This Coffee Cake with Chocolate Ganache is the latest addition to my list of comfort desserts.
It’s a guilt-free dessert (if such a thing exists!). It’s not guilt-free cause it has any less sugar or anything, but it’s just quite light and sinful yet doesn’t make you feel like you’ve committed one, plus, it has almonds and a chocolate frosting and coffee.
This cake came to me at a point in time when I was seriously craving a coffee cake, something on the lines of a tiramisu or a frosted coffee cake (something slightly more richer than this – more like a birthday cake).
A definite crowd pleaser this one!
Now coming back to how I came across this – The recipe which started this coffee chocolate madness belongs to a lovely lady – Anita. The recipe can be found on her blog. Anita also taught me how to bake sourdoughs (more of this soon! – hopefully). And I knew, that coming from Anita, this recipe is gonna be a hit.
Her recipe can be found here. If you make it – let her know how you liked it!
I made just a couple of changes to her recipe. My slightly tweaked version can be found below.
Here is what you need:
For the Cake:
1 Cup Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
2 Eggs
3/4 Cup Butter
The original recipe calls for oil – but I really wanted a richer cake – so I used butter instead
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Coffee Powder (Instant)
4 Tablespoons Milk
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Chopped Almonds
2. For the Ganache:
150g Heavy Cream
250g Semi-Sweet Chocolate (Chopped)
What you need to do:
Pre heat the oven to 180DegreesC
Grease and prepare a cake pan – 9″ works but I baked it in a 7″ Bundt pan. In case you’re using a budnt pan – grease with butter and then dust with flour to make sure the cake comes out easily
Sift together flour, salt and baking powder- set aside.
Beat butter and sugar together in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment until pale and fluffy.
Add in the eggs – one after the other, beating well after each addition.
Once the eggs are well incorporated add in the vanilla.
Simultaneously – dissolve the instant coffee powder in the milk and add that in as well.
Toss the chopped almond in the flour mix.
Add the flour and almond mix to the egg batter and fold gently, without over mixing the batter.
Bake for 30-35 Mins until a skewer inserted – comes out clean.
For the Ganache:
Heat the cream in a sauce pan just until it begins to simmer around the edges.
Pour over the chocolate – let sit for a minute or two and then whisk it till all the chocolate is melted and you have a ganache of spreadable consistency.
To assemble the cake – Slap and slather on the chocolate all over the curves of your bundt cake and eeeeat it guilt-free 🙂
You know whats equally delicious than the fabulous combination of dark chocolate and raspberry? It’s switching the dark chocolate out for it’s much controversial and love/hate pale sibling, white chocolate, which when combined with raspberries is the most glorious thing I have ever tried.
The last time I had posted something on this blog/ universe was a blueberry crumble cake after I had returned from my trip to Jordan. So, I thought it only made sense for me to post a recipe now, inspired by my trip to Paris earlier this year, where I had the most incredible, incredible, incredible ice cream at Berthillon. One scoop of the creamiest white chocolate ice cream, topped with a tart, smooth and bright raspberry sorbet.
White Chocolate Ice Cream topped with Raspberry Sorbet
Coming back to those blondies, which, if you’ve been living under a rock, are essentially fudgey brownies minus the cocoa. These blondies are fudgey and subtly sweet with bursts of raspberry. The blondies when cooked and perfectly tanned taste so wonderfully caramelised.
Don’t be sceptical about working with white chocolate, buy good quality chocolate and since this isn’t really in your face sweet – it will work out well if its your first affair with white chocolate.
So wait no more, and just scroll down for these fab fab fab blondies.
What you will need:
150 grams white chocolate – chopped
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter – at room temperature
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
This is what you need to do:
Preheat your oven at 180 degrees.
Butter and line an 8 inch square baking dish.
Melt the chopped white chocolate in the microwave in bursts of 30 seconds. After every interval stir the chocolate with a spatula to make sure it melts evenly. Set aside to cool slightly.
If you’re using fresh raspberries – skip this step. Else, in a heavy bottom pot, place a cup of frozen berries, and turn the heat to medium. Cook this down until the mixture thickens – about 5 and remove from heat – let it cool.
Sift the flour and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
Using a stand mixer or a hand held electric whisk, beat the butter and brown sugar together until well blended. It doesn’t have to be all whipped and fluffy, but just make sure its blended well and the butter begins to look creamy.
Next, add in the eggs one by one, making sure the first egg is well incorporated before adding the second one, beatttttt it.
Add in the extracts, mix for another 30 seconds, then drizzle in the white chocolate which we had melted. Once mixed, sift in the flour mix with a spatula until just combined.
Toss in the white chocolate chips (and, the fresh raspberries, if you have them!). And transfer the batter to the prepared tin. If you’re using frozen raspberries like me, put the blondie batter in the tin, and then, using a spoon, put blobs of the raspberry compote about one inch a part, and swirl it with a toothpick (or in my case, a stick of uncooked spaghetti :))
Bake it in the oven for about 30 mins – keep an eye on it – once it started to brown slightly from the top, you want to remove it from the oven.
Cool to room temperature, eat it, and then thank me.
I’ve been told birthday calories don’t count, especially since this was my 25th and I can sense an imminent quarter life crisis. And, since this was my birthday week, I decided to go all out and make the most decadent (and laborious) cake for myself :).
This cake is very close to my heart. I have wanted to make this amber delight for a really long time.
I was inspired by a similar version of this cake (except with a butterscotch sauce rather than the salted caramel) from Elma’s a very long time ago. Making it now, reminded me of very fond memories.
I must admit, when I was deciding on which cake to make, I was facing a lot of competition from a Yellow Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting. Eventually, I gave in and settled for what I didn’t know at the time, would be the best cake I have ever made, hands down.
Without further ado, I did my research and found recipes online that I felt comfortable with.
So this cake, this very special milestone cake for a milestone birthday is a Brown Butter Spongeand a Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Frostingwith a rather generous Salted Caramel Drizzle.
Brown Butter Salted Caramel CakeThe ingredients listed below are for a multi-layer 9 inch cake. I made a 2 layer 6 inch cake, so all I did was halve the ingredient below. And somehow everything worked out.
What you will need:
For the brown butter sponge
12 ounces salted butter
2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
2 1/4 tsps of baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 2/3 cups of sugar
1 vanilla bean; split it down the centre and scrape the seeds
3 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
1 1/4 cups of milk
For the salted caramel sauce
2 cups of granulated sugar
180 grams butter
1 cup of heavy cream
1 teaspoon fleur de sel
1/2 cup water
For the salted caramel frosting
12 ounces cream cheese; at room temperature
3/4 cup softened butter
1/2 cup salted caramel sauce
1 1/2 tsps of vanilla extract
2 cups of icing sugar
Method:
Brown Butter Cake
First thing’s first, you need to make the brown butter. If you are making the 9inch recipe, please make sure you have a heavy bottom, large pot for melting the butter. When I found this recipe, the author did not issue a very important disclaimer about how much the butter foams up before it turns brown – imagine over boiled milk. So once you have placed the butter in the pot, and turned on the stove, get an ice bath with a bowl ready to go. You will be needing the ice bath to cool down the brown butter once its done, but it is also very handy in case the foaming gets slightly out of hand and you need it pour the hot butter out.
Okay, now, for the brown butter – place the butter in the pot and turn the stove on. You don’t have to keep stirring, but you have to keep an eye on it for a. the foaming (be cautious) and b. to smell the nutty aroma once the brown butter is ready. The whole process lasts about 10 minutes. The milk solids in the butter will start to turn brown and solidify at the bottom of the pan. The minute it starts releasing a butterscotchy aroma, you need to take it off the heat and pour the butter into the bowl in the ice bath.
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees and line two 9inch (6inch) pans with parchment paper and grease the sides generously.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
Turn back to the brown butter, once it has cooled around the edges, place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk them together until creamy and fluffy.
Add in the vanilla seeds, followed by the egg yolks, one at a time. Beat well after each addition. Beat in the whole eggs one by one until you the whole mix comes together and is well mixed with significant volume.
Fold in the flour dry mixture, and alternate with the milk, about three rounds of this process.
Once the mixture is folded in and there are no flour lumps, pour the batter into the prepared cake pans and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until the centre is cooked.
Salted Caramel Sauce
So about the caramel, I absolutely loathe dry caramel. Not only does it have a horrible bitter after taste, its tricky to make, there is a high chance of the sugar crystalizing AND its far more temperamental than a wet caramel.
Note: Use a heavy bottom deep pot; the caramel will spit and foam.
Place the sugar and water in a pan. You don’t need to stir it, just swirl the pan once in a while, if needed. Keep an eye on the caramel. Now, many people have different preferences when it comes to the desired level of color/ burntness/ bitterness. I was very fortunate to get to the perfect color on my first attempt.
Keep the cream, butter and salt handy. Note: All the ingredients should be at room temperature; DO NOT add cold cream to hot caramel.
Once you get the perfect colour on the caramel, tip in the butter and stir till its melted through. Remove the pot from the flame and pour in the cream. Be delicate, you don’t want to splash hot caramel around. The mixture will foam and bubble furiously when you add both, the butter and the cream so be cautious.
Once the cream is mixed through, pour the caramel in a separate bowl and leave to cool.
Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
For the frosting, all the ingredients must be at room temperature.
Start with whisking the cream cheese in a large bowl with the softened room temperature butter and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
Whisk in the salted caramel sauce.
One everything is well combined, sift in the icing sugar, small tablespoons at a time. It isn’t necessary for you to use all the icing sugar, you can adjust the viscosity and the sweetness of the frosting with the sugar, and that’s that.
Whip it up until nice and stiff.
Assembly
Place Cake 1 on a cake board and lather the cream cheese frosting rather generously in the centre. Once its evenly spread, drizzle some salted caramel on top.
Place Cake 2 on top of Cake 1, and spread the frosting all over the cake. At this point, you may want to chill the cake in the fridge for an hour or so.
Decorate the cake with leftover salted caramel and some popcorn 🙂
Belt the cake with a nice cup of Ristretto Nespresso coffee. 🎂☕️