My suggestion for this year’s Valentine’s Day. A rich chocolate cake filled with a delicious chocolate cream. Its texture is similar to a chocolate sponge cake – light, moist, irresistible and beautifully simple. It is sure to delight everyone in love, and not only them… Say “I love you” with chocolate…
Ingredients for the chocolate cake:
- 1¾ cups plain flour
- 1½ cups caster sugar
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk or kefir
- ½ cup rapeseed oil or sunflower oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
All ingredients should be at room temperature. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
Pour the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla extract into a separate large bowl, then add the sugar. Mix with an electric mixer on low speed only until combined, or lightly whisk by hand. Add the dry ingredients and fold in with a spatula until just combined; do not overmix. Gradually pour in the hot coffee, stirring continuously with the spatula.
Divide the batter evenly between two 23 cm sandwich tins lined with baking parchment (I baked mine in a 20 cm tin, which resulted in a taller cake).
Bake at 180°C for approximately 35–40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.
Ingredients for the chocolate cream*:
- 230 g dark chocolate
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee (powder or granules)
- 5 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon rum or vodka
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 1 cup double cream, chilled
In a saucepan, combine the broken chocolate, cocoa powder, coffee, water and rum. Melt gently over a bain-marie.
Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Beat the yolks with half of the sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually pour in the melted chocolate (it may still be warm) and mix only until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites, adding the remaining sugar towards the end of whisking. Gradually fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, mixing gently until combined.
Whip the double cream until stiff peaks form. Add the chocolate mixture and gently fold together until no white streaks remain. Refrigerate until the cream has thickened slightly.
Ingredients for the chocolate ganache:
- 140 g milk chocolate
- 110 g dark chocolate
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee (granules or powder)
- 160 g double cream
Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it is almost boiling. Remove from the heat, add the broken chocolate and coffee, and leave to stand for 2 minutes. Stir until smooth and fully melted.
Spread the chocolate cream between the cooled cake layers. Pour the chocolate ganache over the top and smooth the surface evenly. Chill before serving.
*I made the cream using half the quantity. When prepared using the full amount, there is enough cream to fill and decorate the entire cake as well.
Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from the book Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten.
I read all comments, but unfortunately I can't answer them all. Before posting a question, make sure nobody has asked a similar one (this will be facilitated by the search engine included in the comments). Comments with links may not be published.
Blog author