Little Chocolate & Violet Fancies

Serves	Makes betrween 12 and 14 cakes
Prep time	15 minutes
Cook time	30 minutes
Total time	45 minutes
Allergy	Egg, Milk, Wheat
Dietary	Vegetarian
Meal type	Dessert, Lunch, Snack
Misc	Child Friendly, Freezable, Pre-preparable
Occasion	Birthday Party, Formal Party
Region	British
By author	Karen S Burns-Booth

Dainty little chocolate cakes that are subtly flavoured with violet sugar and decorated with crystallised flowers - perfect for Mother's Day, Birthdays or Easter.

Ingredients

25 g (1 oz) cocoa powder
3 tbsp boiling water
225 g (8 oz) butter or margarine
225 g (8 oz) Violet sugar (I have a recipe posted on this blog)
300 g (10 oz) self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 large free-range eggs
2 tbsp milk
180 g (6 oz) dark chocolate
1 x 200 ml pot full-fat crème fraîche
crystallised violets (to decorate)
crystallised rose petals (to decorate)

Note

Dainty little chocolate cakes that are subtly flavoured with violet sugar and decorated with crystallised flowers - perfect for Mother's Day, Birthdays or Easter. The violet sugar and crystallised violets recipes are posted on my blog here: Violet Sugar and Crystallised Violets.

Directions

Step 1	Grease/butter a roasting tin (or traybake tin measuring 30 x 23 cm/12 x 9 in). Preheat oven to (180°C/350°F/160°C Fan/Gas 4)
Step 2	Put the cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and add with the boiling water, mix well to give a smooth paste. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and beat well until smooth. Pour into the prepared tin. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a skewer when inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin.
Step 3	For the ganache icing, put the chocolate and crème fraîche into a heat-proof bowl and heat gently over a pan of simmering water, stirring until melted. Set aside to thicken a little.
Step 4	With a biscuit or scone cutter, stamp out small cakes from the large tray bake. Cut in half and spread some chocolate ganache over the bottom half of the cake, before replacing the top on the bottom half. Spread or pipe more chocolate ganache over the top of the cakes and decorate with crystallised violets and rose petals if using.