Dense and sticky, like a good gingerbread, Nigella’s dense chocolate cake is the business. This version is made with wholemeal flour, flavoured lightly with rose and covered in rose chocolate ganache.
Less than two weeks after my first Clandestine Cake Club, I was getting ready for my second event. This one was themed A Fairy Tale and was set in a yurt in the middle of a big wood, Cardinham Woods to be precise, not too far from where we live.
Nigella’s Dense Chocolate Cake with Rose
One of my go to chocolate cakes, before I started my chocolate blogging adventures, was Nigella’s dense chocolate loaf cake from How to Be a Domestic Goddess. Somehow, this seemed like the right time to make it again. It’s a very simple cake to make and is so delicious it doesn’t really need any adornment. However, as this was a particularly special occasion, I decided to cover it with ganache.
Nigella’s dense chocolate cake is a bit of magic in itself. You add a surprising amount of hot water to the batter, which just seems counter intuitive. But it works brilliantly. I make it with a mix of wholemeal flour and plain. I’ve also made a few other tweaks over the years. In order to match the fairy tale theme, I added a little rose water this time.
I’m a big fan of the chocolate and rose combination, it works surprisingly well. The key is not to add to much rose flavouring as, despite it’s delicate flavour, it can quite easily overpower. I added some to both the cake itself and the ganache.
The cake was as good as I remembered it. Dense and slightly sticky like good gingerbread, it was totally delicious with a smooth mouth feel and it just got better as it got older. I bet Hansel and Gretel would have loved it.
Decorating the Nigella’s Dense Chocolate Cake
Clever decorating not being a particular forte of mine, I was at a bit of a loss as to how to turn this into a fairy tale. Inspiration finally struck (actually it was CT’s idea) – the Fairy Godmother’s Wand. This, I felt, was something I could cope with. Here’s how:
- Cut the tops off two chocolate fingers and place them together on the cake to form a wand.
- Spray the top with gold shimmer.
- Add stars sparking out of the wand’s tip and then dust the cake with edible gold glitter.
Fairy Tale Cakes
As for the other cakes there that night, I was completely wowed and slunk my pitiful effort into a corner out of sight.
Organised by the indefatigable Ellie and hosted by the Woods Cafe, the evening was great fun. There were some familiar faces from my first CCC and many new ones. I was especially delighted to meet a We Should Cocoa regular, the Hungry Hinny, who made a most spectacular castle – a chocolate and raspberry Rapunzel one to boot! My picture wasn’t that great, but you can see it on Nat’s blog.
We ate far too much delicious cake and got to take a plateful home with us again – what a wonderful way to spend an evening.
Fairy Tale Cakes
Other Chocolate Cakes You Might Like
- Blood orange chocolate cake
- Chocolate polenta cake
- Coffee cardamom chocolate mousse cake
- Lavender chocolate cake
- Spiced dark chocolate cake
- Willie’s cloud forest chocolate cake
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make Nigella’s dense chocolate cake, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Fairy Godmother’s Wand Chocolate Cake. PIN IT.
Nigella’s Dense Chocolate Cake – The Recipe
Nigella’s Dense Chocolate Cake Flavoured with Rose
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 150 g dark chocolate (I used Green & Black’s 85%)
- 500 g dark muscovado sugar
- 300 g unsalted butter
- 3 large eggs (I used a goose egg)
- 3 tsp rose water
- 300 g flour (half wholemeal, half plain)
- 1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 350 ml boiling water
Rose Ganache
- 150 g dark chocolate (I used Green & Black’s 70%)
- 150 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- 15 g unsalted butter
- 1 tsp rose water
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Melt the chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot, but not boiling water and leave to cool a little.
- Cream the sugar together with the butter until light in both colour and texture.
- Beat in the eggs, one by one, until all incorporated.
- Beat in the melted chocolate and along with the rose water.
- Sieve in the flour and bicarbonate of soda and fold in to the chocolate mixture alternately with the water.
- Pour into a 23cm (9") round silicone cake mould or lined tin. Bake at 190℃ (375℉, Gas 5) for 25 minutes then for a further 20 minutes at 170℃ (338℉, Gas 3) until well risen but still slightly gooey inside.
- Leave to cool completely before turning out.
Rose Ganache
- Melt the chocolate in a pan over a low heat with the double cream.
- Add the butter and rose water then stir until smooth.
- Leave to cool until just firm enough to stay on the cake without running down the sides.
- Spread over the top of the cake.
Notes
- Cut the tops off two chocolate fingers and place together on the cake to form a wand.
- Spray the top with gold shimmer.
- Add stars sparking out of the wand’s tip and then dust the cake with edible gold glitter.
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
As Tea Time Treats, hosted by Karen this month, has a floral theme, I waved my magic wand and turned this plain old chocolate cake into a floral rose and chocolate delight. TTT is alternately hosted by Kate of What Kate Baked.
Kit @ i-lostinausten says
Wow! What a collection of wonderful cakes! Your cake looks so lovely & gorgeous! 🙂
Choclette says
Thanks Kit – it was just too hard to know which cakes to try, they were all so good :-S
Karen S Booth says
Absolutely FABULOUS! This is indeed a magical cake! And what a fabulous selection of cakes at your CCC too…..I am hosting another one in July, and will hopefully have more takers next time….thanks so Much for entering this lovely cake in to Tea Time Treats! Karen
Choclette says
Thanks Karen. I’ll cross fingers for you. Intimate is good, but it’s nice to spread the cake love around a bit more 😉
Lucy, Vanilla Frost says
A cake party in Cardinham Woods! How fabulous. It’s hearing things like this that make me homesick for Cornwall. Your chocolate cake looks lovely!
Choclette says
It was really a bit surreal Lucy, but great fun. I understand the homesickness for Cornwall, it took me many years to get back here after first leaving home.
Caroline says
What a beautiful selection of cakes – they’re all amazing and so different too. Love your decoration – very pretty. I don’t think I’ve ever made Nigella’s dense chocolate cake. Perhaps I should remedy that!
Choclette says
C, I think you’d like it. I still haven’t tried Dan’s brown sugar cake, but I suspect it might be similar.
Mac says
This recipe sounds lush.
Choclette says
Lush is just the way to describe this cake. Thanks Mac 🙂
hungryhinny says
I can vouch for how good this cake was – the amount of rose flavour was perfect! Just thinking about all that cake is making me feel full again…
Choclette says
Thanks HH. It was a fun evening and good to finally meet you.
Alida says
Goodness me, this is majestic, truly delicious and mouthwatering cake. I will add it to my list and make my husband happy as he is a real chocoholic!
Choclette says
Alida, shocking news. You mean you are not a chocoholic???
Shaheen says
Oh these are truly fantastic, I am so loving the simplicity of yours and guess what, its one of my favourite cakes – so its strange for me to read that Johanna was not a fan..mmm.
Choclette says
Shaheen, thank you. Now you do surprise me, I didn’t think chocolate was really your thing, but I’m glad you agree with me. I’m hoping Johanna will try it again and have a change of heart 😉
Johanna GGG says
great cakes – and I love CT’s idea for the decoration – so simple and so gorgeous! I think I made Nigella’s dense chocolate cake years ago and was disappointed with it but can’t remember it that well – esp as so much of my baking pre-blog is a blur – now you have me curious to revisit it
Choclette says
Thank you Johanna. It very much depends what you are looking for. It’s more like gingerbread in texture, moist and dense and it doesn’t have a massive amount of chocolate in it which is why I used 85%.
Katie says
Lovely looking cake, so pretty with the gold dust – fairy tail dream like. What a wonderful way to spend an evening.
Choclette says
Thank you Katie, that’s certainly what I was hoping for! Yes, eating cake with others who are really into it is a great way to spend an evening.
Working london mummy says
What a gorgeous cake. I know my little girl would love the wand decoration
Choclette says
Thanks WLM, it’s a nice simple decoration that is actually quite effective.
thelittleloaf says
You had me at ‘dense chocolate cake’ 🙂 I love your decoration and the other cakes look utterly incredible too. I’d love to go to a CCC event…maybe one day soon.
Choclette says
Little Loaf, thank you. It is one of my favourite chocolate cakes and is never dry. Surely there must be a CCC somewhere near you – there are several in London I believe.
A Trifle Rushed says
Your cake looks fabulous, I’m going to remember the wand for future fairy bakes. The other cakes were superb as well, I think the idea of going somewhere and sharing cakes with other cakes people sounds like heaven 🙂
Choclette says
Thank you Jude. Yes, I suspect your little girl would appreciate something along these lines. Art is not my strong point, so I’m very sure it could be improved upon. Eating and talking cake is a great way to spend a couple of hours.
Susan's blog says
Every time I see this cake I can just imagine a child being so enamoured with it…its looks fabulous…and with hidden depths of flavour. x
(nice cake club too)
Choclette says
Susan, you’re absolutely right, this would be perfect for a child’s birthday party – perhaps a bit more elegantly decorated than mine though! It’s a great cake club, just wish I could get to a few more of them.
Baking Addict says
Wow gorgeous cake! Can you wave the magic wand again and send me a slice please? Love all the other cakes too – looks like another successful CCC!
Choclette says
Sadly the magic wand got eaten and all the magic vanished along with it 🙁 Well maybe not quite all 😉
Dom at Belleau Kitchen says
Oh my goodness C!! What a glorious cake. Would have loved to have seen inside it. I must start a CCC up here. All those glorious cakes. It’s just too much fabulousness!!
Choclette says
Very annoyingly I forgot to take a photo of the cake once cut and the plate full of cake we bought home. It’s a fabulous cake though and keeps really well.
Javelin Warrior says
I wondered what was glinting at me on the top of the cake – I guess gold is bound to do that 😉 And there are a lot of creative cakes here – wow.
Choclette says
As the saying goes, “all that is gold does not glitter” and sadly not all that glitters is gold. So although mine wasn’t as spectacular as many of the others, it was very tasty.