Chocolate is one of the sweet things in life that not many people dislike. I think for most of us its more a love-hate relationship when it comes to this naughty treat. For some chocolate can even be an anti-depressant and for others an aphrodisiac.
But really, how bad can it be when you are sharing a slice of beautifully moist chocolate cake with the one you love, when that rich chocolaty taste puts a satisfied smile on your face and that sweet smooth happiness warms your heart. How bad can it possibly be?
Over the weekend I was playing with fondant and made this sheep that reminds me a bit of the cartoon character, ‘Shaun the Sheep’. I tried it on the cake but didn’t like it as much as I liked the cake on it’s own… But it was fun experimenting. Like my dad always says, it’s one of his favourite quotes:
If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you’ve always got. Anthony Robbins
Chocolate cake makes me think of birthday celebrations. What is a birthday celebration without a cake? This cake recipe that I’m sharing with you today is definitely the best I’ve ever tasted. It is so moist, rich and can satisfy any chocolate craving. I first saw this recipe on a website, specifically the Little Red Chair. Up until now I used to just doubled my own recipe to make a nice high cake. This recipe makes a good amount of batter for a proud tall cake. So here is my adapted version of this beautifully moist chocolate cake.
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 cups caramel brown sugar
- 2 cups white sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 cup olive oil
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 cup freshly brewed coffee
- 4 cups cake flour
- 250 g Cream Cheese
- 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 540 g Cadbury's Bournville Classic Dark Chocolate
- 450 ml Fresh whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon Corn syrup/Golden syrup
- Preheat the oven to 170 °C (350 °F)
- Use cocoa powder to flour 4 8" cake pans.
- In a medium bowl, combine the buttermilk and baking soda and set bowl on preheating oven for warmth.
- In a bowl of your stand mixer, mix together 2 cups brown sugar, 2 cups white sugar, 4 eggs, cocoa powder, oil, vanilla and almond extract until blended. Stir in 1 cup boiling water and 1 cup hot brewed coffee, then gradually beat in the flour.
- Stir in the buttermilk mixture.
- Pour batter into prepared pans and bake your cake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Because our ovens are so different, check your cakes 5 minutes before they are finished. Your cakes are finished when a cake tester comes out clean. If your cakes are not finished after 30 minutes leave them in the oven and check every 3 minutes.
- When your cakes are done, take them out of the pans and let cool completely on a wire rack.
- Mix the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy
- Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time
- Mix in cocoa powder
- In a food processor pulse the chocolate a few times until broken into smaller pieces. Transfer chocolate pieces to the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Bring the cream and syrup to a quick simmer. As it starts simmering take it off and pour over the chocolate pieces. At this point you should have everything in a bowl of a stand mixer.
- Leave it without stirring for 2 minutes.
- When the chocolate starts melting stir slowly until chocolate is well incorporated with the hot cream.
- Once at room temperature your ganache will still be a bit runny.
- Mix the ganache with the whisk attachment of a stand mixer for about 5 minutes.
- Put ganache in fridge and stir every 5 minutes until thick enough to spread over your cake with a pallet knife.
- When making the ganache make sure you get the cream up to a high simmer and when poured over the chocolate to leave it for 2 min to allow chocolate to soften and melt. If the chocolate doesn't melt entirely through you will end up with a lumpy ganache.
- If you've left the ganache to get too thick in the fridge just put it in the microwave for a few seconds until it is softer. Leave it out of the fridge to cool and thicken again until it reaches the desired consistency.
- This cake is also great with strawberry cream cheese icing. In a food processor, mix fresh strawberries with your vanilla cream cheese icing.