Beat butter until soft and fluffy, add sugar, and beat until creamy, add vanilla essence, and 1 egg at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Sift flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl, then fold in a little at a time into the butter mixture.
Add milk to the mixture.
Divide into 2 round 23cm tins that are greased, smooth down the mixture in tins with a spoon, and bake for 15-17 min at 180C.
Cool in tins for 10 min before turning out, and cool thoroughly.
Icing:
I don’t really measure when I do the icing.Β
Cream butter, add the icing sugar a little at a time.
Add the vanilla essence, then the cocoa powder, and set aside.
The cream I whipped them with an electric whisk.
Add a splash of vanilla essence and Β±1tsp icing sugar and fold it in (if you use it, as I didn’t add it as the butter icing and ganache topping is richly sweet).
Filling:
Before sandwiching the two layers with fresh whipped cream, cover it with chocolate buttercream icing.
Chocolate ganache:
Place 250ml fresh cream in a pot over medium heat, let it warm through but not boil.
Remove from heat.
Add 200g dark chocolate, let it sit for 5 min, then stir well.
Cool before pouring over the iced cake and decorate as desired.