What best demonstrates a passion for chocolate?🍫 For me, it’s this sinful, decadent cake; you will need over half a kilo of dark chocolate 😅🎂. The cake is moist and together with the chocolate ganache – yummy! Raspberries make the cake light and add a little freshness. The combination of chocolate with raspberries is just perfect.
I have been baking it for several years and it always has great success. So good luck and don’t forget to show off your creations! 🤗👩🍳
Ingredients:
- 200 g dark chocolate (55 – 70 % cacao)
- 200 g butter ( + some to grease the cake form)
- 1 tbsp instant coffee melted in 120 ml hot water
- 200 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 150 g cane sugar
- 50 g muscovado sugar
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 3 eggs
- 80 g of yogurt or buttermilk
- jam for baked layers (raspberry or red currant)
- 300 – 500 g raspberries
For the chocolate ganache:
- 400 g dark chocolate
- 500 ml whipping cream
- 3 – 4 tbsp cane sugar (or more if you find the chocolate too bitter)
Cake:
- Line the bottom of the cake form with baking paper and lightly grease it with butter. Preheat the oven to 160 °C, hot air to 140 °C.
- Slowly heat the butter, coffee, and broken chocolate in a small saucepan until everything is dissolved in a uniform mixture. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.
- Meanwhile, prepare dry ingredients in a larger bowl (flour, baking powder, soda, cocoa, and sugar). Mix well until lump-free.
- In another bowl, mix the eggs with the yogurt/buttermilk.
- Now add the egg mixture and melted chocolate to the bowl with flour (be careful, the chocolate must not be hot). Mix lightly to form a smooth cream dough.
- Pour the dough into the form and bake for 50 – 80 minutes (depending on the form size). If you are unsure, insert a wooden skewer into the center of the cake. If you pull it out and wet cake mixture has stuck to the skewer, it means the cake is not yet done. Once it comes out clean, you can take the cake out.
- Allow the cake to cool in the form and then cut it into three layers. As you can see in the picture, sometimes you have to improvise when you don’t have a professional tools 🤷♀️😅 I used large knives for moving the layers.
Chocolate ganache
- In a saucepan, heat the cream with the sugar to the boiling point. Put the broken chocolate in a bowl and gradually add the hot cream into that bowl. Stir until smooth. I recommend leaving a little cream aside for later (check my Tips)
Completing the cake
- Lightly spread the first layer of the cake with the jam and lay with raspberries. Smear chocolate ganache and spread over the entire surface.
- Place the second layer on the cake and repeat the same procedure (jam, raspberries, chocolate ganache).
- Place the last, upper layer on the cake.
- You can now dilute the chocolate ganache a little with the remaining cream (if it already cooled down, reheat). Pour the chocolate icing all over the cake and decorate with raspberries, nuts, chocolate curls, it’s up to you 😊
- Put it in the fridge for a few hours. Take it out to bring it to room temperature before serving.
TIPS:
✔ I use a round form with a removable bottom with a diameter of 22 cm.
✔ If the dough won’t rise that much, don’t panic. Slice it into two parts, the world will not fall apart 😉. Similarly, if your cake cracks on the surface, nothing happens. Minor imperfections will be covered by icing.
✔ To slice the cake I use a trick with a thread 👌 (you can also use the dental floss – no mint please 😁). I cut the cake only along the edge with a knife. That creates a groove where I will cut through the cake. Place the thread in the groove and carefully cut through the whole cake. You will get a smooth cut without any mess and stress that you will cut it askew 😁.
✔ When preparing the chocolate ganache, regulate the thickness of the cream by gradually adding cream. To smear the inner layers, I use a slightly thicker cream than the cream for the final covering of the cake.
