CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE GANACHE

We are finally back to eating eggs and chicken and what better way to start than baking a cake for my grandmother’s birthday.

One of my favourite food blogs is Ria’s Collection. All her recipes find their way to my recipe book.  Her recipes are easy to make and use readily available ingredients. I have never had a ‘fail’ with any of her recipes.

I had told my mother that I would bake the cake but I found myself overburdened with work that weekend. I flipped through my recipe book looking for a quick and easy recipe. There was the Dark Chocolate Cake but I had made that several times already. I had recently made a chocolate cake from Ria’s blog that was quite effortless – Mini Aunty’s Chocolate Cake.

Since it was to be a cake for a birthday, I decided to glaze the cake with Chocolate Ganache (again, a quicker alternative to buttercream frosting/icing), dust it with drinking chocolate powder and decorate it with Ferrero Rocher.  

The cake is moist and chocolate-y and tastes great even without any icing/ganache. I used dark chocolate for the ganache and hence dusted drinking chocolate powder on it as unsweetened cocoa would have made the ganache taste bitter.

RIA’S MINI AUNTY’S CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients:

For the cake

Flour- 1 ½ cups

Baking Soda- 1 tsp

Salt- ¼ tsp

Sugar- 1 ¼ cups

Eggs – 2

Butter (at room temperature) - ½ cup

Warm milk- 1 cup

Cocoa powder (unsweetened) – 4 heaped tbsp

Vanilla – 1 tsp

For the ganache

Cream – 100 ml

Chocolate- 100 gms

Method:

1.     Preheat oven to 180 C and line your baking dish.

2.     Mix the cocoa powder with half cup of warm milk ( I used the beater to mix it)

3.     Sieve the flour, salt and baking soda together and keep aside.

4.  In another bowl, on high speed, beat together the butter and the sugar for a minute with the cake beater. Add the eggs and beat till light and fluffy.

5.    Add flour and the ½ cup of plain milk, alternating between the two into the butter mixture and beat till fluffy.

6.     Add the cocoa milk and vanilla essence and beat for a minute.

7.     Pour into tin and bake for 35-40 minutes at 180 C or till done.

8.     Heat cream to a boil. Remove from flame and add chopped chocolate bits into it.

9.     Mix well until glossy. Let it completely cool.

10. After the cake has fully cooled, slice it horizontally into two layers. You may use the ganache to sandwich the two layers. I used a Mixed Berry jam. Pour the remaining ganache over the cake. Smoothen it and let it set.

11. Done.

                                                           

Recipe Notes:

·        Let the cake and the ganache cool COMPLETELY before glazing the cake. (I waited for an hour)  Post glazing, I placed the cake in the fridge.

·        I sprinkled drinking chocolate powder immediately after glazing it and thus some of it got soaked in. I would recommend dusting the cake with chocolate just before presenting the cake.

·        You may decorate the cake with any goodies of your choice – candies, gems/M&Ms, chocolate chips, cocoa powder, chocolate shavings etc. or eat it plain. Either way, it tastes good

·        You can use any chocolate for the ganache (even milk chocolates). Please bear in mind that the ganache tastes of the chocolate used. (Would highly recommend using Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk)

·        I use dental floss to split the cake into two layers. It’s neater than using a knife to cut the cake.