There are, on average, 90,500 online searches a month for ‘chocolate cake recipes’, so Waitrose.com have compiled the ULTIMATE collection of chocolate cake recipes in one handy place on their website.
To test how great their recipes are, they challenged me to make one of the online recipes with one proviso: that I used a secret ingredient, which they would supply, in my cake. Not one to turn down chocolate, and having a surfeit of eggs, I was quite happy to see what I could do.
I am perfectly capable of following recipes, but the one thing that always gets the better of me is the ability to “translate” a recipe cooking instructions to suit the Aga I have in my kitchen. Thus the Mocha Chocolate Torte I made was a touch singed when it came out of the oven, despite me cooking it for less than the recommended time.
Of course most people don’t have Agas and so won’t have this issue. The recipe was easy to follow, though of course needed several bowls as the eggs were separated out, and aside from the singeing, turned out exactly like the picture. I eschewed the raspberries and cream in favour of a ganache topping made to look like a spiderweb, another idea I saw whilst on the Waitrose website, and the inspiration for my use of the Chocolate Coffee Beans that were my secret ingredient. It turns out that they make perfect spiders.
The ganache was made by melting 120g of dark chocolate with 120ml of cream over a low heat (this is where the Aga excels) and leaving briefly to cool before pouring over the cake and smoothing out. Meanwhile I melted 20g of white chocolate and put it into a small ziplock bag which I snipped a very narrow corner off. This meant I could quickly and easily pipe concentric circles around the iced cake, starting at the centre. Once done, I used the flat side of a knife to drag out lines from the centre to the edge, all the way around the cake, creating the spiderweb effect.
The remainder of the white chocolate was used to dot “eyes” onto the chocolate beans. I left these to dry then pressed them into the icing, using chocolate vermicelli strands for legs. Slightly fiddly of course, but a pair of tweezers works well, or a steady hand. These would look just as good on small cupcakes with piped spiderwebs too.
*Disclosure: Waitrose.com supplied the ingredients for the purposes of me making the case and writing the post. It’s delicious by the way. Even slightly singed.
Wow, this cake looks amazing! I’m thrilled!
Glad you like it fiverfeeds. It was very tasty indeed!