Chocolate Fudge Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing or Chocolate Ganache
An easy to make fudgy chocolate cake for any occasion. It's sandwiched and topped with a scrumptious chocolate cream cheese icing. Or smother it with a chocolate ganache frosting instead.
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale in colour and fluffy in texture.
Beat in the syrup and salt.
Beat in the eggs, one by one. If the mixture starts to curdle add in a spoonful of the flour.
Sift in the dry ingredients and stir until just incorporated. Add the yoghurt, water and ground almonds and stir again until just combined.
Divide the mixture between two 20 cm (8") round silicone moulds or lined cake tins. Smooth down the tops and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 30 minutes, or until the cakes are risen and firm to the touch or an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool for ten minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
Melt the chocolate in a small pan over a gentle heat with half of the cream to make a ganache. Stir and set aside to cool.
Whisk the remaining cream with the cream cheese, cocoa and icing powder until the mixture begins to stiffen. Stir in the chocolate ganache until combined. It should be firm enough to use at this point, but if not give it a whisk.
Spread half of the mixture over one cake, sandwich with the other and top with the remaining icing.
Leave plain or decorate as liked. As it was Easter, I piled a few mini eggs on top of mine.
Chocolate Ganache Frosting
Melt the chocolate in a heavy pan over a gentle heat with the butter and sugar. Stir until smooth, then remove from the heat.
Add the cream and vanilla extract and stir until thoroughly combined. Leave in a cool place (not the fridge) to firm up for twenty minutes or so. The mixture needs to be a spreadable consistency, so be careful not to let it set.
Sandwich the two cakes together with a third of the ganach, then spread the rest over the top and around the sides of the cake.
Decorate or leave plain, as you wish. I used silver stars on top and alternating pink and white sugar flowers around the edge.
Notes
Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They're approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.