Decadent Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

This deep, dark chocolate cake recipe is courtesy of Loveletter Cakeshop in New York City. It is made using Pamela’s All Purpose Flour Artisan Blend.
“In response to the growing gluten free market in New York City, Loveletter Cakeshop began developing a full line of gluten free cakes. To achieve this, we individually taste-tested every single gluten free flour blend on the market (yes, all of them!). When we tasted our chocolate cake recipe with Pamela’s Artisan Gluten Free Flour Blend, we thought we were tasting our conventional chocolate cake and had to double check. It’s that good, and we had the same results with our carrot, red velvet, and vanilla cakes, too. Best of all, it’s a 1:1 flour replacement, so we didn’t need to tweak our base recipes one bit. Thank you, Pamela’s!”

Ingredients

    Yield:

      CAKE
    • 2¼ cups Pamela’s All-Purpose Flour Artisan Blend
    • 2¼ cups sugar
    • 2 cups cocoa powder
    • 2¼ tsp baking soda
    • 1 tsp baking powder
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 1 cup sour cream
    • 1⅛ cups water
    • ⅓ cup vegetable oil
    • 1½ tsp vanilla extract
    • 3 eggs
      GANACHE
    • 5.5 ounces melted dark chocolate
    • 5 ounces heavy cream
    • 0.5 ounces sugar
Directions

    CAKE

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil two 8” round 2” deep cake pans. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Set aside.

    Measure all wet ingredients except eggs into the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix with paddle attachment on low speed and add dry ingredients slowly. After dry ingredients have combined thoroughly, add eggs one at a time. Continue to mix on low until fully combined.

    Divide batter between pans. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove pans and let come to room temperature, about 15 minutes. Turn onto wire racks.

    GANACHE

    Melt chocolate gently using the double boiler method until all perfectly smooth and without lumps. Meanwhile, combine heavy cream and sugar and lightly boil. Very slowly, pour chocolate into the heavy cream, stirring constantly. Stir until just combined. Let settle for at least 20 minutes or until room temperature.

    ASSEMBLE THE CAKE

    Cut each layer in half (we use a cake leveler to do this). Fill in between each layer with the ganache and then frost the top and sides.

Customer Reviews

Based on 14 reviews
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V
Victoria

I’ve made this cake twice because it disappeared so fast! I prefer to do a shallow cake or cupcakes and it works great. I even had to sub Pamela’s baking and pancake mix and it turned out great. Great flavor and texture to this cake. It’s a new favorite!

E
Emily

This recipe is an experience that I would recommend, for both the people who make it and the people who eat it. Excellent texture, decadent flavor.

The batter was so thick it would have broken my countertop stand mixer. I instead got a workout by mixing it manually with a wooden spatula. Don't panic and add a little extra liquid, as I was tempted to do.

I do not recommend lining the sides of the tins with parchment paper - grease those instead. The batter is very thick and sticky and you will have trouble getting it to spread evenly all the way to the walls of the tin. It will just stick to your paper and pull it inwards from the sides. The batter did not level with gravity as I have seen with other cakes.

It created a firm, very finely textured cake with small air bubbles that did not crumble when slicing them in half. It did not have an aftertaste (as some gluten-free cakes do). The ganache solidified nicely once it cooled and was easily spreadable.

I used unsweetened cocoa, left out a cup of sugar (well, a little less than a cup) from the batter recipe, used the normal ganache recipe and frosted the cake with a cream cheese frosting. The result was a cake that tasted like dark chocolate and was not too sweet.

My oven is old (to put it gently), but to be safe, watch the time when you bake it and start stabbing both of your cakes with a toothpick intermittently once the time reaches 3/4ths of the way through. I took mine out 8 minutes before the timer finished and they were done.

Finally, if caffeine has any effect on you at all, plan accordingly for when you will eat it. I replaced a cup of water with a cup of coffee, ate a tiny slice of the finished product in the evening and did not sleep that night.

C
Carlee

How many servings does it make

M
Mary Susan

This cake with the recipe as it is currently posted is fabulous, rich and moist! You would never know it was gluten-free. I'd call the "ganache" frosting instead, but otherwise, this is a great cake. I made it last weekend and am going to do so again this weekend for another party.

S
Stacey

I thought both the cake and the ganache came out very well. The batter was thick so next time I would smooth it more before backing but the taste was very good!