Chocolate truffle cake

The inspiration behind this beautiful cake is Jagan. The reason for this beautiful cake is my sister. The creator of this beautiful recipe is not me. Must be a genius at bbcgoodfood who came up with this recipe.

Where (Why) do I come in? The maker of this beautiful cake is me. The one who made this cake from start to finish, the one who peeled the parchment paper off an un-chilled super-moist cake before transferring to cake board and paid hell, the one who made indigenous crème fraiche substituting a substitute for a substitute, the one who forgot to add in the said indigenous crème fraiche and then swirled it in the cake pans.  Still, this cake was stunning, in-spite of all the madness. I write this to tell you what not to do in making this gorgeous cake, and to tell you that even the hand-mixer wielding, Amul fresh cream using, birthday baker like you and me can make this cake. And you will be known ever after as the one who makes the best chocolate truffle cake.

Recently at a coffee shop, Jagan asked me why I’ve never made Chocolate truffle cake like the one they have there.

Why? I didn’t know. So I set out to make one. My sister’s birthday was the right occasion for a Chocolate truffle cake because it was the one coming up next. Then I found this recipe. I figured you couldn’t go wrong with 800 grams of chocolate plus cocoa and more than a pound of butter. I immediately decided this was the recipe I was going to go with.

This is my best chocolate cake so far and it is going to be my new most favourite chocolate cake to make for a long time to come. It turned out absolutely fantastic – rich, fudgy-moist and so so chocolatey interlaced with velvety chocolate frosting and finished off with a luscious smooth chocolate ganache. Oh My! Perfection! 

Make this for Valentine's day, for a birthday or for a celebration. It is a special occassion cake.

Prep time: 2.5 hours
Baking time: 30-40 mins
Serves: 12-15

Ingredients – Cake

Bittersweet Chocolate – 283 gm (10 ounces) chopped fine divided into two portions – 170 gm + 113 gm
Butter – ½ cup
Vanilla – 1 tbsp
Cocoa powder – 1/3 cup
Water – 1 cup
Crème fraiche – 2/3 cup (recipe below to make your own)
Eggs – 3 whole
Egg yolks – 2
Granulated white Sugar – 1-1/2 cups
Brown sugar – ½ cup
All purpose flour/Maida – 1-1/4 cups
Baking soda – 1 tbsp
Baking powder – 2 tsp
 Salt – 1 tsp

Ingredients – Frosting

Bittersweet chocolate – 113 gm chopped fine
Sugar – ¼ cup
Cocoa powder – 6 tbsp
Water – ¼ cup + 2 tbsp
Instant coffee granules – 1 tbsp (optional)
Butter – 2 cups
Icing sugar – ¾ cup

Ingredients – Ganache

Bittersweet chocolate – 283 gm chopped fine
Heavy cream – 1-1/3 cup

Ingredients – Chocolate hearts (for decorating)

Semisweet chocolate - 120 gm chopped fine
Margarine – 1 tbsp

Method – Chocolate hearts

1.       Start off by making the chocolate hearts. Place an upturned cookie tray by the side. Combine chopped chocolate and margarine in a small saucepan over low heat. When most of the chocolate is melted, remove from heat, whisk till smooth and immediately spread the melted chocolate on the tray using an offset spatula. Make the layer as thin as ¼ inch. Put the cookie tray in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes or so. Your chocolate should have set but not too hard (should be like chilled cookie dough). Use heart shaped cookie cutters to cut out the chocolate stars. Place these hearts in a single layer on a plate or cookie sheet and freeze. If the chocolate is too hard, just wait for 5 minutes and try again.

Method – Chocolate Ganache

1.       Next, make the ganache. Place chopped chocolate in bowl. In a small saucepan, heat heavy cream until it steams and small bubbles appear around the edges. Pour hot cream over the chopped chocolate. Whisk until smooth. Chill in refrigerator until cake decorating time.

Method – Chocolate Frosting

1.       Make the chocolate frosting. You’ll use this to fill and frost the cake. Melt chocolate over low heat. Whisk until smooth and set aside. In a saucepan, combine sugar, water, cocoa powder and coffee (if using) and heat, whisking continuously. Bring to a boil. Switch off. Mix in melted chocolate, whisk to incorporate and let cool.

2.       Beat butter until light and fluffy, add cooled chocolate mixture and beat to combine well. Add icing sugar and beat on low speed till it is your desired spreading consistency. Chill till frosting time.

Method – Chocolate truffle cake

1.       Finally the cake. These cakes are baked in 2 shallow jelly roll pans. My jelly roll pans measured 11x7.5 inches. I decided to cut the 2 cakes in half and stack them – so I ended up with 4 rectangular layers, each measuring 5.5X3.75. I was fine with a rectangular cake of not-so-usual dimensions. If you are particular about a square cake, measure your pans and calculate accordingly. These cakes are meant to be baked in shallow jelly roll pans. They’re very moist and can easily break by handling. I don’t recommend switching other pans or dumping all the batter into one pan. Apart from being difficult to handle, the texture may not be the same too if you substitute other pans. Line the bottom and sides of the jelly roll pans with parchment paper and butter the paper. Leave a slight overhang for easy lifting later on. Set aside. Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

2.       Sift All purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3.       If you don’t have crème fraiche, you can make your own. To make 1 cup of crème fraiche, add 3 tbsp buttermilk to 1 cup of heavy cream. Stir to mix well. Let sit overnight (I used mine in a few hours though). I substituted yogurt for buttermilk (substitute for substitute!).  Cake came out so so moist, I have no complaints. Measure out 2/3 cup of crème fraiche for the cake.

4.       Melt 170 grams of the chocolate, whisk till smooth and cool. In a saucepan, combine butter, vanilla, cocoa powder and water and cook on medium-low heat whisking continuously until it comes to a low boil. Switch off and cool.

5.       Stir the melted chocolate into the butter-cocoa mixture and whisk till smooth. Set aside.

6.       Combine eggs and sugars in a large bowl and beat on high for a solid 5 minutes. Pour in the chocolate cocoa mixture and beat on low to incorporate. Add in crème fraiche and beat on low just until incorporated.

7.       Stir in the sifted dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture and beat on low just until the dry ingredients are incorporated.

8.       Divide the batter equally between the two jelly roll pans. Sprinkle the remaining 113 gm chocolate equally on the batter in the two pans. Bake in the middle two racks of the oven for 30-35 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Don’t overbake. Halfway through, rotate the pans between the racks.

Method – Cake assembly

1.       Once baked, let cakes cool completely in the pans. Don’t remove cakes from the pans. Freeze the cakes in their pans for a couple of hours. Remove from fridge, slide a knife around the edges of the cake, place a rectangular plate/cutting board that covers the pan completely, invert and tap lightly to loosen the cake from the pan. When the cake has slid out, remove pan but don’t peel away the parchement paper.

2.       Using a sharp knife, slice the cake down the middle along with the parchment paper to make two layers. Place another rectangular plate/cutting board over the sliced cakes and invert carefully on to the new board, so the two cake layers are now paper side down. Do the same with the cake in the other jelly roll pan to make two more cake layers.

3.       Have your cake board ready with a little dab of frosting in the centre. Carefully lift one cake layer, invert and place on the cake board and peel away the parchment paper. Spread a layer of the chocolate frosting. Now place the other cake layer, the same way inverting it over the frosted cake layer and peel away the parchment paper. Spread chocolate frosting on this layer as well. Continue stacking the remaining two cake layers and frosting. Once all four layers are stacked, spread frosting on the sides as well. Chill cake for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.

4.       Beat chilled ganache before slathering it on the top and sides of the chilled frosted cake.

5.       Insert the chocolate hearts into the cake. Chill cake until serving time. Remove cake from fridge about 30 minutes before serving time. Enjoy!