What’s a chocoholic’s dream come true? A four-tiered, statuesque, Amazonian chocolate extravaganza with layer upon layer of Belgian sponge, all swaddled in generous lashings of Swiss meringue buttercream. And because subtlety is overrated, it was crowned with the entire tuck shop’s stash of Maltesers, Rolos, KitKats and Chocolate Fingers. A proper chocolate lover’s fantasy, really.
This towering chocolate cake was created for Keith, who rang in his milestone birthday at Whatley Manor in the Cotswolds. We delivered it all the way from London — worth every mile for those sponges alone: Belgian cocoa, vanilla-choc-chip, and my forever favourite, chocolate orange. Pure joy layered four ways.
I wanted to give it a modern lift without losing those nostalgic retro vibes. Sounds contradictory, I know — Modern-Retro isn’t exactly a thing — but hear me out. Modern came through in the crisp stripes and fault lines; retro in the classic chain-piping. Do you see it? Yes? Fabulous. No? Fair enough… moving swiftly on.
The 4", 6", 8" and 10" tiers were stacked and dowelled for support — because nobody wants a Leaning Tower of Chocolate at their party. The top tier boasted our glossy pure-butter Belgian ganache drip (find the recipe here), while the middle tiers wore a chocolate-and-vanilla striped buttercream finish with a subtle fault-line peek. Swirls of piped buttercream danced around each tier, gradually trickling into a fully piped base.
Though towering creations like this often get filed under “wedding cakes,” we love making tiered beauties for milestone birthdays — 40th, 50th, or anything worth celebrating in style. And why not? Life’s too short not to go big on cake. Have a browse through our birthday cakes or the especially epic 40th birthday collection if you're feeling inspired. For true chocoholics, our dramatic Till Death by Chocolate never disappoints — wedding cake or not.
Love, Reshmi xoxo
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