Chocolate Truffle Cake
Silky smooth truffle layer sits atop a chocolate cake layer, you will only want a small slice of this chocolate truffle cake to satisfy your cravings!
Servings: 12
Ingredients
For the Cake Layer
- ⅓ cup/ 85 ml Guinness or other stout
- 2 tbsp strong black coffee
- ½ cups/ 115 gr unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup/ 4 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup/ 150g all purpose flour
- 1 cup/225 g sugar
- 2/3 tsp baking soda
- ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 large egg
- 1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup/125 ml creme fraiche/sour cream
For the Chocolate Truffle Layer
- 1¼ cups/ 300 g double cream/heavy cream I used 48% fat double cream
- 12 oz/350 g dark chocolate chopped (measured by weight)
- 9 oz/250 g mascarpone or cream cheese full fat only
- 2 tbsp brandy optional
- Edible gold flakes and gold sanding sugar for decoration
Instructions
For the cake layer
- Preheat the oven to 325F/160C.
- Grease a 9" round cake pan and line the bottoms with greased parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a saucepan heat stout, coffee and butter together until the mixture comes to a gentle simmer, add cocoa powder while whisking continuously to avoid lumps until smooth. Set aside to cool.
- Blend flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a different bowl. Mix eggs, vanilla and creme fraiche with an electric mixer in bowl no 3.
- Now check on your chocolate mixture and make sure it’s cool enough to continue the process.
- Add the chocolate mixture to the egg and creme fraiche mixture and blend them together. Add flour mixture a little bit at a time and beat on low speed until combined. Pour into the pan and level.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 min. Always test your cake for doneness with a toothpick or a cake taster. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes , then take it out and cool completely a wire rack.
For the Truffle Layer
- Bring the cream in a saucepan to a boil and take it off the heat. Add chopped dark chocolate and stir with a whisk until the chocolate in melted and completely incorporated into the cream. Let the mixture come to a room temperature, mix in brandy if using.
- Add mascarpone and whip with a hand mixer until smooth. If using cream cheese instead of mascarpone, whip the cheese until light and fluffy before adding cream and chocolate mixture and blending the ingredients together.
- Put the sponge layer back in the springform. Pour the truffle mixture on top of the cake in the springform pan and chill in the refrigerator for at least for 2 hours or better overnight.
- Hold a knife over hot water for a minute, then wipe it dry with a towel, run a hot knife along the sides of the cake to release it from the pan, then carefully unmold it and move to a cake stand.
- Decorate with gold flakes and gold sanding sugar if desired.