Tin Can Dream Chocolate Cake
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 45 minutes plus cooling time of around 2-3 hours
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Serves: 8
For the cake layer:
- 100g/3.5ozs cake flour
- 1/4 teaspoon bi carb of soda
- 25g/1oz. cocoa powder
- 140g/5ozs. caster or superfine sugar
- 90g/3ozs. butter, cubed, softened
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 40ml/1.6ozs sour cream or yogurt
- 65ml/2.2flozs. hot coffee
- 75g/2.7ozs. dark chocolate chips
For Syrup
- 60ml/2flozs water
- 60g/2ozs. sugar
- 15g/0.5oz. dark chocolate
- 1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder
For Chocolate Ganache
- 1 cup/170g/6ozs dark chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs cream
For Chocolate Custard aka Goo
- 150ml/5flozs. milk
- 150ml/5flozs. cream
- 3 egg yolks
- 75g/2.7ozs. caster or superfine sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornflour/fine cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 125g/4ozs. milk chocolate
- 40g/1.4ozs. dark chocolate
- 2 teaspoons gelatine powder
- 1.5 tablespoons water
For Chocolate Shell
- 100g/3.5ozs dark chocolate
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 160C/320F and line a 18cm/7inch cake tin on the base with parchment and spray the sides with an oil spray. Place the flour, bicarb, cocoa and sugar in a food processor or Thermomix and pulse to mix and remove any lumps (Thermomix: 10 seconds, speed #4). Add the butter, egg, sour cream or yogurt and coffee and pulse again until you get a batter (Thermomix: 15 seconds, speed #4). Stir in the chocolate chips and scoop batter into the tin (it won't be very high) and bake for 40 minutes until the centre springs back when touched. The cake should reach just above halfway in the tin.
Step 2 - While the cake is baking make the syrup. Boil the water, sugar, cocoa and dark chocolate until you get a reduced syrup that is still pourable (it should take about 2-3 minutes). When the cake comes out of the oven, use a skewer to poke holes in it and pour the syrup over it allowing it to absorb. Allow to cool.
Step 3 - Make the ganache. Heat the cream until almost boiling and then add the chocolate to a bowl. Pour the cream over the chocolate and allow to sit, covered for 5 minutes. Then stir the chocolate and cream together until smooth and pour over the top of the cake (the cake can still be warm when you do this).
Step 4 - Make the custard. Heat the milk and cream in a saucepan. While it is heating whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together in a bowl. When the milk mixture is hot and starting to bubble at the sides of the pan, pour a quarter of it into the egg mixture to temper the eggs and whisk gently to combine. Then pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the rest of the milk and stir slowly to create a custard. Thermomix: place all ingredients except for gelatine powder and 3 tablespoons water in the Thermomix bowl and set to 7 minutes 90C and speed 4.
Step 5 - When the custard starts to thicken add the chocolate and stir to melt. In a bowl sprinkle gelatine powder over the water and microwave for 10-20 seconds until it becomes translucent. Pour the gelatine liquid into the custard mixture and mix well. Pour over the cooled cake and allow to cool and then refrigerate until a wobbly set.
Step 6 - Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler and spread over the cake. As the custard is cooled, it should set quickly. Sift cocoa powder over the cake.
Personal Note
The multiple versions that I made of this cake trying to get it juuust right really came in handy. I mentioned last week how we had gone to see a movie. It was on the long weekend and we went to see it at the Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre. By now if you live in NSW you may know where this story is headed. Within a couple of days afterwards there were rumblings about a COVID-19 case visiting the same shopping centre and within a week Sydney was in the midst of a COVID spike dubbed the Eastern Suburbs spike which is where we live.
We watched the news with bated breath. As locations popped up we checked them against where we had been. We were lucky, we had missed the locations by a day, sometimes an hour. We both have been vaccinated but not fully as we only had the first vaccine a week prior so we weren't sure what our immunity status was. And then on the Tuesday we read that anyone that had been to the shopping centre including the car park during that week had to get tested. We went straight away as the lines can get very long the later you leave it. This was my third COVID test and honestly it isn't even painful anymore as I know what to expect. Our results were negative but then of course everything rapidly escalated and this past weekend the whole of Greater Sydney, The Blue Mountains, Wollongong and the Central Coast were locked down.
Everyone was understandably upset. Although I tried to stay positive, that becomes exhausting after a while (especially when your neighbours have a party just before the lockdown time) so I needed this cake to work. I was all prepared for this to not work because the other two were good but the crack wasn't quite right. I tapped the chocolate with the base of the spoon and I heard the most perfect crack.
Ahhh.
Yes...
Sometimes chocolate cake helps when it all gets too much.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you had any close calls with COVID-19? Have you experienced a lockdown? And have you ever tried the Dream Cake?