Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Dark Chocolate Ganache Cake Recipe

My mom's birthday was a couple of days ago, and she wanted a REALLY good chocolate cake.  So, I got out this recipe that I have used a couple of times and had a lot of success with!  I have topped this with a Chocolate Buttercream frosting before, and I have topped it with a Nutella frosting before.  But since my mom is a true choco-holic, I went for a classic- Chocolate Ganache (and a LOT of it!)
I do not know the original source for this recipe, but I do know that I have tweaked it from the original (amount of vanilla, and amount of cocoa/water mixture).
So here it is!

Dark Chocolate Ganache Cake
from ToBeContinued

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/4 cups + 2T all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions:
  • In a small bowl, pour the boiling water over the cocoa powder.  Set aside to cool.
  • In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients.
  • In mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar and blend until thoroughly combined.  
  • Add eggs one at a time until combined well.
  • Add vanilla.
  • To the mixing bowl, alternate adding flour mixture and cocoa mixture until just combined.
  • Pour into a greased and floured pan (this amount makes a medium-sized bundt cake, or one cake pan.)  If you want a layer cake, double the recipe.
  • Bake for approx 25 minutes, or until cake springs back when gently touched.
For Chocolate Ganache:
  • Bring to a gentle boil 1 cup heavy cream or half and half
  • Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of broken up dark chocolate pieces.  (Use a high quality dark chocolate that is around 60% cocoa for best results.  This is IMPORTANT- some common brands of so-called dark chocolate will not work!)
  • Allow to cool at room temperature, then pour over cooled cake.  (For layer cake, put cooled ganache into your mixer with whisk and whip up into a more frosting-like consistency.) 
Before Serving, use a vegetable peeler and slowly peel chocolate curls off the long side of a chocolate bar over the top of the cake.  The more the better :)
mmm, chocolate curls!
 This is a very rich cake, so that is why I typically make it smaller.  Serve it up with some ice cream if you want!
LJ: "I gonna eat this cake up, mommy"  Me: "We have to wait until tonight for Ga-Ga's party!"
Her face, after I locked the cake in the laundry room...note the fork dropped on the floor in defeat!
Later that night- yummy!

Cake Face!!!
 Are you a follower yet?  I am about to do a giveaway in the next week or so, please join in on the fun!  Be sure to follow on Facebook too so you don't miss out on anything over there!  Thanks :)

3 comments:

  1. ha you are such a mean mommy LOL, it looks amazing, so I would cry too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh chocolate ganache cake...yummmmm. Poor little one, she probably thought she wasn't getting any :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha, ha, ha. Poor girl, such a sad face. I like the fork on the floor. We go through a similar scenario everyday. Your cake looks fantastic. Thanks for sharing with us at Link It Up Thursday.

    ReplyDelete

I love your comments! Thanks so much! Please understand that I try my best to reply, but I am not always able to!