Moving to a new country is completely a game-changing experience. It takes not just a lot of preparation and mental orientation but also a lot of you descending and compromising to the situation and things you wouldn’t have expected in the first place. To me, it is all the more humbling-you-down experience. Because there are things as trivial as they could be in your native country, which you find as completely missing or opposite to the least in the new place. And that makes you learn to adapt to the unseen environment you’ve opted to put yourself into. I see it as an experience which makes a better you. Although I know, I have been itching to start photographing food again as soon as possible, but the current situation isn’t allowing me to get back onto it any sooner. So I thought that I’d at least write a blog today to calm down the agitated waters inside me, which of course I haven’t done in the ages. This chocolate cola layer cake I baked a couple of months ago while I was back there in India. I photographed this for a Daniel Wellington sponsored post on Instagram and shared a couple of pictures at that time. But afterward, I completely forgot to write about it on the blog. So here I am with the recipe of this very decadent dark chocolate cola layer cake which has been layered with the luscious whipped dark chocolate ganache. It’s the second most decadent and moist chocolate cake which I have ever baked after Nigella Lawson’s old-fashioned chocolate cake. Now you know how good is that. And if you still don’t trust my words, go give it a try today.
- 100 gm unsalted butter, softened, plus extra to grease
- 250 ml cola
- 200 gm dark brown sugar
- 80 gm caster sugar
- 80 gm cocoa powder
- 4 eggs
- 200 ml buttermilk
- 320 gm plain flour
- 1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 400 gm dark chocolate, 60% cocoa or more
- 2 cups low fat cream
- Heat the oven to 180°C. Butter and line 3 x 7 inch cake tins with baking paper.
- Stir together brown sugar and cola in a jug until sugar dissolves completely.
- In a bowl, beat together butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Sift in the cocoa powder and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, beat together eggs and buttermilk and mix into the butter mixture. Sift in flour with baking powder and baking soda and fold until just combined.
- Divide the batter into prepared tins and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool in tin for 10 minutes and then invert onto cooling rack to let cool completely.
- Once the cake have completed cooled, prepare the frosting. Chop the chocolate roughly into small chunks. Heat the cream in a saucepan until it starts to boil. Pour the cream into a bowl. Add the chopped chocolate into hot cream and let stand for 10 minutes. Mix the cream and chocolate until well combined.
- Chill ganache. Stir every 5 minutes until mixture is cool to the touch. Remove bowl from refrigerator; whip ganache with a wire whisk until it just barely begins to hold its shape and is slightly lighter in color. Do not overwhip, or mixture will become grainy. Ganache will keep thickening after you stop whisking. Layer the cakes with whipped ganache thoroughly.