This week I am going to taking a little break. But before I go, here’s a look at the chocolate cake I made for my husband’s birthday. I asked him if he wanted a layered cake; or perhaps something with raspberries or some other berry. But he said, “I just want chocolate.”

So here it is. I’ll be back later this week with an exciting post!

I didn’t have any good quality cream on hand so I made the chocolate ganache without cream, using a combination of milk and butter.

NUTTY CHOCOLATE GANACHE CAKE

The Cake

INGREDIENTS

• 100 g butter
• 200 g castor sugar
• 2 eggs
• 100 g flour + a little more to dust the nuts
• 25 g cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 50 g finely chopped nuts (I used a combination of walnuts and almonds)

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 C
• Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder in a bowl and set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and pale in colour.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking well after each one is added.
• Next, add the flour mixture and the milk, alternately, starting and ending with flour, and whisking well after each addition. It should be flour-milk-flour-milk-flour.
• Dust the nuts with some flour and fold into the batter.
• Pour into a 9-inch round tin and bake at 180C for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Allow cake to cool completely before taking out of the tin and icing it.

The Ganache, Without Cream

I found this recipe on nigella.com and it’s pretty awesome; yielding a glossy, creamy, rich ganache.

INGREDIENTS

• 25 g butter
• 60 ml milk
• 100 g semi sweet chocolate

METHOD

• Place the chocolate pieces/chips in a heatproof bowl.
• In a saucepan, heat the milk and butter till the butter melts into the milk.
• Pour this hot liquid over the chocolate chips and let stand for 2-3 minutes, preferably covered.
• Slowly work your whisk into the chocolate-milk mix till the chocolate dissolves and there are no lumps.
• Refrigerate, whisking every ten minutes till it reaches a spreadable consistency.
• Spread over the cooled cake, sprinkle some crumbled nuts on top and eat!