Guinness Cake with a White Chocolate and Coffee Ganache
The white chocolate and coffee ganache is something new I’ve tried recently. The very slight and almost imperceptible saltiness introduces a very pleasant balance to other ingredients.
This ganache will work so well with many other cakes, but for me, paired with a Guinness cake is a dream to have.
The Guinness cake is extremely easy to make, but it’s very important to have all your ingredients at room temperature.
It’s a wonderfully soft and moist chocolate cake, which can keep for about four days, as long as it’s covered (to prevent if from drying out).
For the Guinness cake:
- 200 ml of Guinness
- 110 g of butter, softened
- 200 g of Demerara sugar
- 30 g of coca powder, sifted
- 75 ml of soured cream
- 2 large eggs
- 175 g of plain flour, sifted
- one and a half of a teaspoon of baking powder, sifted
Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C fan assisted oven).
Grease and line with a baking parchment a round springform cake tin, 20 cm in diameter.
Whisk the butter and the sugar until the sugar has almost dissolved.
Whisk in the eggs, one at the time, beating the mixture well before adding the second egg.
Now start adding (gradually) the coca powder whisking all the while.
Next stir in the flour, cream, baking powder and finally the Guinness.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes.
Take the cake out the oven and let it cool down for about 20 minutes before removing from the tin.
Let the cake cooled down completely before decorating.
For the White Chocolate Coffee Ganache:
- 200 g of double cream
- 160 of white chocolate*, chopped
- 25 g of Demerara or soft light brown sugar
- one and a quarter of a teaspoon of instant coffee
- 2 g flaky sea salt (I always use Maldon salt)
*White chocolate has less coca solids than milk or dark chocolate – that’s why a higher ratio of chocolate is needed in order to achieve a lovely creamy thick consistency to coat the cake with ease.
Pour the cream into a small saucepan, add the instant coffee along with the sugar and the salt.
Heat up on a low to medium heat stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Don’t let it boil.
Once the sugar has dissolved pour the warmed up cream mixture over the chopped chocolate (in a separate bowl) and stir until the chocolate melts completely, and you obtain a creamy consistency.
Let the ganache cool down before placing it in the fridge.
Keep it in the fridge for a minimum of 3-4 hours. The consistency should be of very thick cream, if it’s too runny however, you might have to leave it in the fridge for a bit longer.
Once you are ready to assemble the cake, take your ganache out of the fridge and spoon it over the top of the cake. The ganache will slowly run from the top of the cake decorating it all over.
If the ambient temperatures are quite high you may want to keep the cake in the fridge. Just take it out about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
