Chocolate Birthday Cake

My flatmate in Oxford, Charly, asked me to bake a 'really chocolatey' birthday cake for her grandfather's birthday last month so I went straight to the Hummingbird Bakery book for their 3-layer chocolate cake (made for both my sister's birthday and mine last year).  I topped and filled the cake with a chocolate ganache frosting after burning my arm, hand and face trying to make the chocolate custard the book suggests using - I'm interested to know if anybody has ever made the custard successfully as it went so horribly wrong when mum and I tried that we felt like nobody had tested the book before selling it?!

Topped with fresh raspberries picked from my dad's vegetable patch!

Hummingbird's Brooklyn Blackout Cake
100g unsalted butter
260g caster sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
45g cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarb soda
pinch of salt
170g plain flour
160ml milk

1) Preheat the oven to 170
2) Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3) With the mixer at a slower speed, beat in the vanilla, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt.
4) Add half the flour, then all the milk followed by the remaining flour.
5) Pour into 3 20cm cake tins and bake for 25 minutes.

Chocolate ganache
400g dark chocolate
200g double cream

1) Microwave the mix in 30-sec bursts until most of the chocolate has melted.
2) Whisk until all the chocolate has melted and the frosting has become thicker
3) Cool in the fridge until needed (around half an hour) and whisk again before using.