I am baaaack! Finally, Exams are over and I got time again to get baking. You can´t imagine how I´ve been itching to get back in my kitchen and behind my camera. If you are a fellow blogger and ever faced with that phase where you feel like you just can´t think of something creative, just take a break for a couple of days/weeks and you will realize how much you miss it.

February is almost over and I still haven’t made this month´s traditional cake recipe that I wanted to do as a part of my New Year’s resolution. Since February is not a typical season for anything besides cabbage I decided to go with chocolate cake. One of those typical ones, with biscuit and chocolate ganache. I was really excited to try this recipe but after whipping up the batter I realized why I rarely ever make fancy cakes. All that chocolate melting and egg white beating…not including the time it takes for the batter to bake and cool completely before you get to the frosting part…ain´t nobody got time fo dat! Well, technically I do but for me, cakes like these are really more for special occasion. Kind of like running.

You will need some time to prepare this cake. It´s best to prepare the biscuit the night before, that way you safe some time and the dough won´t be that crumbly and easier to cut and decorate. Other than that, all you have to do is prepare the ganache, generously top the dough with it and then you have one of the most chocolaty cakes I´ve ever had.

For a 26 cm spring pan:

For the short crust:

150 g all-purpose flour

50 g sugar

100 g butter

1 egg yolk

1) Mix flour and sugar. Add egg yolk and cold butter in little pieces. Knead until you have a firm and shiny dough. Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

2) Roll out the dough, place in the spring pan and cut the overlapping parts. Bake in the preheated oven at 200°C for 10 minutes. Let cool completely.

For the chocolate biscuit:

90 g butter

6 eggs

175 g sugar

150 g all-purpose flour

140 g chocolate

1) Heat oven to 180°C. Butter the spring pan. Melt butter and chocolate separately. Separate egg whites and egg yolks and place in different bowls.

2) Add sugar to the egg yolks. Using a bain-marie, whip sugar and egg yolks until white and creamy. Take out of the bain-marie and sift in the flour. Add melted butter and chocolate and stir carefully.

3) Whip egg whites. Add 1/3 of the beaten egg whites to the batter and stir carefully. Add the remaining egg whites and fold in carefully. Place the batter in the spring pan and bake for 35 minutes. Let cool completely.

For the chocolate ganache:

750 g heavy cream

600 g chopped dark chocolate

1) Heat cream in a pot. Before it starts cooking take it off the stove and stir in the chocolate until it has melted completely. Let cool in the fridge for about 2 hours.

2) Using an electric mixer, whip the ganache until fluffy. Be careful to not whip for too long, otherwise the ganache gets a rather thick consistency that is hard to spread.

To assemble the cake place the short crust on a cake stand. Spread 1-2 tbsp. black currant jam on it. Cut the chocolate biscuit in half and place the first half on top of the short crust. Add part of the ganache and spread evenly. Place the second biscuit on top and use the rest of the ganache to decorate the cake. You can top the cake with flowers, fruit or chocolate sprinkles.