Moist Chocolate Cake

I wanted to do some baking during the week and decided that I'd bake a simple chocolate cake. So this means browsing through my limited recipe books and thus I came across a simple enough chocolate cake recipe which included a ganache topping.

I guess when it comes to cakes, chocolate cakes are probably the most universally recognized and appreciated cakes by both adults and children, unless of course you are chocolate intolerent! Hmm ... is there such a thing as this - I've heard of lactose intoleret but chocolate??



Moist Chocolate Cake
(serves 10)
Recipe: Cake Temptations & Other Desserts by Su Chan

Ingredients:

3 eggs
350g superfine castor sugar
150g unsalted butter
175ml water (room temperature)
225g plain flour
65g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Ingredients for the chocolate ganache:

150ml whipping cream
150ml bittersweet chocolate (preferably 60% or more cocoa)

Method:

1) Grease a 9" round cake tin, line the bottom with parchment paper and set aside. Preheat oven to 180C.

2) Whisk eggs and half of the sugar until thick and set aside.

3) Cream butter and remaining sugar in a separate bowl till light and slowly stir in the egg mixture. Beat till well combined.

4) Sieve together the flour,cocoa powder, salt, baking power and baking soda in a separate bowl.

5) Fold the sieved ingredients into the batter in three batches, alternating with the water (3 batches of flour and 2 batch of water). You should start and end with the dry ingredient. Be careful not to over-mix your batter.

6) Pour batter into prepared tin and using a spatula, smoothen the surface of the batter. Tap the bottom of the pan a couple of times to expel any air bubbles in the batter.

7) Bake in preheated overn for 30 - 45 minutes or till inserted skewer comes out clean.

8) Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for about 15 minutes. Remove from pan onto a cake wire rack and allow to cool completely before assemblying.

To Assemble the cake:

1) Slice the cake into 2 layers.

2) To make the ganache, place whipping cream into a saucepan and bring to boil over medium flame. Remove and pour over chocolate. Stir mixture until chocolate is completely melted.

3) Leave to cool and then place ganache into the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. Remove and beat the ganache until light.

4) Place one layer of the cake onto a serving dish. Spread a thin layer of ganache over the top of the 1st layer. Place 2nd layer of cake on top and cover the entire cake with the remaining ganache.

5) Decorate as desired (I used wafer roses for decoration). Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

6) To serve remove from refrigerator, slice into individual portions and place a slice onto serving dish. Serve cake chilled.