Devil’s dream chocolate cake

It is always fun to bake a cake and eat it too ! This time i celebrate my birthday with the DSB lovers in the form of a decadent, gorgeous and sensual chocolate cake which promises to bring out the “devil of decadence” in each one of you ! Presenting, Devil’s Dream Chocolate Cake 🙂 Enjoy !

It’s been a while since we celebrated anything special on DSB so this cake makes an entry with a big bang !! The occasion was this baker’s birthday (a.k.a ME) and i decided to bake my own birthday cake and eat it too 😛 Since i had not really done any sweets for a while and a good celebration was in order after all the nice things happening at our end (moving to a new country, new city, new home), it had to be a rich,fat royal cake!…. and i have to admit, this is by far the most decadent cake i have made myself, ever ! As the name suggests, this cake is deliciously decadent and absolutely, truly for those with a weakness for chocolate. This cake is here to win your hearts and make it skip a beat or two too 😛

My birthday was an evening away and we had no special plans set up for the D day. Me and the husband went around looking for a good cake but nothing got me excited and we came home without one. I was wanting to bake a cake for sometime and this gave me the perfect opportunity. Since it was a birthday cake, i decided to go “indulgent”. Now, i think all of us would agree that nothing speaks more rich and indulgent than a chocolate cake and one can never have enough chocolate … am i right? 😛

True to its name, this cake brings in the greedy “devil for decadence” in the person. There is even a secret ingredient which makes this cake an interesting take on usual chocolate cakes. This cake uses bitter-sweet chocolate , coffee and something special to become a devil’s dream chocolate cake 🙂 Read on for the recipe

“Chocolate is always innocent, its the baker who makes it a decadent dream”

Devil’s dream chocolate cake

Devil's dream chocolate Cake

  • Servings: 10-12
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devil's dream chocolate cake copyRecipe

This recipe is divided into 2 components :

Dark chocolate cake base

Dreamy Chocolate ganache

For Dark Chocolate cake base, you need :

  • 2 cups of All purpose flour, sifted
  • 1/2 tsp soda bi carb
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt . Salt helps in elevating the taste of the sugar
  • 2-3 tablespoons cocoa powder (unsweetened)
  • 1 cup brown sugar (Can substitute with white powdered sugar)
  • 2 tsp espresso powder (can use instant coffee powder as well) . Coffee always enhances the flavour of chocolate. Recommended for recipes calling for milk chocolate. Don’t use when cooking with white chocolate
  • 50 gms butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla essence
  • 1 egg (optional)
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper (for the heat and the intense flavour to offset the sweetness and enhance the bitter sweet nature of chocolate). If sugar and spice do not mix with your taste buds, feel free to exclude this ingredient and continue with the rest of the recipe.

For Dreamy Chocolate ganache*, you need:

*Typically ganache needs whipping cream and chocolate but since i did not have any whipping cream, i used milk and butter to give the ganache volume, shine and form. This is a quick solution but worked fine with me and i made extra to store in a airtight container in the freezer. Does not freeze or get hard like rock. Stays good for upto 1 week in fridge and upto 1-2 months in freezer.

  • 100 gms good quality semi-sweet chocolate (can also use chocolate chips but proper baking chocolate recommended)
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (unsweetened)
  • 2 tablespoons butter (butter helps in giving the chocolate ganache that lustre and holds the form when spread on cake
  • 1/2 cup sugar . Adjust as per taste (Prefer powdered sugar to mix easily)
  • 1/2 cup milk (i prefer full fat/ 2% fat content)

Method

We would begin with baking the dark chocolate cake base.

  1. Pre-heat your oven at 375F and keep ready to pop the cake in. Grease your baking tin with butter or line with a parchment paper and keep ready.
  2. Meanwhile, take a mixing bowl and sift in the flour, baking powder, soda bi carb, salt, cayenne pepper and cocoa powder. Combine and keep aside.
  3. In a separate mixing bowl, crack open an egg and whisk for a minute till the egg is homogenous. Add in the butter and sugar and whisk well till the sugar dissolves and the mixture starts to increase in volume. Add in the vanilla essence.You can do the same using a stand mixer at speed 2 for a couple of minutes. Keep aside.
  4. Now, take the espresso powder and dilute in 1/3 quantity of milk and microwave for 30 seconds to combine.
  5. Add the espresso mixture with the rest of the milk and let it cool down to room temperature*. Add to the egg mixture and combine gently.                                      *Be careful not to add hot milk to the egg mixture as yet, the egg tends to scramble and you don’t want an chocolate flavoured omlette for a cake. Don’t ask me how i know this 😛
  6. Now, gently (1 tablespoon at a time), fold in the dry ingredients with the wet mixture and combine till it forms a cake batter. You need a pouring (but not runny )consistency batter. If you feel that the batter needs for liquid, feel free to add in a couple of more tablespoons of milk.
  7. Place the baking tin in the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes or till done. Depending on the size of the baking tin and the depth of the batter, the baking time varies, so use your best judgement. It is advisable to check the status every 7-10 minutes after the first 20 minutes of baking.
  8. After the cake is done, remove from oven and remove from the baking tin. Place the cake on a cooling rack and let it cool down completely (took my cake about 1.5 hours)
  9. Carefully slice up the cake into as many layers as you can handle. I could manage making 3 layers. Keep aside.

Now let’s get on with the oh-so-ever Dreamy Chocolate Ganache

  1. Take chocolate in a mixing bowl. Now you can either microwave this for a quick 30 seconds to melt or go traditional with the double boiler method. I prefer the double boiler method for chocolate tempering but it takes good 5-7 minutes to melt the chocolate.
  2. Once the chocolate has started to melt, add in the cocoa powder and butter and gently combine.
  3. In a separate pan, heat up the milk and pour in the sugar and mix well till the sugar dissolves.
  4. Now slowly add the sugared milk into the chocolate mix and combine so that the ganache is homogenous. Keep aside and let it cool down. The dreamy chocolate ganache is ready to get devoured 🙂

For Assembly,

Take a Flat plate. Arrange the lower most layer of the cake. Next, scoop out generous quantity of the chocolate ganache and using a spatula, spread evenly on the layer. Keep this in the freezer for 5 minutes (This would enable the ganache to firm up and hold the shape). Next place the next layer and continue with the ganache. Complete all the assembly and then keep the ganache in the freezer for about 10 minutes to slightly firm up before spreading on the outside surface of the cake. Keep the cake in the fridge when not consuming. The cake can be stored for upto a week (though i am 100% sure it would not last 2 days …. coz it is just so delicious !!)

Is’nt this fab ? And to think of it, it does not have a load of calories either – just pure bitter sweet chocolate indulgence. I was so surprised seeing how wonderful this turned out. When i visualized this cake, i knew i wanted to bake this but frankly speaking was not sure on my capability to pull this off. Lucky for me, the cake did not let me down one bit and came out so amazing that it has now become the best cake i have made ever ! I am in so much love with this gorgeous devil’s dream of indulgence that i am sure i would be baking this one every single time i have a big occasion at home 🙂 Now, if all that i have written is not enough to make you believe me… try baking this beauty once and i am sure you would be in love with it soon 🙂

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16 Comments

  1. Gorgeous cake for your birthday! Cayenne pepper is something I need to try too, in a chocolate cake. Belated birthday wishes!

  2. Ooh waw, my friend! What a fantastic chocolate dream cake creation! It all looks stunning!
    MMMMMMMMMM! Lovely appetizing picture too! x

  3. Awesome recipe…. I am a big fan of chocolate cake. One question in option of egg do I have to use any substitute or totally optional???

    • Hi There !
      Thanks for stopping by and giving my recipe a look. I have been make eggless cakes all my life and this was the first time i used an egg. To be frank, i have never really had any issues regarding sponginess or moist in the cake with the eggless method. You can totally opt out the egg in this recipe and just use 1/3 cup more Milk in the batter – Should be absolutely fine ! Let me know how the recipe turns out for u 🙂

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  5. Hey I tried this cake last time but it didn’t rise . What could have been the reason ? Not beating the batter enough ? Less of baking powder ? I have the kitchen aid electric mixer .. Not the stand one . Going to try with that .. Any tips will be helpful ..can I try self raising flour ? If yes would I have to eliminate baking soda and powder all together ? Would be really nice if you could guide me on this . Planning to make one for my husband’s birthday tomorrow.

    • Hi Sneha. I am sorry to hear that your cake did not rise well. Though i am not able to really figure out the reason for this, let me try figure it out. Maybe the baking powder was not enough. I never beat the batter as that would actually kill the air from the batter. Did you use eggs in the recipe? You can try using self raising flour but i would still use baking soda with it. Self raising flours usually have baking powder in it.

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