The Ultimate Chocolate Cake with Caramel and Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream, Almond Praline and Dark Chocolate Shards.
If you make this chocolate cake, I know you’ll want to make it again.
It’s not difficult to make, just takes a little time to put together, but once all the parts are ready, it’s so worth the wait.
The addition of the soured cream and the dark brown sugar are the things that makes the sponge of the cake so moist and almost brownie like in texture
I used four shallow 8” cake tins to bake mine (four cakes needed for the completed cake) making sure not to over bake them.
Over baking is the easiest way to take out the moisture from the sponge making it dense and pretty much inedible, and it’s so easy to do.
Using two deeper tins can work too, cooking the mixture until just baked and when cooled completely, slicing each in half to be left with four cakes to assemble.
Let’s talk Swiss buttercream!
Not so popular in the UK, with buttercream here made traditionally of butter, icing sugar with the addition of a flavouring if using.
No icing sugar in Swiss Buttercream, just a smooth conduit for flavours.
Swiss buttercream is a revelation in the world of cake fillings for me.
Made with egg whites and sugar cooked over a bain-marie and then whipped before adding room temperature butter, it leaves behind an incredibly smooth butter cream that’s perfect for whipping and spreading.
The mixture takes flavours on board so well and in this recipe, I’ve added caramel to some and melted chocolate to the rest.
Delish’.
I admit, I don’t make it as often as I should, but that’s probably also because I’ve not really baked many ‘proper’ cakes lately.
An advantage of making Swiss buttercream!
Left over egg yolks which means I get to make another desert or even better, ice cream or custard.
Read the whole recipe including the Tip Box before you start to make it, just to find out if there are any tricks that can make this even easier, there are lots of tips in this recipe.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Four layers of cake and Swiss buttercream
What You Need
Cake
250g Butter – Softened to room temperature – More to prepare tins
200g Castor Sugar
175g Dark Chocolate
3 Large Eggs
400ml Milk
2tsp Vanilla Extract
300ml Soured cream
350g Self Raising Flour – More to prepare tins
2tsp Baking Powder
125g Cocoa Powder – Unsweetened
Almond brittle gives it a great sweet texture to the to[
Swiss Buttercream
6 egg Whites from Large Eggs
250g Castor Sugar
300g Softened Butter
100g Ready Made Caramel – I used Carnation
100g Dark Chocolate - Melted
Chocolate Shards
400g Dark Chocolate – Chopped into pieces
Almond Brittle
100g Toasted flaked almond
100g Castor Sugar
50g Butter – extra for greasing
How It’s Done
Chocolate Shards
Melt the chocolate
Roll out a sheet of non-stick baking parchment approx. 18” long
Pour the melted chocolate onto the paper and spread it out as thinly as possible.
From the long side of the parchment, roll up the parchment and place it in the fridge until needed
Easy to make and really effective as a way to decorate a cake
Cake
Set oven to 180c – See Tip Box
Place the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into a sieve and tap the mixture though
Prepare 4 shallow 8” cake tins by covering the inside with butter or margarine and then dusting with flour.
Cut out circles of non-stick baking parchment to fit the bottom of the tins and place them inside the sieve over a bowl to remove all the lumps. Set the flour mixture aside until needed. – See Tip Box
Place the room temperature vanilla, butter, castor sugar and dark brown sugar into a bowl of an electric mixer.
Beat until the mixture is light in colour and at least doubled in size – don’t rush it
Add the eggs, one at a time and after each, beat until they are all incorporated.
Keep beating for another 3-5 minutes
Add the Add the milk and soured cream and once again, beat making sure everything is mixed in.
Add the flour and cocoa mixture and using a big metal spoon, fold it in to the wet mixture, but only until its mixed in- See Tip Box
Divide the cake mixture amongst the four cake tins and bake until a skewer comes out dry when poked in the middle of the cake - Approx. 20 minutes – See Tip Box
Once the cakes are baked, leave them in the tin for 10 minutes before running a slim pallet knife around the edges and turning them out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
While the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream and almond praline.
I used four shallow 8” cake tins
Swiss Buttercream
Place the egg whites and the castor sugar into a heat proof bowl. – See Tip Box
Place the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
Using a hand whisk or a hand electric whisk, whisk the egg white and sugar together until the egg whites have stiff peaks and all of the sugar has been dissolved - See Tip Box
Take the bowl off the heat, and transfer the meringue to an electric mixer bowl, carry on whisking until the bowl is cold to the touch – this may take around 15- 20 minutes -
Cooled Swiss meringue, then add the softened butter and once separated into two bowls and flavoured.
See Tip Box
With the motor speed on medium, begin to add the softened room temperature butter a tablespoon at a time until it’s all mixed into the meringue.
Divide the Swiss meringue into two bowls.
Add the caramel to one bowl and fold in, and add the melted chocolate to the second bowl and fold in.
Almond Brittle
Lightly butter a lipped baking tray and spread the almonds over it in a thin, even layer.
Put the sugar, butter, and 4 tbsp water into a smooth-bottomed frying pan and heat gently, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.
Increase the heat and boil for about 5 mins, or until it starts to turn light golden brown.
Stir every now and again as some patches will start to caramelise faster than others. Carefully tip the caramel over the nuts and leave to cool completely.
Once cold, shatter the caramel with a rolling pin and set aside until needed
Assembly
Place one layer of the cake onto a serving plate and add some of the caramel buttercream to the top. Spread it smooth.
Place another layer of the cake on top
Add a layer of the chocolate buttercream.
Third layer of cake
Layer of caramel butter cream
Layer of cake.
Use the leftover chocolate and caramel buttercream over the top of the cake and down the sides so that the whole of the outside of the cake is covered in buttercream.
Take the rolled-up chocolate out of the fridge and slowly unroll - See Tip Box
Use the shards to decorate the outside of the cake – See Tip Box
There will a lot of chocolate left over, place this into a bowl and melt it again
Using a pastry brush, brush the melted chocolate over the shards and onto the cake to add some texture.
Place the shattered almond brittle on the top of the cake to decorate
The cake is best served at room temperature
Chocolate shards, perfect for decoration
Tip Box
Oven and Baking– All ovens vary, adjust the cooking times accordingly
Sieving dry ingredients – I don’t usually bother with sieving my flour when making any type of cake, but because these cakes are especially moist, using a lot of liquid which can make a cake really dense, I wanted to give them every chance to rise.
Folding in – When folding in the dry ingredients, make sure to not over mix. Mixing activates the gluten in the flour so over mixing will make the cake turn out too firm and dense.
Don’t over bake – Because the layers are baked in shallow tins, over baking with this cake is really easy to do, so just keep a watch in it and set your timer is necessary.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream – 1) When beating the egg whites and sugar together over the bain-marie, make sure that the heat proof bowl doesn’t touch the boiling water underneath.
2) Keep whisking until the egg whites form stiff peaks and when rubbed between the fingers there is no sugar grit left.
3) If the Swiss buttercream becomes curdled, or too loose, pace the bowl into the fridge for 5-10 minutes to become cold before beating it again.
Heat proof bowl – I used a bowl that I knew I could use on my electric mixer too. This meant I could just lift the bowl off the bain-marie (hot water in a saucepan) and move it straight to my electric mixer stand to carry on beating until the bowl became cold to the touch.
Chocolate Shards – 1) Rolling the parchment up from the long edge will make some longer pieces of chocolate shards when unrolled.
2) When decorating, place some of the shards above the cake to give it a uneven effect effect.
