If you love chocolate. This cake is for you.
I made this cake last week to celebrate a friends birthday – she obviously loves chocolate too!
When you really need a chocolate fix – look no further! Instead of your typical buttercream or cream cheese based frosting (don’t get me wrong, I love those versions too!) try a ganache frosting. This frosting is rich, decadent, and complete ‘fudgy’ (can’t believe thats not a real word) goodness!
Ganache is simply cream, and chocolate married to each other with butter.
I heated up about 2 cups of heavy cream and 1 stick of butter (I used salted since I didn’t have unsalted on hand) until almost simmering. Then I poured the hot cream and butter over TWO packages of 16oz packages of chocolate chips and let sit a minute for the heat to do its thing. Then stir until all the chocolate is melted and beautifully velvety.
You can let this cool a bit and pour it as a glaze.
Or cool longer until the chocolate starts to set up and keep its shape. Then whip it until it because a frosting but be careful here. If your trying to achieve a perfectly smooth frosted cake – you’ll need to work quickly since as the frosting sits it’ll become more stiff. Likewise, if your chocolate isn’t set up enough, then it’ll ‘melt’ off your cake.
*You can use whatever chocolate you like. Just remember the better the quality, the better the taste. For the cake above I used one package of milk chocolate chips and one package of semi-sweet chips.
**You can also add a tsp or 2 of expresso powder to help intensify the chocolate flavor. Add this to the chips before mixing in with the hot cream.
