I made this cake for Juliette’s first birthday and it’s quite lovely. I have since made it for a couple occasions and gotten rave reviews on it.
It is rich and dark and chocolatey. Make sure you have some vanilla ice cream or a cup of coffee on hand to go with this cake or you won’t make it. OH it is divine.
I used to make it with a rich chocolate cake mix, using vanilla yogurt for the oil and it pretty good like that and if you don’t want to make a scratch cake just do that and you’ll be quite pleased. However, I have since changed my ways and gotten fairly good at baking cakes from scratch and I love doing it. Plus I feel like I can always taste the box and I don’t like it.
So the last couple times I have made this cake I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe and it is JUST what was needed.
FOR THE CAKE- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed
- 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- ½ cup (1½ oz) Dutch-processed cocoa (honestly though I have made it with the hershey’s dark chocolate cocoa powder and they turned out fine)
- ¾ cup (3¾ oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup (5¼ oz) sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ½ cup (4 oz) sour cream
FOR THE GANACHE - 1 pound dark chocolate, chopped
- 2½ cups heavy whipping cream
- Toffee pieces
TO MAKE THE CAKE- Preheat your oven to 350˚. Line a muffin pan with papers and set aside.
- Combine the butter, bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Stir until chocolate and butter are melted and smooth. Remove from over the water and set aside and allow to cool a bit while you combine the other ingredients.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and baking powder.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt until fluffy.
- Add the chocolate mixture.
- Add about ⅓ of the flour mixture, then the sour cream and then the rest of the flour mixture.
- Divide the batter evenly into the muffin pan cups and bake about 18-20 minutes. Until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool about 10-15 in the pan and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
TO MAKE THE GANACHE - Place the chocolate in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Pour over chocolate and stir with a spatula until smooth.
- Allow to cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Reserve ¾ cup of the ganache, set aside.
- Whip the remaining chocolate mixture until it is light and fluffy.
- Place the first layer of cake on whatever tray you want to use and top with half the reserved, unwhipped ganache.
- Place the second layer on top and frost the whole cake with the whipped ganache. Once you have frosted it, pour the rest of the reserved, unwhipped ganache over the top so there is a layer of it over the top but not the sides.
- Top with chopped toffee pieces and serve with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.
#chocolateganachetoffeecake #chocolatecake #chocolate ganache
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