Chocolate cake with ganache
Falling temperatures refocus attention on traditional pleasures - think decadent chocolate desserts. This is more like a mud cake than a traditional chocolate cake. Serve with whipped cream or a raspberry sauce - or both.
Ingredients
For cake
125g butter, softened
220g castor sugar
155g dark chocolate
125g egg yolks (7 yolks)
1 tsp vanilla extract
185g egg whites (6 whites)
125g cake flour
1/4 cup apricot jam
fresh raspberries, to serve
For the chocolate ganache
320g dark chocolate, finely chopped
400g pouring cream
40g glucose
70g butter, at room temperature
For the sugar syrup
1/4 cup castor sugar
Method
Preheat oven to 160C. Grease a deep 20cm round cake pan and line the base and sides with baking paper. Beat the butter and 125g caster sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and add to the butter mixture with the yolks and vanilla extract. Stir to combine.
Place the egg whites into a mixer bowl and beat at medium speed, adding the remaining caster sugar slowly until soft peaks form. Then fold in the chocolate mixture, alternating with the sifted flour.
Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for about 60-75 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre emerges clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 30 minutes before removing.
To make the ganache, put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Put the cream and glucose into a pan and heat until boiling, then pour over the chocolate and let sit for 1 minute until melted. Add the butter and stir until combined.
Place half the ganache in the fridge for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Keep the other half at room temperature.
To make the sugar syrup, put 1/4 cup of water in a pan, add the sugar and bring to a boil.
Cut the cake in half horizontally and brush the top of the lower half with syrup and cover with the apricot jam. Put the two halves of the cake back together.
Use the ganache from the fridge to cover the whole cake and place back in the fridge for 20 minutes. Then pour the room-temperature ganache over the cake. Serve with fresh raspberries.
Photography by William Meppem. Styling by Hannah Meppem. Food preparation by Nick Banbury,
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Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/goodfood/recipes/chocolate-cake-with-ganache-20140505-37r5w.html