I made this Coffee Chocolate Fudge Cake with Ganache Frosting for a birthday card photo shooting about 2 weeks ago and realized that this is the first time I am posting a chocolate layer cake on my blog. How can that be?! So I figured it’s way overdue. This chocolate fudge cake is made with a whole cup of coffee which makes it extra moist and and adds a lot of flavor. Coffee and Chocolate is such a classic and one of my favorite flavor combos. Although the recipe calls for coffee, I actually used cold brew. And as if the cake itself is not rich and chocolate-y enough, it is frosted with chocolate ganache made of 70% dark chocolate, butter and cream. Do I need to say more? Chocolate heaven.
And if you’re like me and can’t get enough chocolate (ever), or feel like you just want to lick the ganache off the cake, yes, I feel you. In that case, you might like this Triple Layer Chocolate Marzipan Cake with Ganache Frosting I made a while back. It is one of my all-time favorite cakes, a family recipe from my aunt.
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2.5 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoons baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 3 large eggs
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup coffee or cold brew
- 20 oz dark chocolate (70%)
- 2 sticks butter
- ½ cup half and half (or cream)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- Preheat the oven to 325F and line three 5-inch or 6-inch round cake pans with rounds of parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk the sugar with the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a small bowl, whisk the buttermilk with the eggs and vanilla.
- Melt the butter in the coffee over medium heat on the stove.
- Using an electric mixer, beat half of the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients at low speed. Beat in half of the coffee mixture, then scrape down the bowl. Beat in the remaining buttermilk and coffee mixtures.
- Pour the batter evenly between the prepared pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until the cakes are springy to the touch. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto a rack to cool completely. Peel off the parchment paper.
- Put the chocolate in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream and corn syrup to a boil. Immediately pour over the chocolate and let stand in a warm place for 5 minutes. Gently whisk the ganache until smooth. Whisk in the butter until incorporated. Refrigerate, stirring frequently, until the ganache is thick enough to spread, about 30 minutes.
- Place the chocolate, butter and cream (or half and half) in the heat-proof bowl of your electric mixer and warm over a water bath. You an also carefully heat it in the microwave.
- Once it is all melted, stir in the powdered sugar.
- Let the ganache cool at room temperature over night or for about 2 hours in the fridge until it has the consistency of Nutella. If it gets too hard, place it in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time to carefully warm it up.
- Place the bowl in your electric mixer and whip the ganache for about 30 seconds. You can whip it longer and it will get fluffier but also lighter in color.
- Cut the tops off your cakes and layer and frost you cake.
Yes! You are right. Nobody can get enough of chocolate. Just want to eat the whole cake because it looks so Lip- Smacking and delicious. Who wants to miss the tower of chocolate, probably a fool only. Flavor of coffee is definitely adding up this cake on my top priority of making it for my lovely husband. Everything is so perfect. Thank You for sharing
Step 3 says “whisk the buttermilk with the eggs and vanilla.” Vanilla is not listed in the ingredients. Also, step 7 seems to explain how to make some other ganache. Can you please update the ingredients and the instructions?
Went ahead and made this with no vanilla and just ignored step 7. Everything turned out great! Thank you!
I tried making this for my friend’s birthday and the batter was at too runny.
Good cake but Gale Gand’s sour cream chocolate cake made with Peet’s Dutch cocoa & Peet’s dark coffee is better. Also a very runny batter & you need a 6 quart mixer to make it with a mouth-watering result. Recipe can be divided in half and the cake is SO good that I only sift a bare coating of powdered sugar on top and serve it. Everyone raves over it! Let me know if you’d like to try it. It’s to die for!!