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.

Coffee and walnut mousse

I have to begin with admitting that this recipe is borrowed from a very dear friend and full credit goes to her for its taste and simplicity. This is a very versatile recipe, and you can replace the coffee in the mousse with any other flavouring. Use fresh mangoes, strawberries or even melted dark chocolate instead of the coffee.

I used Columbian coffee for the flavouring but you can use any instant coffee with a strong and aromatic flavour. My version of the mousse leaves a mild bitter aftertaste in your mouth (which gives it its charm!), so add sugar as per your preferred degree of sweetness.



Serves: 12 (shot glasses)
Prep time: 15 min
Cooking time: 40 min

Ingredients
Mousse base
100g Chocolate cream biscuits
1tbsp unsalted butter

Filling
4 tbsp Custard powder (vanilla flavour)
500ml Full cream milk
150ml Double cream
1 tsp Coffee essence/coffee powder dissolved in 2tbsp milk
1 tbsp unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
2tbsp walnuts roughly chopped
12 choco sticks for garnish

Method
Pulse the chocolate cream biscuits in a blender with 1 tbsp unsalted butter to form a fine rubble. Spoon this soft rubble into the shot glasses, pressing down with an inverted thin-necked bottle to get a smooth top surface. Refrigerate the shot glasses till you make your filling.

In a bowl, add custard powder and 25% of the milk. Whisk till you get a smooth mixture without any lumps. Place the remainder of the milk in a thick-bottomed non-stick saucepan and bring to a boil. On a reduced flame, add the custard mix slowly to the boiling milk, stirring continuously for 3-4 min. Set aside and allow the custard to cool.

To the cooled custard, add the double cream, coffee powder, 1 tbsp unsalted butted, and caster sugar. Transfer this final mixture into a blender and pulse till the mixture attains a smooth consistency.

Pull out the chilled shot glasses from the refrigerator and spoon the final mousse into these glasses. Garnish with chopped walnuts and choco sticks. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours allowing the mousse to set completely. Serve cold.

Bench notes before you begin

• Your final mousse mix should be thick, with a spooning and not a pouring consistency.
• If your final mousse mix is too runny, feel free to make some more thick custard and add to the mixture.
• DO NOT chill the mousse in a deep freeze. This spoils the consistency of the mousse.
• If you plan to use dark chocolate in the recipe instead of the coffee, place the dark chocolate into a heat-proof bowl. Create a double boiler by placing the bowl of chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water (approximately 3-4cms deep). Slowly melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until the chocolate is silky smooth. Set aside to cool. If the chocolate is too thick and burning on the sides add 2-3tbsp of water to the chocolate while melting.