Curly Whirly Cake Recipe

Our famous Curly Whirly Cake has been a Konditor favourite since 1994 and is still as popular as ever nearly 30 years later!

Originally, Konditor's definitive chocolate cake was filled with dark chocolate ganache. One of Gerhard's super fans wanted the same sponge filled with a lighter vanilla frosting for her daughter's birthday. A recipe for vanilla frosting was carefully created and the moist chocolate sponge was filled and frosted with a generous helping.

In the shop however customers got confused as they just saw a white iced cake, not realising it featured the delicious, moist chocolate sponge. At the time our cake decorating drew on influences by Viennese painter Gustav Klimt and from there it was a small step to add some chocolate swirls to the top of the cake, and so the Curly Whirly Cake was born! 

We're thrilled to share with the recipe for this Konditor legend with you all so that you can get your Curly Whirly fix at home whenever you want! 

What you'll need

This recipe makes a 17cm cake so make sure you have two 17cm cake tins to start!

For the chocolate sponge:

• 250ml milk
• 275g light soft brown sugar
• 100g dark chocolate (54% cocoa solids), chopped
• 175g plain flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 30g cocoa powder
• 100g salted butter, softened
• 2 medium eggs, lightly beaten

To decorate: 

• 200g full-fat cream cheese
• 400g icing sugar
• 50g unsalted butter

Method

Heat the oven to 190.c/Gas Mark 5. Line two 17cm sandwich tins with foil or baking parchment.

Heat half the milk and half the soft brown sugar in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved, then add the chocolate and stir over a low heat until melted. Remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder together and set aside. Put the butter in a large bowl, add the remaining sugar, and beat together until light and fluffy, using an electric mixer. Gradually add the beaten eggs, alternating each addition with a tablespoon of the flour mixture to prevent it from splitting.

Fold in the rest of the flour, followed by the remaining milk, then add the still-warm chocolate milk. Mix until smooth, it will have a very runny consistency.

Divide the mixture between the. Lines tines and bake for 0- minutes, until risen and firm to the touch. Remove demo the oven and leave to cool in the tins.

Put the cream cheese and icing sugar into a bowl and beat slowly with a handheld electric mixer until smooth. Put the butter in a small pan and soften over a very low heat so that it disintegrates rather than piping hot. With the hand mixer still on slow, gradually our the melted butter into the cream cheese mixer until it’s completely combined, then whisk briefly at a higher speed. If you’re happy with the consistency use it straight away. If the butter was too warm, the frosting may be a bit soft and will need chilling slightly first.

Turn the cakes out of their tins and sandwich them together with about a quarter of the frosting. Spread a thin layer of frosting over the top and sides to bind any crumbs and then leave to set in the fridge for an hour.

Coat with the remaining frosting, smoothing it with a palette knife. Put the melted chocolate in a piping bag and pipe swirls atop the cake.

Final stage

Enjoy! Don't forget to tag us in any photos so we can share your Curly Whirly creations!