Coffee Cake With Chocolate Ganache Icing - Merry Xmas

I have been trying for last few months to bake a good cake, but in vain. I have been altogether scared of baking. Sometimes my cake would burn and sometimes it just wouldn't get cooked and be all wet. It was dampening my confidence too. However, after the recent success of Orange Muffins and Braided Bread, I decided to give the cake another shot. I wanted to start with a very easy and basic recipe considering my past record. So after lot of courage and prayers, I finally started to make a cake. I cant tell you how happy I felt when the knife came out all clear from the cake. I actually did a bit of the JIG. My daughter also joined in. Her happiness was more concentrated on eating the cake thou.

So here it goes.

Ingredients For Cake :
All Purpose Flour : 1 1/2 Cup
Egg : 1
Melted Butter : 1/2 Cup
Sugar : 1/2 Cup
Baking Powder : 1 1/2 tsp
Salt : 1/2 tsp
Milk : 1/4 Cup
Coffee : 4 tsp
Vanilla Extract : 1 tsp

Ingredients For the Ganache :
Cream : 200 grams
Dark Chocolate : 100 grams
Sugar : 1 tsp
Vanilla Extract : 1 tsp
Party Sprinkles : For Decor
Glitter Writing Icing : For Decor

Recipe For Cake :
Preheat oven to 170C for 15 minutes.

Take a large bowl. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in it. Sift from a height to give it an airing.

Take another bowl. Beat the egg in it lightly.

Take a cup and add the coffee powder. Add just 1 tsp of milk in it. Beat the coffee till no granules are left. Add the remaining milk and mix it well. Add this to the egg. Beat for another 10-15 seconds.

Add melted and cooled butter and the egg milk mix to the flour. Fold in the flour and cover from the edges as well. Cover all the flour and make a smooth mix.

Grease a cake tin or a cake dish mildly. Pour the batter in that dish.

Place it in the oven and cook for 30 minutes. Pork a knife or fork in the centre of cake and it should come out clean. If it doesn't, cook for another 5-10 minutes. But keep checking it often. The cake should be an even brown colour on top.

Remove the cake from the oven and cool it completely.



Recipe for Ganache :
Break the chocolate into pieces and place it in a heat resistant bowl. Add vanilla extract to it. Heat half the cream (100 ml) along with sugar till it just starts to boil. Don't boil it. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Stir it well till all the chocolate dissolves. Cool this ganache and refrigerate it for 15 minutes.

I forgot to click the pics of the ganache. As I mentioned above, I was busy doing the Jig.

Icing the Cake :
Whip the remaining cream(100 ml) with a whisk or fork. You have to whip it till its light and fluffy. Don't over whip.



Cut the cake horizontally. Now you have 2 cakes.



Place the plain cream on lower half of the cake. Spread it evenly all over the top of the half.




Keep the top half back on the creamed lower half.



Now take the ganache and spread it on the whole cake. Start with the top. Smooth it with a spatula. Now spread it over the sides and smooth that also with a spatula. Always smooth in in 1 direction only. Cover the whole cake with the ganache.

Decorate it with the sprinkles and glitter as per your choice.





Sending this as my entry to following events :

1) Chocolate Extravaganza by Ria from the Monthly Mingle by Meeta.

2) Cookies & Cakes for Xmas by Dr. Sameena