Drip Cakes - Versions 1, 2 and 3

You guys, I am totally obsessed with drip cakes at the moment.  One of my favourite things to do is avidly watch cake decorating videos on Instagram and I cannot get enough of watching drip cakes get put together.

If you haven't come across a drip cake just yet (they're getting more common but I think they're not everywhere just yet, except perhaps in Australia) then prepare to get gushing.  In my opinion the best drip cakes are tall, flamboyant, have a drip in a contrast to the icing and are unashamedly OTT.

The Aussie Katherine Sabbath seems to be generally acknowledged as the queen of this style of cake but personally I came across them via Frances Auty Bakes and then promptly fell down the most delicious rabbit hole.  There are loads of good bakers out there making incredible drippy creations but strangely the vast majority of the ones I've found seem to be in Sydney and Melbourne.

Anyway I'm not one for buying cakes, I make them myself!

My first drip cake attempt was.....OK.  I could see what went wrong though and that's the main thing.  Plenty to work on for next time.  Oh and in case you're wondering what's up with my buttercream, that horrible texture is a result of buying Sainsbury's own icing sugar.  NEVER again.  Bloody Sainsburys have removed loads of the branded baking ingredients and own brand is the only option on offer.  Which means I now go to Tescos for baking ingredients, grrrr.

The second drip cake was a lot better but my white chocolate drip was too runny this time instead of too thick as on the first one.  It tasted really good though and I was much happier overall.  Incidentally try putting Love Hearts on top of a lemon cake, it's surprisingly good.

Then weekend just gone (written back in June, oh well ha ha) I made my third attempt for my husband's birthday cake and this time I'm really, really happy with how it turned out.

It's a chocolate mud cake slightly adapted from this recipe, with vanilla buttercream, my old faithful salted caramel sauce from Nigella for the drip and as part of the filling, then tons of random chocolates on top.

The cake is a 6" round, with three layers and comes out moist, rich and quite filling.  I love the colours of the decorations and how the honeycomb compliments the caramel.  There's gold spray on the Toblerone too!

Please excuse the low res phone pic

I plan to make lots more drip cakes in the future and I'm pleased to see them cropping up more and more in the UK.  Some people are even choosing this style for their wedding cake.  What do you think?  Have drip cakes got you drooling?