Emergency Chocolate Cake

I’m not a huge fan of making layered cakes. There, I said it. Too much hassle with baking individual layers or WORSE, having to cut the cake after baking in three equal, straight parts. I always fail that one.

It’s why I had to come up with a recipe for this emergency chocolate cake which would satisfy all my cravings with half the work of a regular chocolate cake.

You see, the secret is to have a sponge so fudgy and moist you won’t miss it being filled, while the chocolate ganache frosting just brings it over the top.

I baked this in a 17 cm tin which is SO cute, but you can easily double it if you’re feeding a larger crowd. If you don’t particularly care about aesthetics, you can also bake it in a square pan. It will be just as delicious, I promise!

Both the sponge and frosting are no fuss, easy peasy to put together, rely on pantry ingredients, and the only reason this whole cake takes about an hour or so to make is because it’s in the oven for 25 minutes and then it has to <sniff> cool before you can frost it.

All in all however, you can have a chocolate cake just for you (well, it does serve 4-6 technically) in the space of 2 hours TOPS and I think that’s beautiful.

While most of the ingredients are pretty easy to find in any pantry, you can replace the buttermilk with a bit of yoghurt thinned with milk if that’s what you have on hand.

I leave the decorating to you for this one. I felt like a few raspberries and mint leaves sufficed, but you could (and should!) use sprinkles, if you have them. I like to serve it with a bit of vanilla sweet cream on the side to elevate it but I can assure you, it is decadence personified as it is.

Make it for family, make it for friends, heck, make it just for yourself on a Saturday afternoon, after all, what do you think I did with this beauty once I finished taking pictures?!

EMERGENCY CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients (serves 4-6; 17cm diameter tin)

For the chocolate cake

• 110g flour

• 30g cocoa powder

• 175g sugar

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tesp salt

• 60g melted butter

• 1 large egg, at room temperature

• 90g full fat sour cream, at room temperature

• 60ml buttermilk, at room temperature

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste

• 60ml hot water or coffee

For the ganache frosting

• 200g dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa solids), finely chopped

• 100ml heavy cream

• pinch of salt

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

To decorate (optional)

• sprinkles

• raspberries

• sprigs of mint

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees C. Grease a 20 cm round pan (or a bread tin) and line with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.

Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or you can use a whisk) mix the oil, eggs, sour cream, buttermilk, and vanilla together until combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the hot water or coffee (decaf is fine!), and whisk or beat it all until the batter is completely combined.

Pour the batter in the prepared tin and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and set on a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.

For the ganache, combine the heavy cream, salt and vanilla extract in a medium saucepan. Set over medium heat.

In a bowl, place the chopped dark chocolate (if you’re making this for kids, you can replace the dark chocolate with milk, to make it sweeter).

When heavy cream is almost boiling - you will see steam coming out and tiny bubble form on the surface - pour it over the chopped chocolate and mix well until the chocolate melts. Set aside to cool (I don’t recommend using the fridge to speed up the process, as the ganache may set too hard).

Troubleshoot: if your ganache may split, a quick run with a hand blender will sort it right out and bring it back to its original glossy self.

When ready to assemble, remove the cake from the tin.

Spread a generous layer of chocolate ganache on top (and the sides, if you’d like). Decorate with sprinkles and/or raspberries, if you’d like.

Enjoy!