I should probably call this Choco-Nut Mocha Ganache Cake with Chocolate curls! Yeah..its got that much stuff in there. If you are a chocolate lover..you have to, I mean you really have to try this cake!
Confession though..I did not make this for Valentines day but I made this for a party last week and we were celebrating our friend's birthday and I made this cake for that joyous occasion! But, I thought this would be a great post for Valentines day!
The original recipe is from the Hershey's website and can be found here. This is a recipe for an European Mocha Fudge cake. I used the base recipe and kind of added to that to make it more chocolatey! Yeah..we all love Chocolate that much! Just in case they ever remove the recipe from their site, I've provided the recipe at the bottom of the post.
This is going to be one long post! I just counted and the post has 36 pictures - so please bear with me!
Get all your ducks in a row - or all your ingredients on the table.
Melt 2 1/2 sticks of Butter in a pan till no more big lumps are found.
Add 3/4 cups of cocoa powder. I thought this was too much but the cake tasted awesome. The original recipe calls for Special Dark cocoa powder - but I used the regular Hershey's cocoa powder. And still loved the cake. If you don't want it to be too chocolatey, reduce this to maybe 1/2 cup of so.
Stir the cocoa powder well until its nice and smooth.
In a mixing bowl, beat 4 eggs, adding one at a time to a nice fluffy mix. Add 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp vanilla extract to the eggs. Beat well.
Add 2 cups of sugar to the egg mixture and beat well till fluffy.
Now, pour the butter and cocoa mixture to the eggs mixture. Beat together to combine well.
Now, add 1 cup of All purpose flour and fold the mixture in gently.
Fold in to combine well. Add 1 cup of chopped nuts to the batter. The recipe calls for pecans - but I added both Pecans and Almonds. Chop up nuts into small pieces using a food processor and then add that to the batter.
Pour the batter into 2 9-inch baking pans. I had a few foil pans and used 2 of those.
Bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 20 - 25 mins until center passes the toothpick test.
Remove from the pan and let the cake cool on a rack. Here's how it looks as soon as its out of the oven.
Now, let's make the mocha filling. This is simple filling - just 3 ingredients. Heavy whipping cream, Brown sugar and instant coffee.
Mix together 1 1/2 cups of cold whipping cream, 1/3 cups of packed brown sugar and 2 tsps of powdered instant coffee crystals.
Beat well at high speeds.
Beat well until stiff peaks are formed.
Keep one layer of cake on a cake stand. Put thin strips of wax paper under the cake on all sides. Now, coat the cake with the mocha filling. Coat the sides too with a nice layer of the filling.
Add the second layer of cake on top.
Top off with another layer of mocha and cover all sides too with the filling.
So, that's how the cake will look now. See all the mess on the sides - that's why we add those thin strips of wax paper. There will be some more mess at the bottom and you will be thankful for the wax paper!
Now, we can make a ganache to top the cake. You can skip this step - this is anyway going to be covered. The reason I did this is that when the cake is cold, this ganache becomes a little solid and gives a nice bite to the cake.
To make the ganache, take about 1 cup of semi-sweet milk chocolate chips in a bowl.
Add 1 cup of whipping cream to a pan and bring to a rolling boil.
Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and let it sit for a min.
Then, take a whisk and mix well until all the chocolate is dissolved.
You don't really need this for this cake as the ganache is going to be covered with chocolate curls. But, adding one tsp of corn syrup to the ganache gives it a very beautiful sheen and glow.
Look at that glow - can you see it?
Now, add the ganache on top of the cake. Before you do this, make sure that you keep a big plate or tray to collect all the extra dripping ganache. You sure don't want a big mess on the counter.
See the mess? And now are you thankful for that wax paper? Top off the ganache with chocolate curls. You could just use a regular bar of Hershey's chocolate to make the curls. I was initially going to put chocolate curls only on top of the cake. But, at the last minute, I went ahead and put it on the sides too.
Here's the cake covered with the curls!
When you're all done, take out those wax paper strips from the side to reveal a beautiful not -so-messy-now cake!
I added a big strawberry in the middle to add some color to the cake.
And then I cut small srips of strawberries for the sides just to make it look a little more prettier.
And there it is people - the super chocolatey Chocolate Mocha cake!
Here's how it looked after our little celebration!
Just another close up obssession shot!
Make a cake and celebrate with your friends and family!
Enjoy. Peace out!
Here is the original recipe for the cake from the Hershey's website. This is copied and pasted from here.
Ingredients:
- 1-1/4 cups (2-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
- 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup finely chopped pecans
- CREAMY COFFEE FILLING (recipe follows)
- Chocolate curls (optional)
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Butter bottom and sides of two 9-inch round baking pans. Line bottoms with wax paper; butter paper. 2. Melt butter in small saucepan; remove from heat. Add cocoa, stirring until blended; cool slightly. Beat eggs in large bowl until foamy; add salt and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Add cooled chocolate mixture; blend thoroughly. Fold in flour. Stir in pecans. Pour mixture into prepared pans.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Do not overbake. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Carefully peel off paper. Cool completely. Spread CREAMY COFFEE FILLING between layers, over top and sides of cake. Garnish with chocolate curls, if desired. Refrigerate 1 hour or longer before serving. 10 to 12 servings.
CREAMY COFFEE FILLING
1-1/2 cups cold whipping cream
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee
Combine all ingredients; stir until instant coffee is almost dissolved. Beat until stiff. About 3 cups filling.
MAKE AHEAD DIRECTIONS: Cooled cake may be wrapped and frozen up to 4 weeks; thaw, wrapped, before filling and frosting.
