Hola! Hope you all are doing well and had fantastic holidays! Here’s some indulgence for you people, a very easy to make dark chocolate and walnut cake. Least time-consuming and hassle-free.
I made this for my munchkin’s 6th month birthday and although he cannot eat all this yet but my better half and I relished every bite 🙂 🙂
Preparation Time 15-20 minutes
Baking Time 30-35 minutes
Makes 1 Dark Chocolate and Walnut Sandwich Cake
Main Ingredients Plain Flour (Maida), Cocoa Powder, Walnuts & Chocolate Chips
Main Equipment Oven
Course Dessert
Level Of Cooking Easy
Ingredients
- Self-raising Flour or Plain Flour (Maida) 1 cup
- Cocoa Powder 1/2 cup
- Walnuts (broken) 1/4 cup
- Unsalted Butter 1/2 cup
- White Granulated Sugar 1 cup
- Egg 2 (at room temperature)
- Baking Soda 1/2 tablespoon
- Baking Powder 1/2 teaspoon
- Salt a pinch
- Coffee Powder 1/2 tablespoon
- Vanilla Essence 1/2 teaspoon
- Milk 1/4 cup
- Water 1/4 cup
- Ferrero Rochers 6-7 pieces (for decoration)
- Dark Chocolate Chips (lightly sweetened) 1/2 cup
- Fresh Cream 1/2 cup
Method
Step 1
Line a round baking tray with baking/parchment paper and set aside.
Step 2
For frosting, In a saucepan take the cream and heat for 2-3 minutes (don’t boil). Close the flames. Now add dark chocolate chips to this cream in the saucepan. Leave for 2 minutes, then whisk well to make the mixture dark and creamy. Set aside for 45 mins. to 1 hour.
Step 3
For coffee mixture (used while making the cake batter), Heat milk, water and coffee in a saucepan for 2-3 minutes. Keep aside to cool slightly.
Step 4
For the cake, In the large bowl of your electric/hand mixer, add the butter and sugar and blend well. Now add the eggs and vanilla essence and blend until well combined (1-2 minutes). Mix flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda together. Now add half of the coffee mixture. Blend well to a batter. Add the rest of the coffee mixture, walnuts and blend well. (Use your spatula at intervals to gather the flour/batter sticking on the sides of your bowl) Whisk until well incorporated.
Step 5
Preheat the oven. Drop the batter in the round baking tray. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 30-35 minutes. (Test by inserting a toothpick in the middle of the cake to check doneness – if the toothpick comes out clean then the cake is ready, if not bake for another 5-7 mins.)
Step 6
Bring the cake out. Let it rest on the tray for 10-15 minutes. Transfer the cake to a wire rack and let it stay for 15-20 minutes.
Step 7
You can either frost the entire cake from top as well as sides OR make it a sandwich cake by cutting the cake carefully horizontally (as shown in the above photo) and then evenly spreading the dark chocolate frosting in between the two portions of the cake. When ready to frost, put the frosting on the top, then starting from center and going towards the ends of the circle. For the sandwich cake, put the second portion of the cake on top (level it from all sides). Frost this one too the same way as first. Then cover the sides of the cake too with the remaining frosting. You can now decorate the cake with colourful sprinklers, m&m’s, etc. I decorated it with halved ferrero rochers.
The combination of dark chocolate, walnuts and ferrero rochers turned divine.
Hope you guys enjoy baking it! 🙂 🙂
Happy New Year!
Anugya
Anugya Sudan 
