A Children’s Chocolate Birthday Party Tray bake

For the second part of  Baking SOS challenge I have chosen a recipe from Whitworths website . Seeing as it is coming up to my soon to be 5 year old’s birthday, I decided to go for the chocolate  birthday traybake.

My son will only accept anything destined to be a cookie, cake or ice cream that has the name “chocolate” in it. No idea where he gets it from! If the sponge is not  dark brown he will simply not eat it.

I thought it would be a good idea to test the cake out on my children as a trial run before his birthday and get some feedback from them. They do know a thing or two about cakes as I happen to make rather alot of them.

Before I tell you what they and I thought of the cake, I will run through the  sugars I was  sent and how they taste as well as what they can be used for.

Icing sugar – the finest of the sugars. It tastes like sweet powder and looks like flour. Perfect  for use in glace icing, as a cake topping , buttercream and fondant  or royal icing.

Caster sugar – this sugar falls in between icing and granulated and has a delicate texture perfect for sponges, pastry, biscuits and pastry.

Light soft  brown  sugar – this sugar has the texture of soft sand and is very fine in texture. It smells of caramel and is the colour of a caffe latte. I often use it instead of caster sugar when I am making cakes and sponges. It also gives a lovely caramel flavour and colour when used in making meringues.

Dark soft brown sugar – a rich, dark and again very moist textured sugar. It has the aroma of treacle and the depth of flavour that gives a rich  and more complex flavour. I often use this in coffee cakes, gingerbreads and brownies as well as all manner of fruit cakes. It also works well in biscuit and muffin recipes.

Fine Demerara sugar – of all the sugars this one is my current favourite. It has the flavour of demerara but with a beautiful pale  golden colour and amazingly light texture. It is so fine yet gives a wonderful flavour and colour to a sponge mixture. I used it HERE with excellent results.

Crunchy demerara – I like to use this crunchy sugar for cake toppings, crumbles, oaty biscuits  as well as for flapjacks. Mixed with cinnamon, it makes a delicious topping for a spiced apple cake.

Each packet of sugar has a recipe featured on the back cover. For example; classic buttercream, chocolate brownies and a Victoria sponge cake.

My only questions about the products would be as follows ……..

1. Will they consider a Fair Trade option?

2. Will they consider recyclable packaging?

I am happy to report that my 3 children were delighted with the results of this chocolate tray bake. My decorations of choice were mini chocolate smarties and chocolate strands. I cut small cubes of the cake up and placed them into little fairy cake cases which I am thinking of doing for the soon to be 5 yo’s birthday. Just the right size and it leaves a good chunk of cake to share out amongst the adults.

The only change I will be making to the cake will be to add a red racing car at the specific request of the 5yo boy who is just slightly keen on Lightning McQueen.

The recipe for this chocolate birthday tray bake can be found on WHITWORTHS  SUGAR .

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Disclosure: I’m working with Whitworths Sugar, whose www.whitworths-sugar.co.uk site includes ideas and recipes for baking with sugar. Follow the conversation on Twitter with the #bakingS0S hash tag and @WhitworthsSugar.

All the views expressed in this  review post are my own.