Heavenly Chocolate & Raspberry Cake

It’s February, and Valentine’s Day is just round the corner. So I decided to bake a decadent, romantic cake, rich with dark chocolate, complimented by fresh, fun raspberries.

This is a goody!
The cake was beautifully rich and moist, almost fudgey in consistency, and the raspberries through the ganache really zinged on the tongue.

This is sure to impress your other half as a Valentine’s Day treat!

I found this recipe on Divine Chocolate‘s website. They have a great section full of “divine” chocolate recipes.

I have entered this post into Mike’s Baking’s Chocolate Blog Hop.
Be sure to check out his post to see all the other entrants #chocolatelove recipes!

The Recipe

Ingredients
Cake 200g 70% dark chocolate 200g unsalted butter, diced 125ml strong coffee 85g self-raising flour 85g plain flour ¼ tsp baking powder 200g dark muscovado sugar 200g golden caster sugar 25g cocoa powder 3 medium eggs 1 tsp natural yoghurt	Raspberry Ganache 200g 70% dark chocolate 285ml double cream 2 tbsp golden caster sugar 150g raspberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Lightly grease a deep, round 8 inch cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.

Break the dark chocolate up into small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl with the diced butter and warm coffee, and place over a pan of simmering water, until melted.
Combine by stirring until smooth.

Sift the flours, cocoa powder and baking powder into a large bowl.
Add the sugars and mix thoroughly.

In a separate bowl beat the eggs, and then mix in the yoghurt.

Allow the melted chocolate mixture to cool slightly, then pour into the large bowl with the flours/sugars, along with the egg mixture, and stir until well blended.
Pour into the tin, and tap the tin gently to remove any air bubbles.

Bake for 1½ hours.
Cover with a disc of baking parchment after 45 minutes to prevent over-browning.
A fine skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes then turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
When the cake is cold, slice into two layers.

Sadly, my bake was not perfect. I baked the cake twice, and both times the cake came out of the oven with a central dome. I think there was too much air in my cake batter, despite tapping my tin! However, I was able to rescue it, by using a knife to level the surface of the cake, by removing this domed protrusion!

To make the raspberry ganache, chop the chocolate and place in a large bowl.
Pour the cream into a saucepan with the caster sugar, and heat until it is just about to boil, then remove from the heat, and pour over the chopped chocolate.
Stir until the chocolate has completely melted and the mixture is smooth.
Add the raspberries, breaking them up a little as you stir them into the ganache. Allow to cool slightly.

Now you are ready to assemble the cake!

To achieve the glossy finish with the ganache, I applied it when it was still quite runny. To avoid creating a mess, I placed four squares of greaseproof paper on my cake stand, as shown, before adding the cake. The idea is once the ganache has been applied and sets, you just slide out the greaseproof paper, leaving behind a nice clean display stand! I can’t remember where I picked this little tip up from recently, but it works a treat!

Sandwich the two layers of cake together with a fine layer of ganache in the centre.

Then cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining ganache.

Leave until set, then remove the four squares of greaseproof paper.

Decorate with fresh raspberries.

Enjoy!

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