Our Jackpot Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

We posted both at Instagram and Facebook this picture of the chocolate cake that we baked last night, and it made a lot of our friends crave for one!   For our first try, this is really a jackpot cake!  From the smooth and intense chocolate ganache to the moist and almost melt-in-the-mouth soft cake – everything was what we hoped for a classic chocolate cake.

This cake was actually AJ’s labor of love, with him doing 98% of the work, and me the remaining 2% (I basically just stirred the ganache until it reached our desired consistency, and added whatever chocolates I found in our ref).

The result was the best chocolate cake we’ve ever tasted  =)

Proof?  My mom ate 3 slices in one sitting!  Grabe!  And my dad, who’s very finicky when it comes to sweets, finished 1 whole slice!

Okay, before you think that we’re so takaw with sweets, let me tell you that what we baked was actually a mini-cake, using the 8-inch baking pan that we bought from the Landmark on the same day.  AJ had been wanting to bake a cake since we bought our convection oven some months ago, but it was only yesterday that we actually got into doing it.  AJ worked on the cake while I cooking this pork casserole dish for dinner, which turned out looking and tasting like a menudo with chorizo and mushrooms(!).

Anyway, I know you are all excited to know the recipe that we used so, without further ado, here are the secrets to making your own best tasting chocolate cake:

For the chocolate cake, we adopted this recipe, aptly called “The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe {Ever}” from add a pinch (dot) com.  However, instead of using expresso powder, we made use of Starbucks’ Via coffee packet in Italian Roast flavor.   For the cocoa powder, we used Goya Natural Cocoa Powder.

You might be wondering why we chose this particular recipe over the million others available in the internet.  The answer is in this picture from add a pinch:

Heavenly, isn’t it?  And that’s exactly how we want our chocolate cake to look like!

But but but… we don’t have confectioner’s sugar at home, which is needed for the chocolate frosting used in this recipe.  We found a very good substitute from our favorite dessert recipes portal, The Joy of Baking.  This no-frills, no-stand mixer required recipe calls for 3 ingredients only:  semi-sweet chocolates, heavy cream and butter.

For the semi-sweet chocolates, we used the dark chocolate bar that Juvvy gave us last April (which we were supposed to use to make these chocolate lollipops but totally forgot about it), and made more rich and chocolate-y with the following ingredients:

See?  I’m really addicted to Starbucks coffee hehe!  The Ritter Sport and Whittaker’s dark chocolate varieties have been sitting in our ref for months already, and now that they’ve been put into good use, I’d say that they were what made our dark chocolate ganache taste like it’s made of luxurious stuff.  No kidding there.  It was intense and heavenly sweet at the same time.  Perfect talaga.

You too can personalized your chocolate ganache by using your favorite chocolates.  You can also customize the chocolates depending on the mood or memories that you want to re-create.  For example, if you want to celebrate your birthday with this cake, you can perhaps make use of your favorite chocolates from childhood (think Goya, Curly Tops, etc.).  That is sure to make you forget that you’re growing a year older hehe!   You can also bake and enjoy this in your next date with the hubby or your honey, using a ganache that is filled with both your favorite chocolates (I will try and use my favorite chocolates next time!)

Ready to make your own chocolate cake or try a new chocolate cake recipe?  Enjoy this amazing fusion recipes, and I look forward to seeing your yummy creations!