Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Learn how to make this indulging cake that will make your taste buds jump up and down with joy and your mouth water every time you think about it. Bake it for your significant other or even for yourself to celebrate this year’s Valentine’s Day!

Baking a cake sounds more daunting than it actually is. The only hard thing here will be not having the resistance to stop yourself eating this rich, decadent chocolate cake. Following these instructions will most definitely guarantee you a perfect result every time.

Ingredients`

  • 400gms of Flour

  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder

  • 6 tablespoons of cocoa powder

  • 200gms of butter

  • 200gms of powdered sugar

  • 4 large eggs

  • 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract

  • ¾ cup of milk

  • A pinch of salt

Optional

  • 300gms of Milk or Dark Chocolate

  • 300gms of fresh cream

PROCEDURE 

FOR CAKE

  1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and line two 9 inch caketins with greaseproof paper or butter the insides of the pan.

  2. Sift the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder and salt, together twice, to ensure that your cake is light and spongy and set it aside.

  3. Cream the butter and powdered sugar until it has paled in color and is light and airy for about 5-10 minutes. You could do this by using a handmixer or you could put your arm strength to use. A good tip here is to use the butter when it is at room temperature as your work will get ten times easier and the end result will be much nicer.

  4. Once the mixture is light and airy, add the vanilla extract and the eggs one at a time and beat the mixture.

  5. Add the cocoa powder and fold it in to the mixture.

  6. Add a quarter of the dry ingredients and gently fold it in, to the mixture till there are no lumps. Add a quarter of the milk and fold it in. Alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the milk till there is none left of both. The key here is to FOLD in the milk and flour mixture and not beat it in, as this will prevent the cake from being tough and chewy.

  7. Divide the mixture into two, pour it into the caketins and put it into the oven for about 40-45minutes or until the cake springs back when touched and a skewer when inserted into the cake comes back clean.

FOR CHOCOLATE GANACHE

You could leave the cake at that and just savor it with a scoop of ice-cream, but if you want to go that extra mile, you could make this easy chocolate ganache icing, which will take your cake to the next level. For this icing, all you have to do is:

  1. Break your chocolate into small pieces and put it into a bowl

  2. Pour the cream into a saucepan and bring it to a slow simmer.

  3. Once the cream starts to simmer, pour all of the cream into the bowl of chocolate and slowly stir it till all the chocolate is melted.

  4. Cover the ganache with Clingfilm and let it chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

  5. Once the ganache is chilled, put aside a fourth of the mixture, and beat the remaining mixture with a whisk till it resembles the consistency of softly whipped cream.

  6. Take a third of the whipped ganache and sandwitch it between the two layers of the cake.

  7. With the remaining whipped ganache, frost the outside of the cake.

  8. Chill the cake in the refridgerater for about 30 minutes.

  9. Pour the remaining unwhipped chocolate ganache all over the top of the cake and coax it over the edge to create a beautiful, drippy effect.