A Rich Chocolate Cake Three Different Ways

Dense, fudgy, and then creamy? Say no more — where can I sign up? Well, if you’re like me and trying to find another reason to eat your daily dose of chocolate, then you’ve come to the right spot! These chocolate cakes — chocolate, matcha white chocolate, and pumpkin white chocolate — are cakes that have three different layers of deliciousness.

Technically these cakes are Gateau de Chocolate, which for me, is 100% too fancy sounding. It’s essentially a chocolate cake that is dense in the center (thanks to ample chocolate, butter, and cream) and light on the outside (all due to the egg whites folded into the batter). Though the name is French it is far from frightening, and as you watch the steps, you’ll see how easy it is to make.

After prepping your pans with parchment paper, you melt butter, chocolate, and heavy cream (can we agree that these three ingredients are the dessert version of the holy trinity?) until it’s completely smooth, add the sugar followed by the eggs. Adding sugar first cools the mixture just enough so the room-temperature eggs don’t curdle. Then you sift the tiniest amount of flour and cocoa powder. For the other flavors, you’ll be using matcha powder or pumpkin powder (which you can buy online), and to the pumpkin flavor, you also add mashed pumpkin into the batter.

Next, you whip egg whites with a bit of sugar until it forms smooth, glossy, and stiff peaks. Then you gradually fold in your egg whites in batches. Adding the egg whites in small segments ensures that the egg whites don’t get deflated and are evenly distributed into the batter.

Use a bit of batter to adhere the sides of the paper into the pan and then pour the mixture into the pans, baking and then dropping a bit to deflate the baked cakes. Before the next step, you’ll want the cakes completely cooled.

What makes these cakes different from other Gateau de Chocolate is the addition of two toppings — ganache and whipped cream. Once you pour the ganache on top of the cooled cakes you have to let that set up, some time in the fridge will speed this process along. When the ganache is completely set, remove the cakes from the spring-form cake pans and start covering them with a coating of flavored whipped cream.

Garnish, slice up, and you have cakes that are not just chocolatey hits, but these cakes are a textural dream to eat. The richness of the cake and ganache are balanced by the lightness of the whipped cream — the trio of layers is truly the perfect bite!

To watch the whole process, click on the video below!