Espresso vanilla layered cake with chocoloate ganache icing

This is a simple adaptation of the all purpose pound cake (which simply means that you use equal quantities of sugar, butter, flour and eggs; each egg is considered equivalent to 50g). I have flavoured the pound cake with espresso and fresh vanilla, but feel free to make any combination you like. The chocolate ganache icing is really rich and makes the whole dessert go from mundane to amusing. I know I say this for every recipe I post, but honestly this one is a no-brainer. An easy recipe for those starting on the baking journey with little chances of going wrong. And yet, it looks fancy and tastes exotic!

The brown sugar in the recipe is not a must, but considering that this is an espresso cake, the brown sugar caramelizes beautifully giving it a lovely coffee brown colour. Like mentioned, I used fresh vanilla straight out of the vanilla bean, and if you try this once you wouldn’t want to go back to using that essence again. But again, you can tweak every recipe to suit your pantry (and your imagination).

Prep time: 20min

Cooking time: 1hr

Serves: 6-8 people

Ingredients

For the espresso cake

Instant coffee 4-5 tbsp (Use a dense flavoured coffee; I used Colombian)

½ cup warm milk

2 eggs, whisked

100g unsalted butter

100g brown sugar, powdered

100g plain all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ vanilla bean, scraped OR 1 tsp vanilla essence

For the icing

150g dark chocolate, cubed

100ml double cream, whisked to form soft peaks, kept at room temperature

For garnish

Fresh strawberries, sliced

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a non-stick cake tray with some unsalted butter. Keep aside.

Sift the flour with the baking powder. Add the vanilla essence/ fresh vanilla to the whisked eggs. Add the instant coffee to the warm milk and mix well. Keep aside.

Cream the butter and sugar in a huge bowl till soft and creamy. Now add the eggs and the flour alternatively, a little at a time, folding in gently. Add the coffee-milk mixture to the dough and fold in till evenly combined. Pour the dough into the cake tray and bake in a preheated oven for 30-40 min at 180°C (or until a strand of uncooked spaghetti inserted into the cake comes out clean).

Allow to cool on a wire rack for at least an hour. Now slice the cake into two layers with a cake knife. Keep the two layers side by side, ready for icing.

Melt dark chocolate in a double boiler till smooth and gooey. Combine the melted chocolate with the double cream and quickly pour half the icing over the top surface of the bottom layer of the cake. Now place the top later of the cake on the bottom layer and pour the remaining half of the icing on top of the cake. Garnish with fresh sliced strawberries and a dollop of double cream.