Chocolate, Coffee & Hazelnut Cake

This week I had a visit to Megan’s in the diary so I got to break out the Kitchen Aid again to bake a cake, I think I was starting to have baking withdrawal DT’s. I chose this cake which was more of a torte really, I just love a rich dark chocolatey cake & the hazelnuts make a nice change from almond meal or flour for that matter. Megan had a nice bowl of strawberries & blueberries which worked really well served alongside with the cream too.

Chocolate, Coffee & Hazelnut Cake

200g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
150g unsalted butter, chopped
2/3 (150g) caster sugar
1 tablespoon whisky
1 tablespoon strong black coffee
5 eggs, separated
¾ cup (100g) ground hazelnuts
cocoa, to dust
thick cream, to serve

Preheat oven to 180c. Grease & line the base of a 20cm springform pan.

Place chocolate, butter, sugar, whisky and coffee in a heatproof bowl. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water on low heat. Stir for 4-5 minutes, until chocolate melts & mixture is smooth. Remove from heat.

Whisk in egg yolks, one at a time, until smooth. Fold through ground hazelnuts. Using an electric beater, beat eggwhites until firm peaks form. Stir 2 tablespoons of eggwhites into chocolate mixture. Gently fold in remaining egg whites.

Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes, until firm. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with cocoa & serve with thick cream,

Chocolate Espresso Cake with Caffe Latte Cream

This is the elegant after dinner cake that I made for my Dad for Fathers Day last weekend. It is another Nigella recipe from her Chocolate Cake Hall of fame in Feast. Calling it an after dinner cake is just my thing as the intense coffee flavour seems to suit the late night piece of cake with coffee or even a nice Muscat more than say an afternoon nibble but I’m sure it would be delicious at any time of day. My cake came out really well, for some reason after I poured over the liqueur & let it cool, the top went crisp & didn’t sink at all. I could have eaten a lot of this but for once showed restraint & only had one piece then left the rest a t my mums so temptation was not in my path. I have a holiday to Noosa coming up in 2 months & have been very slack about getting rid of the baby belly, in Winter it hardly seems worth the effort. So now, I’m not going so far as to diet but I am baking less (trying anyway) & only making for visits to other people so I at least only end up eating a bit (and bowl licking of course which is my downfall) but I just cant bring myself to cut out baking altogether. Hopefully my daily walks in the gorgeous spring weather will help & I wont have to intensify my modified eating plan just yet.

Chocolate Espresso Cake with Caffe Latte Cream

Cake
150g dark chocolate, chopped
150g butter
6 eggs
250g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
75g plain flour
5 teaspoons instant espresso powder
4 tablespoons Tia Maria or other coffee liqueur

Caffe Latte Cream
75g white chocolate, broken into small pieces
375ml double cream
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder

Take anything you need out of the fridge to bring to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 180c. Butter & line a 23cm springform tin. Melt the chocolate & butter & set aside to cool slightly. Beat the eggs, sugar & vanilla together until thick, pale & moussey. They should have at least doubled in volume, even tripled. Gently fold in the flour & espresso powder & finally add the chocolate & butter mixture, folding gently again. Pour into the tin & bake for 35-40 minutes until the top of the cake is firm. Immediately pour over the liqueur & then cool completely on a rack in the tin before releasing from the tin.

For the cream, melt the white chocolate & let it cool. Fold in the cream & espresso powder, whipping together to thicken a little. Dust the cake with cocoa & serve with the cream alongside.