Heavenly Chocolate Ganache Cake

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Chocolate Cake

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. 

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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

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.

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Heavenly Chocolate Ganache Cake
Serves 18
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Prep Time
2 hr
Cook Time
30 min
Prep Time
2 hr
Cook Time
30 min
Ingredients
For the Cake
  1. 2 cups buttermilk
  2. 2 teaspoons baking soda
  3. 2 cups caramel brown sugar
  4. 2 cups white sugar
  5. 4 eggs
  6. 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  7. 1 cup olive oil
  8. 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
  9. 1 teaspoon almond extract
  10. 1 cup boiling water
  11. 1 cup freshly brewed coffee
  12. 4 cups cake flour
For the Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
  1. 250 g Cream Cheese
  2. 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
  3. 3 cups sifted powdered sugar
  4. 1/2 cup cocoa powder
For the Ganache
  1. 540 g Cadbury's Bournville Classic Dark Chocolate
  2. 450 ml Fresh whipping cream
  3. 1 tablespoon Corn syrup/Golden syrup
Directions
For the Cake
  1. Preheat the oven to 170 °C (350 °F)
  2. Use cocoa powder to flour 4 8" cake pans.
  3. In a medium bowl, combine the buttermilk and baking soda and set bowl on preheating oven for warmth.
  4. 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.
  5. Stir in the buttermilk mixture.
  6. 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.
  7. When your cakes are done, take them out of the pans and let cool completely on a wire rack.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
  1. Mix the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy
  2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time
  3. Mix in cocoa powder
For the Ganache
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Leave it without stirring for 2 minutes.
  4. When the chocolate starts melting stir slowly until chocolate is well incorporated with the hot cream.
  5. Once at room temperature your ganache will still be a bit runny.
  6. Mix the ganache with the whisk attachment of a stand mixer for about 5 minutes.
  7. Put ganache in fridge and stir every 5 minutes until thick enough to spread over your cake with a pallet knife.
Great Tips
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. This cake is also great with strawberry cream cheese icing. In a food processor, mix fresh strawberries with your vanilla cream cheese icing.
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