Set your top brownie aside. Put a little ganache on a cake board and place the base brownie layer on it. Use an offset spatula to spread ganache over the top of the base brownie layer. Stack the top brownie layer on top.
4. Add ganache to the entire top and sides of the brownies. Set your brownies aside. Work quickly as the frozen brownies will help the ganache set.
5. Place the fondant over the brownie.
6. Arrange your candies over the brownie top divided by colour.
   
7. Serve!

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