Description
This is the way to have your coffee and cake all in one go!
Ingredients
Cake
250 g butter, softened
250 g castor sugar
2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla essence
100 ml filter coffee, cooled
300 g cake flour
1 Tbsp (15 ml) baking powder
a pinch of salt
5 extra large eggs, whisked
150 g hazelnuts, chopped
Mousse Filling
100 g quality dark chocolate
1 C (250 ml) cream
Ganache Topping
⅖ C (100 ml) cream
100 g dark choc, chopped
To Serve
50 g hazelnuts, roughly chopped and toasted
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180 °C.
Grease and line the base of 3 x 20 cm cake tins.
In a large mixing bowl cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until thick, pale and fluffy.
Sift the dry ingredients together and fold into the creamed mixture.
Stir in the eggs, hazelnuts and cooled coffee. Divide the batter between the 3 tins and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cooked through when tested with a skewer.
Leave the cakes to cool for 5 minutes in the cake pans before turning out onto a cooling rack. Set aside to cool completely.
Mousse Filling
Break the chocolate into smaller pieces.
Melt the chocolate – either in a double boiler stovetop, or in a glass bowl in the microwave on the defrost setting (this ensures that the chocolate melts slowly and won’t burn). Once melted, set aside to cool. Tip: Chocolate can be melted using the Miele steam oven setting or can even be melted in a Miele food warmer.
Whip the cream to soft peak stage. Fold into the cooled melted chocolate.
Ganache Topping
Heat the cream in a small saucepan until just below boiling point. Add the chocolate and stir until melted and glossy.
To Assemble
Place the first layer of sponge cake on a cake stand and spread with half of the mousse filling. Place the second layer of sponge cake on top and spread with the remaining half of the mousse filling. Place the third layer of sponge cake on top and spread with the ganache. Sprinkle with toasted hazelnuts.
