This Chocolate Gingerbread Cake puts a tasty twist on the holiday classic. Rich chocolate spice cake with a dark chocolate ganache.
Ingredients
Chocolate Ganache Frosting – Original:
- 20 oz good quality dark chocolate chopped (not baker chocolate)
- Heavy whipping cream, 2 cups
- Unsalted Butter, 3/4 cup
Chocolate Ganache Frosting – Alternate:
- 20 oz good quality dark chocolate chopped (not bakers chocolate)
- Heavy whipping Cream: 1 1/2 cups
- Half a cup of unsalted Butter
Chocolate Gingerbread Cake:
- All-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- Half cup light Brown Sugar packaged
- 34 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder sieved
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp ground ginger
- Ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp
- Ground cloves
- Half a teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup buttermilk at room temperature
- 1/4 cup hot water
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 Tbsp fancy molasses
Instrucciones
Chocolate Ganache Frosting:
- Chop the chocolate and place it in a large, heat-resistant bowl.
- Combine heavy whipping cream with Butter in a medium saucepan. Stirring often, cook over medium heat until the mixture just begins to simmer.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and pour hot cream on top of chopped chocolate. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Stir gently using a spatula, until the mixture is completely smooth.
- Wrap plastic directly over the chocolate ganache. Overnight, allow the ganache to set and thicken. *
Chocolate Gingerbread Cake:
- Grease three 6″ round baking pans, and dust them with cocoa powder. Line the bottoms of baking pans with parchment.
- All dry ingredients should be placed in the bowl of an electric stand mixer with paddle attachment. Mix well.
- Pour the water slowly into a medium-sized bowl to avoid cooking the eggs.
- Mix ingredients on medium for 2 to 3 minutes. The batter will be thin.
- Pour evenly into pans. I used a scale in the kitchen to make sure that the batter was evenly distributed.
- Bake until the tester is mostly clean. Total 30-35 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, turn the pans out onto a rack and let them cool down completely.
Assembly:
- Each layer of the cake should be cut in half.
- Place the first layer of cake onto a cake plate or serving dish. Add about 1/2 cup of ganache on top. Repeat the process with all remaining layers. Frost and smooth out the exterior with a thin crumb coating. Let it chill for 20 minutes or more until the mixture is firm. **
- Frost the cake with any remaining ganache. The ganache will begin to set on the chilled cake.
- Use a decorating tool (I used the bottom of one here), to decorate the top and sides of the cake. It will give the cake a rustic appearance if you run it over it a few time.
- If desired, decorate the top of the cake with pomegranate and thyme seeds.