Deeply Chocolate Layer Cake

This is not a cake for those who are indifferent to chocolate. No, this is a cake for serious chocolate lovers; those with more delicate tastes may even decide to steer clear. But if you like intense chocolate flavours, then you're in for a treat.

The buttermilk and oil-based sponge is moist and fudgy with the added bonus of being easy to make and slice. The layers are sandwiched together with a mascarpone and nutella cream and then the whole thing is covered with a rich chocolate glaze. 

It works because it's all well-balanced - the sponge has sharpness from the buttermilk and sweetness from golden syrup, the filling is saved from being too sugary thanks to the hazelnuts, and the glaze, made with chocolate, water and a little butter, is dark and intense. I used 70% chocolate for this as I wanted some bitterness to counteract the sweetness of the filling but if you don't want such an intense taste, use dark chocolate with a lower cocoa content. The filling (equal quantities of nutella and mascarpone) sounds unlikely but is actually quite wonderful, the two ingredients working together to give an almost crème pâtissière consistency. If you're a nutella lover, be warned - the stuff is addictive and even those who don't much like nutella won't be able to resist.

This cake is my submission to Choclette’s We Should Cocoa challenge, which is being hosted this month by Maison Cupcake. The theme is layer cakes. And congratulations to Choclette who has just moved from Chocolate Log Blog to a fantastic new blog home, Tin and Thyme - I look forward to reading more of her posts about Cornish life and food. 

RECIPE

175g self raising flour 
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
140g caster sugar
2 eggs 
150ml sunflower oil 
150ml buttermilk
2 tablespoons golden syrup 

For the filling
150g mascarpone, room temperature
150g nutella, room temperature
a few drops vanilla extract

For the glaze:

250g dark chocolate

50g butter, cut into cubes

125ml water

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C

Grease and base line a round cake tin, 20cm diameter

Sieve together the flour, bicarb and cocoa into a large bowl (or the bowl of your mixer). Add the sugar and mix. Add the oil, buttermilk, syrup and eggs and beat until smooth. 

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, smoothing the top.

Put in the oven and bake for about 35-40 mins or until the cake is cooked and a cake tester comes out clean. 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for about 20 mins before carefully turning out and leaving to cool on a wire rack. 

While the cakes are cooking and cooling, you can make the filling and glaze. 

For the filling:

Just put the mascarpone, nutella and vanilla extract into a bowl and whisk until smooth. Just make sure the ingredients aren't too cold otherwise they won't mix well. 

For the glaze:

Chop the chocolate and melt gently in the water until smooth, then beat in the butter. Cool until the icing is thick and spreadable.

When the cake is completely cold, cut carefully into three layers. Sandwich the layers together with the mascarpone and nutella cream, right up to the edges. Move to a wire rack and pour/spread with the chocolate glaze, covering top and sides completely. 

Leave to set.

Hazelnut and Chocolate Shortbread Biscuits

I'm quite a romantic person - I love walking hand in hand along the beach on a balmy, moonlit evening; I nearly always light candles for the dinner table; roses and chocolates are, without fail, enthusiastically received and I'm always pathetically happy when Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy finally get together in the end.

Despite all this however, Valentine's day just doesn't really do it for me. I think it's a combination of the aggressive commercialisation coupled with the forced romance of the day itself. Surely, true romance is a spontaneous thing. I certainly know that when I think of romantic moments in my life, it's the unexpected gestures that come to mind - GL battling through snowdrifts and thorny bushes just to rescue my ski glove that had fallen from the chair lift we had been on (he came back bloodied and bruised but holding the glove triumphantly aloft); getting back from work and finding my room filled with hundreds of daffodils; GL carrying a big, old, heavy television up six flights of stairs (no lift) so that I had something to watch when I was ill.

That said, I don't hate the day and I have to admit to having a weakness for heart-shaped biscuits and chocolates. These ones are chocolatey, light and crisp, with a hint of hazelnut in the background. I had intended to sandwich them with nutella but actually, they are perfect just as they are.


There are several challenges this month that I'm sending this over to.



These definitely fit into the general love theme for February, so I'm sending this off to Dolly Bakes  (this month's host) and LauraLovesCakes for her Calendar Cakes - Oh L'amour.










The theme for this month's Tea Time Treats is chocolate; the challenge is hosted by Karen (this month's host) at Lavender and Lovage and Janie at The Hedgecombers.







I am also submitting these to Lets Cook Sweet Treats for Valentine with Nayna over at Simply Food.

As GL was the main lucky recipient of these, I am also entering it into the Four Seasons Food challenge with Anneli Delicieux (this month's host) and Louisa at Eat Your Veg. The theme this month is Food From The Heart.
                                           

RECIPE

35g blanched hazelnuts

165g butter, room temperature (I use salted but you can use unsalted if you prefer)

110g caster sugar

180g plain flour

20g cocoa

half teaspoon of vanilla extract

Pre-heat the oven to 170°C

Place the hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 8 minutes (use the timer!) and allow to cool. Place the nuts in a food processor and pulse until finely ground.

Either by hand or in a mixer, mix the butter, sugar and vanilla until combined. Sift the flour and cocoa together and then add to the butter mixture. Finally add the ground hazelnuts and mix until the dough comes together. Shape into a rough disk, wrap in clingfilm and chill for about 30 minutes. 

Flour a work surface and roll the dough thinly. Cut out the biscuits with whatever cutter you prefer, then place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. 

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes (depending on the thickness of the biscuits) and then move to a wire rack to cool.

Mini Chocolate Cakes with Nutella Cream

Mini chocolate cakes with Nutella Cream

It is a truth universally acknowledged (sorry, but October is the time of my annual rereading of Pride and Prejudice) that everybody loves chocolate cake and these little, individual sized ones are impossible to resist. The cake part is a standard chocolate sponge but the thing that makes these a real winner is the nutella cream sandwiched in the middle. It looks and tastes like a chocolate crème patissière that you've been slaving away over for the best part of an hour but is actually whipped up in less than a minute and is nothing more than nutella mixed with mascarpone. I know it sounds odd but it really works and I speak as someone who is not a great fan of either - I mean, I eat both mascarpone and nutella when the occasion requires but I don't go wild over them (unlike several of my acquaintances).

I made the mini chocolate cakes by baking the mixture in two round 18 cm cake tins, then just cutting out circles with a scone cutter when the cake had cooled, slicing them in half and sandwiching with the cream. You could of course leave it as a normal sized cake, slicing each disc in half and then layering it all up with the nutella cream.

As this month's letter is 'N' in the brilliant Alphabakes challenge by Ros (this month's host) from TheMoreThanOccasionalBaker and Caroline at Caroline Makes, I'm sending this as my entry. I always enjoy seeing what everyone comes up with for this imaginative challenge!



RECIPE

For the cake

Weigh 3 eggs in their shells, then measure out the same weight of:

butter
caster sugar
self raising flour, minus 50g
50g cocoa powder

For the cream - this quantity makes enough for one layer of filling
150g mascarpone
100g nutella
a few drops vanilla extract

Two 18cm cake tins, greased and base lined with baking parchment.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C .

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well between each addition. Fold in the sifted flour and cocoa powder.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tins. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a cake-tester (be it a knitting needle, metal skewer or anything else you might use) comes out clean.

Leave in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning out on to a wire rack to cool.

While the cakes are cooking and cooling, you can make the cream. Just put the mascarpone into a bowl and whisk until smooth. Add the nutella and the vanilla extract and keep whisking until it's all mixed together.

When the cake is cool, use a cookie cutter to cut out rounds. Split them in half and sandwich with the nutella cream.

Before serving, dust with icing sugar.