DECADENT CHOCOLATE CAKE
I baked this Decadent cake yesterday. Moist Chocolate Cake with coconut ganache and white chocolate cream cheese filling.
- 400 g butter
- 500 g light brown sugar
- 4 free range eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 300 g dark chocolate
- 320 g cake flour
- 70 g cocoa
- 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 2 cups warm coffee
- For the Coconut Ganache
- 1 x 400 g coconut milk can
- 1 kg Dark Chocolate, roughly chopped
- For the White Cream-Cheese filling:
- 60 g white chocolate
- 1 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 vanilla pod, seeded OR 3 teaspoons vanilla paste
Preheat oven to 180 ºC.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla essence and mix well.
Melt the chocolate and cool slightly, then fold into mixture.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda. Carefully FOLD this into BATTER.
Add the coffee little at a time while adding the flour.
Once flour incorporated, pour batter into 4 x 20 cm greased springform baking tins.
Bake for 40 min, then reduce temp to 160 ºC bake for a further 15 min, or until a skewer inserted comes out with large crumbs attached.
Allow to cool before removing from tins.
Make ganache by heating the coconut milk until just simmering, then add the dark chocolate and let it sit for 1 minute until chocolate is melted and stir until ganache is smooth.
Make cream cheese filling by melting the white chocolate and adding cream cheese and mixing until smooth.
Add the vanilla seeds or paste and beat with an electric beater until thick enough to spread.
Assemble cake by layering the cake with the cream cheese filling.
Cover top and sides of cake with ganache. Decorate as desired.
Recipe and photo: Dalila De Barros Viljoen