Death by chocolate

I was asked to bake for a little boy’s first birthday and so figured I should probably try and make something a wee bit special. A small slice of this cake will go a very long way and will easily do for 10 people. It’s a bit time consuming, maybe 3 hours all in all when you allow for the cooling but it really is worth it.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2 x 200 g of sugar – 2 x 200 g of good dark chocolate – 2 x 200 g of butter – 2 x pinch of salt 8 large eggs – 2 x 1 tbsp of flour – alcohol to taste (I like a good splash of Galliano) – 1 jar of peanut butter (smooth is best I think).

For the ganache:

250 cl double cream – 1 tbsp of sugar – 1 tbsp of butter – 200 g of good dark chocolate.

Method: 

Pre-heat your oven to 180 C.

Melt 200 g of butter in a bowl placed over boiling water. Once the butter is melted remove and place a bowl with the 200 g of dark chocolate in chunks over the boiling water. While the chocolate is melting, in the first bowl, add the sugar, salt and flour to the melted butter. Beat until smooth. Add the 4 eggs and incorporate them.

Once the chocolate is melted, incorporate into the batter and place in the greased baking tray.

Place in the oven for about 30 min. Test with a knife and when the blade comes out semi clean, turn the oven off and take the cake out. Place cake on a tray to cool down for about 30 min.

Once the cake is cool enough (30 to 45 min), spread about half a jar of peanut butter on top. Best done very delicately as the cake is fragile. Use a large flat knife if you can.

Start making the 2nd cake. It’s the same as the first one. While the cake is baking make the ganache. In a small pot put the cream, the butter and sugar and heat to the boil. Remove from the heat and add the 200 g of chocolate in small chunks. Let it rest for 2/3 minutes before whisking gently. Keep stirring until you have a smooth and glossy texture.

Once the second cake is cooked and cooled down, place it on top of the first one.

Once the ganache has thickened and cooled down starts spooning it on the top of the cake. Use a spatula to bring the drips back onto the side. This takes a fair bit of time but will work out in the end.

I made 3 of those cakes today. One of them was minus the peanut butter for people with allergies and so I just replaced it  with a layer of ganache! Easy peasy.