Nostalgic Mini Chocolate Cakes
Remember your favourite chocolate cake from childhood? Might be homemade, but probably from a neighbourhood bakery or even simply the supermarket.
A gooey, cocoa-rich inside with a satisfying layer of shiny ganache. Moist and delivering the perfect mouth feel, without being too rich or over the top. That is exactly what we have here.
Jump to RecipeRewind slightly, wishing everyone a happy new year! Haven’t been on here for a while, but hope you all had a great start to 2022 in the meantime. I do hope to post more often this year, but for now have decided to take January easy instead of rushing head on into anything. Having dragged Christmas (favourite time of the year!) out as long as possible with our tree intact right through the middle of January; we’ve truly been enjoying being present, spending plenty of time with family and friends.
Hopefully that sets the tone for the year ahead – slow, steady and grounded in the right intentions. We all have our goals and can easily get carried away in achieving them. Don’t forget to take a moment to appreciate what’s right in front of you, what you have already achieved.
For now, I for one will continue enjoying my goal of taking January easy and enjoying every day.
As joyful a time as the holidays are, the hosting and cooking can get tiring. Some days we all just need a recipe like this, minimum effort but guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser!
Under that shiny exterior, we really have a simple chocolate sponge cake, made in a single bowl with a whisk. You really don’t even get the electric mixer out.
Even the ganache, adapted from Ottolenghi’s ‘Sweet’, is pretty much made in a food processor without the painstaking process of chopping chocolate. After cooling just smear it on as you see fit and voila.
I did have to practice considerable self restraint to not cover the whole thing in colourful sprinkles, but frankly why not. Unleash your inner child and deck it out however you like!
Nostalgic Mini Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Moist Cake
- 170 g All Purpose Flour
- 45 g Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder Not dutch processed
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 2/3 tsp Salt
- 130 g Caster Sugar
- 130 g Brown Sugar
- 80 ml Neutral Vegetable Oil
- 160 ml Buttermilk
- 2 Eggs
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 160 ml Espresso Hot
Chocolate Ganache
- 140 g Dark Chocolate Pieces I use Lindt 70% / 80% buttons
- 120 g Heavy Cream
- ⅔ tbsp Golden Syrup
- ⅔ tbsp Unsalted Butter Room Temperature
Instructions
Cake
- Grease & line two 6 inch round cake pan. Pre heat oven to 175°C.
- Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add caster sugar and brown sugar. Mix well.
- Fully incorporate oil, buttermilk, eggs and vanilla extract. Finally mix in the hot espresso, your batter will be quite liquid.
- Pour batter equally into the two prepared cake tins, and bake for 25-28 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool
Ganache
- With a food processor, process chocolate until fine
- In a saucepan, heat heavy cream & corn syrup until small bubbles appear. Remove from heat and add to food processor with the chocolate bits. Process for 20 seconds before adding the room temperature butter. Continue to process until the ganache is all smooth and shiny
- Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap touching the top layer and rest at room temperature for 2 hours
- Spread a nice thick layer over each of the cooled cakes with a spatula and enjoy!
Notes
