Preheat your oven to 160C/140C fan and grease & line two 8″/20cm cake tins – leave to the side.
In a heatproof bowl, microwave the dark chocolate & butter until melted – mine takes two minutes! Pour the coffee granules into 125ml boiling water and mix – add the coffee to the chocolate/butter mix and stir well until smooth!
In a separate large bowl add the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, golden caster sugar, and light brown sugar and mix well so the ingredients are all mixed with each other well!
Mix the eggs with the buttermilk – add the chocolate mix & the egg mix to the dry ingredients and stir together, try not to over mix it – it should be thick but runny when finished and no flour lumps!
Pour the mixture into the two tins and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes (can take a little longer in some ovens) once baked leave to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes and cool on a wire rack for a softer cake.
For the Frosting!
With an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until its very smooth and supple (couple of minutes).
Gradually add the icing sugar & cocoa powder alternatively with the evaporated milk until all is incorporated and add the vanilla essence – beat for a couple of minutes so its extra smooth & creamy.
The more evaporated milk you add the more runny it’ll be, and I have found about 100ml-125ml is perfect for me!
For the Decoration!
Add one of your sponges to a plate, and slather on some of the frosting. Add on the second sponge, and slather on some frosting again.
With the rest of the frosting, cover the sides evenly.
Add the Matchmakers around the edge next to each other. However, you have to do it quite quickly so that the frosting is basically the glue! I used the gingerbread flavour, and I used just over two packets.
Once the Matchmakers are covering the sides, use a ribbon to keep the cake in place, and basically help make it set.
Decorate the top with your favourite Christmas sweets!
I recommend putting the cakes in the fridge for 30 minutes before trying to decorate with buttercream on the sides as the sponge is so lovely and light it might crumble a bit if you don’t!
If you can’t access the buttermilk, you can make it yourself by using 75ml of whole milk, with 1tbsp of lemon juice and whisking together
This cake will last for 3 days in an airtight container!
I found the gingerbread Matchmakers in Tesco, but they all work! The mint flavour would be delicious.