{Recipe} Eggless Chocolate Cake + Coffee Cream filling & Ganache Topping

Two events last weekend led to this delicious, melt-in-your-mouth, moist and dark-as-sin chocolate cake. One, I got a new oven – bigger than my old one and two, my neighbor who is leaving for the US decided to give me all her unused caking ingredients. So I decided to bake a cake and share it with her as a part-farewell, part-thankyou gesture.

Since she is vegetarian, it had to be an eggless cake. Also Shashi (the co-founder of this blog), who is always my ‘bakexpert’ said, “Your first bake should be sweet as you are inaugurating the new oven”. I agreed, and she recommended Hyderabad-based Poonam Maria’s (Zoe’s Bakehouse) Eggless Chocolate Cake. I decided to try it, and made a few changes.

The tweaked recipe is shared below.

{Recipe} Eggless Chocolate Cake + Coffee Cream filling & Ganache Topping

Get the Printable Recipe here

This recipe is for two 8″ layers. You will need to divide the batter between two 8″ cake pans. If you want to make one big cake without a filling, then go ahead and bake in a big-sized pan. Whatever pan you use, remember that your batter should never fill the pan to the top. Three-fourth full is ideal.

Ingredients – cake:

1. 3 cups FLOUR
2. 2 cup sugar minus 2 tbsp SUGAR
3. 2/3 cup UNSWEETENED COCOA POWDER
4. 2 teaspoons BAKING SODA
5. 1 teaspoon SALT
6. 2 and a 1/2 cups HOT WATER in which you have mixed in 2 sachets (1g) of INSTANT COFFEE
7. 2/3 cup VEGETABLE OIL
8. 2 tbsp VINEGAR
9. 2 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT

Prep:

1. Preheat your oven at 170 deg C.
2. Line both your 8″ pans and grease.
3. Keep your ingredients measured and ready.

Method – cake:

Cling-wrapping the finished cake

1. Sift all the dry ingredients together.
2. Gently mix the wet ingredients together.
3. Go back to your bowl containing your dry ingredients. Make a small well in the middle of the mix, and pour in the wet ingredients gently in batches. Use a spatula* or a whisk to incorporate the wet ingredients until just combined. *Please do not use an electric beater, as over-beating can spoil this cake.
4. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Once done, let the cakes cool down completely.
6. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for a few hours.

Ingredients – Coffee cream:

The coffee cream adds a nice contrast to the dark color of chocolate

1. 3/4 cup WHIPPING CREAM (I used non-dairy)
2. 1 tbsp SUGAR
3. 1 g sachet INSTANT COFFEE
4. 2 drops RUM ESSENCE
5. 2 drops VANILLA ESSENCE

Method – coffee cream:

1. Dissolve the instant coffee in the 2 essences and keep aside
2. Combine sugar and whipping cream and beat well until you get soft peaks (I used my regular mixer jar with whip attachment to whip the cream, with excellent results)
3. Gently fold in the coffee mixture into the whipped cream.
4. This mixture needs to be used immediately.
5. Unwrap your cakes, and take one 8″ cake. Place it on your cake board and generously slather the coffee cream. Place the second 8″ cake on top of it.
6. Then carefully cover the top and the sides of the sandwiched cake with a thin layer of the remaining coffee cream. Try and make it as smooth as possible.
7. Keep it in the refrigerator to set a bit (at least 1/2 hour). When 10 minutes are up, prepare your ganache.

Ingredients – Ganache

1. 300 g or about 2 and 1/2 cups BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE, cut into small pieces
2. 1 cup WHIPPED CREAM
3. 2 tbsp BUTTER (pref. unsalted)
4. 1 tbsp RUM ESSENCE (or the real thing)

Method – Ganache:

1. Place the chopped chocolate in a heat-resistant bowl.
2. Gently bring the cream+butter to a simmer.
3. The pour over the cut chocolate, and allow to stand for 2 minutes.
4. Then stir it very gently so as not to incorporate air into the ganache. You however need to make sure that there are no pieces of chocolate left at the bottom. Stir until smooth.
5. Then add the rum essence and stir again to incorporate. Cool slightly, then keep in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to thicken slightly
6. Bring out your cake and ganache from the refrigerator.
7. Concentrating on the middle top of the cake, pour the ganache slowly until it spreads all over the cake and dribbles down the sides. If required, use a knife to smooth it down.
8. Keep your cake in the refrigerator for another 1/2 hour until the ganache sets. My kids couldn’t wait to eat it, so we skipped this last step! The pics will show you an eggless choco cake with ganache that hasn’t set! 🙂
9. While I am not a big fan of eggless cakes, this one was different. Moist and spongy at the same time, you just couldn’t believe it was eggless!

Also featured in this post is beautiful Pakistani crochet work – I recently acquired meters and meters of this 🙂 and part of a gorgeous KilnCraft tea service.