Hi Everyone,

Looong time lurker and first time poster here, so finally, hello!

I'm going to be baking a 2 tier chocolate mud cake (covered in ganache & iced) for my Hubbies 30th Birthday, and we are stuck on what sort of buttercream he'd like.

He likes the idea of SMBC with either:

• Raspberry, with raspberry curd
• Strawberry
• Orange (with Cointreau, of course!)
• Salted Caramel

I've toyed with the idea of coffee or Maltesers, and he's not into peanut butter/Nutella or anything like that, so was just wondering if any of you lovely people have any other interesting ideas to make it a bit more 'special'.

I was wondering about adding orange zest to to the ganache to make it a even more chocolate orangey, as someone doesn't want it to be overwhelmingly rich.

If you were baking it, what buttercream would you use?

thanks in advance,

Jo

I am wild about chocolate + orange. {drooling on my keyboard}

Another option would be peppermint.

I love chocolate + orange. I was also wondering about Passionfruit, though I like the idea of mint!

They're all great combos, but I find the sharpness of a raspberry SMBC is a great complement to chocolate cake.

But then there's also choc-coconut, or choc-cherry, or you could use a praline (but it sounds like the recipient doesn't like nuts - so maybe not this one!).

What do you think Hubby would pick?  Personally, just not a big fan of chocolate/fruit combo.  Maybe toasted coconut?  Throw a little almond in there?  Salted caramel?  Peppermint would be unexpected.  Marshmallow with grated chocolate mixed in?  Pistachio?  White chocolate?  With maybe some chopped cherries in there would be pretty and not so bad.