Chocolate truffle cake combines two delicious chocolate creations– chocolate cake and chocolate truffles. While the combined cake is a modern creation, chocolate cake and truffles have separate histories, being invented and tested out in different countries, an ocean apart. All of this was happening simultaneously in the 18th and 19th centuries respectively and one was a planned baby while the other was a surprise, a serendipitous one at that. We have a down to the details best chocolate truffle cake recipe later, which we have elaborated on to make it easier to bake.
The History
The popular version for truffles remains associated with the goof up of the pupil of a famous French chef, Auguste Escoffier, who was making pastry cream. In a clumsy moment, the pupil spilled hot cream into a bowl of chocolate. To salvage the concoction, Escoffier took over and rolled them into balls making the world’s first truffles in 1920s France. The other version links truffles to Louis Dufour, a chocolatier from Chambéry, France, who invented chocolate truffles in 1895. As the story goes, he ran out of ideas for Christmas treats and made ganache, rolled them into balls, dipped in chocolate, which he then rolled in cocoa powder. In 1902, Antoine Dufour moved to London and opened the Prestat Chocolate Shop there, where he sold his family recipes’ truffles. Whether the two Dufours are linked is uncertain but they were a well-known patisserie family.
As for chocolate cake, it was only a matter of time that it was invented, as immigrants in America increased in the 18th century and chocolate started being used in cakes and biscuits. By the 19th century, recipes for chocolate cakes started popping up and cake mixes started appearing by the early 1900s. Safe to assume, chocolate truffle cake was developed perhaps a couple of decades later. So, here’s a chocolate truffle cake recipe step by step.
Chocolate Truffle Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 200 gm granulated sugar
- 213 gm brown sugar
- 200 gm all-purpose flour
- 85 gm Cadbury Cocoa powder
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- 3 eggs (1 egg separated, you need only the yolk)
- 100 gm vegetable oil
- 230 gm of plain yogurt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 225 gm freshly brewed espresso
- 860 gm chocolate buttercream
- 240 gm dark chocolate ganache
For Decoration: Chocolate truffles and 45 grams of ground nuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 165°C and generously grease two 8-inch round cake pans.
- Place parchment paper at the bottom of the pans and press down to coat them in the grease. Then sprinkle a little flour around the pan and shake to coat the insides. Remove excess and set aside.
- Take a big bowl, add both the sugars, flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and give it a mix to combine.
- Next, add the two eggs and yolk from the third one, oil, yogurt and vanilla extract. Use an electric whisk, on low speed, and mix it up until no dry streaks are visible.
- Increase the speed to medium just as it is combined and beat for 2 minutes. Make sure to stop a few times to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Next, reduce the speed to low, and pour the hot coffee slowly. Mix until the coffee is fully incorporated.
- Now once the batter is all smooth, and the ingredients are all incorporated well, divide the batter between two cake pans. Bake for 60 minutes. You will know the cake is done when the top sets and the cake comes away from the sides. Use a toothpick to check if they are done. A few sticky crumbs are wanted, because it’s a fudgy cake.
- Remove from the oven and let them cool in their pans for a couple of minutes then remove them from the pans and set them on the counter to cool. Make sure to flip to allow the bottoms to cool faster.
- Decorate only when fully cooled. Meanwhile here’s a truffle recipe for your truffle cake. Meanwhile you can also prepare the cake buttercream from this guide.
- Now, place one cake loaf on a serving platter, bottoms down. Scoop milk chocolate buttercream and plonk it in the center of the cake. Spread it out to cover the top of the cake’s surface. Place the other layer of cake loaf upside down over the buttercream. Put a generous amount of buttercream on the top of the cake and spread it out all over the top and over the sides of the cake. Smoothen out the top with a thin tool to have a level surface.
- Press down the ground nuts into the bottom of the cake.
- Once done, refrigerate the cake for 1 hour or overnight for the buttercream to set.
- While the cake chills, make the ganache and you can refer to this guide, make sure its warm, pourable and not too runny. Also, finish making the truffles.
- Once the cake gets ample chilling time, pour the ganache over the top of the cake, allowing some to drip over the sides.
- Press truffles in patterns of your choice on this ganache covered cake.