Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 1/4 cups cake flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (best quality like Valrhona)
- 3 tablespoons ancho chile powder, optional
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 1/2 cup hot coffee
Whipped Ganache Filling:
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 pound bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (recommended: Valrhona)
- 1/2 pound semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (recommended: Callebaut)
- 1/2 cup toffee bits
Coconut Buttercream:
- 6 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- 2 cups (1 pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sweetened coconut milk (recommended: Coco Lopez)
- 2 pounds thick flaked unsweetened coconut (can be found at health food stores)
Directions
Cake:
Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. F. Lightly grease 2 (9-inch) cake pans and line the bottoms with disks of parchment paper.
Sift the flour, cocoa, ancho chile powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper. Sift again.
Place butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat at high speed until smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Continue beating, scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary, until light and fluffy, about 5 more minutes. With the mixer on low speed, beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Beat in the vanilla, half of the buttermilk and half of the coffee, then another 1/3 of the flour mixture. Beat in the remaining buttermilk and coffee, then the remaining flour mixture.
Spread the batter evenly in prepared pans. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the centers spring back when lightly pressed. Cool the cakes in the pan on a wire rack.
Whipped Ganache Filling:
Bring heavy cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. Place chocolate in a large bowl, pour heavy cream over and let sit for 1 minute. Gently whisk until combined.
Place the ganache over a bowl filled with ice water to chill slightly, whisking occasionally. Remove ganache from the ice and whip with a whisk until light and fluffy. Fold in the toffee bits.
Coconut Buttercream:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a wire whip attachment, beat the egg yolks at medium-high speed until creamy and pale yellow, about 5 minutes.
In a nonstick saucepan, combine the sugar and corn syrup. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a full rolling boil without stirring and cook until it reaches soft-ball stage (238 to 242 degrees F) on a candy thermometer. Immediately pour the mixture into a buttered heat proof measuring cup to halt the cooking.
Add a small amount of the syrup to the beaten egg yolks, turn on the mixer to high speed, and beat for about 5 seconds. Continue stopping the mixer, adding syrup, and beating in the same manner until all of the syrup is incorporated and the mixture is cooled completely.
Add the butter, 1 piece at a time, and beat until incorporated before adding the next piece. When all of the butter has been blended in, add the vanilla and coconut milk and continue beating until combined.
Assembly:
Slice each cake in half horizontally to make 4 layers total. Place the first layer down and spread with a thin layer of the Ganache. Repeat with the remaining cake layers and ganache, ending with a cake layer.
Spread a thin layer of the buttercream over the entire cake. This is called a crumb coat. Chill the cake for about 30 minutes. Frost entire cake with the remaining buttercream. Press coconut into the sides of the cake.
















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By Gfamilyof6
Canada
on September 02, 2011
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Omitted the chill powder and didn't use this filling or buttercream recipe. I just used a traditional swiss meringue buttercream. Fantastic cake! I made this for my daughter's birthday party and wanted a larger cake, so I used the entire recipe for one-12" round pan. Baked for the 30 minutes...I was worried but the cake tester came out clean and I took my chances. I ended up doing 3 recipes, ending with 3 nice 1 3/4" layers in the cake. I filled it with a cream cheese truffle filling and I had comments galore on how amazing it was from all of the guests.
The texture was dense, which is my kind of cake and it was rich and incredibly moist. Made ahead a day it was still fantastic. Kept really well. I froze the leftovers which, weeks later were nearly as yummy as day one!
By wardb0413_12664224
Broad Run, 86
on August 08, 2011
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I loved this! I left out the chili powder, but otherwise followed the cake recipe. The cake was dry, and I wonder if it was just over-done? After 30 minutes in the oven, it wasn’t done. I left it in for 5 more minutes. Other than baking it for less time, is there a way to make the cake moister?
The ganache was wonderful - I made a batch and a half, since the recipe called for "a thin layer" and I wanted something more decadent. Rather than whisking by hand, I put it in my stand mixer with the wire whisk. I beat it for about 4 minutes, but wonder if I should have gone longer? It seemed too loose, so I put it in the fridge for about an hour. Then it was too thick to spread. However, I "chunked" pieces of it onto the cake layers, and ended up with a half-inch of ganache between each layer of cake - this was awesome!
Finally, after all of the icing reviews, I made the buttercream recipe on the Giardelli cocoa package, and it was fabulous!
By tobey.dechristo...
Seattle, 87
on June 23, 2010
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This recipe can be found in Margaret Braun's "Cake Walk" book and it is a wonderful recipe. In her recipe, she calls fo all purpose flour which is not a good choice and I am happy to see that Flay's assistants tweeked it to cake flour. In Braun's recipe she has the butter melted which gives a completely different fudgy texture when you do this with cake flour.
I use very good and very dark cocoa as well and that is the key to this cake.
I will blend the coffee and the buttermilk together and use that as the liquid.
If you want to increase the amount of batter, use the Braun formula if you can get your hands on it and tweek it to what Flay's assistants have done with this recipe..it is great to blend the sugar with the softened butter rather than the melted butter in Braun's recipe.
Both recipes are excellent and will give you different results.
The chili powder is probably not necessary and in fact, may punish an otherwise fabulous cake.
Read all 19 reviews