What do you do with 15kg of chocolate? Apart from eat it, give it away, eat some more or hide it so you don’t eat it, the best thing to do is transform it into something else. This way chomping down copious amounts of chocolate is justified. Hey, it’s not chocolate I’m eating, it’s chocolate cake and its homemade – so much better for you…
Ingredients
- 9 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1½ cups cake flour (not self-rising)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 115 g (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup whole or low-fat milk
For the butter icing
- 125g butter softened
- 1½ cups icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons of milk
- crushed crunchie bars (quantity is up to you)
For the chocolate ganache
- ½ cups (375ml) single or pouring cream
- 340g finely chopped dark chocolate
Instructions
For the cake
- Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Butter two 22 cm springfrom cake pans (9″ x 2″) and line the bottoms with baking paper.
- Sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.
- In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, or with hand held beaters, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. (If using a standing electric mixer, stop the mixer as necessary to scrape down the sides to be sure everything is getting mixed in.)
- Mix together the water and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, then add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients.
- Divide the batter into the two prepared cake pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Coolin the tin for 5-10 and then invert onto a wire rack to cool completly before icing.
For the butter icing
- Beat the butter with an electric mixer until pale and creamy
- Add half the icing sugar and 1 tablespoon of the milk
- Beat until incorporated and smooth
- Repeat with remaining butter and milk
- Stir through the crunchie pieces
For the ganache
- Place the cream in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and add the chocolate/ Allow to melt slightly and then stir until it is glossy and smoth.
- set aside to cool to a spreadable consistency.
Notes
If using salted butter, omitting adding the salt from the recipe. This is a very fagile cake. Be careful when removing it from the tin and inveritng onto a wire rack. Wait till its completely cool before you handle it to avoid it breaking. If you cannot find cake flour, use plain flour and replace 3 tablespoons of the flour with 3 tablespoons of corn flour I find it takes a good couple of hours for the ganacheto set to a spreadable consistency.
Recipe and photo by Art of Baking