Melt-in-your-mouth Chocolate Coffee Cake

WHAT TO GET:

For the cake:

– 190 g dark chocolate

– 4 eggs, separated

– 100 g sugar

– 190 g unsalted butter

– 2 tbsp espresso

– 60 g cake flour

For the chocolate fudge glaze:

– 200 g dark chocolate

– 3/4 c heavy cream

For the chocolate leaves:

– 150 g dark chocolate

– 50 g white chocolate

WHAT TO DO

The Cake

1. Butter and flour a 20 cm cake pan. Preheat oven to 160 C.

2. Break chocolate into small pieces, place chocolate in top of a double saucepan and heat over simmering water until it melts, stir until smooth, remove top pan from heat. Set aside to cool.

3. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Set aside.

4. Place egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and beat until pale and fluffy. Add butter and beat mixture until creamy. Add coffee and cooled melted chocolate, fold them into the mixture. Sift flour over mixture and fold in lightly.

5. Lights fold egg whites into chocolate mixture.

6. Pour into the cake pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until firm to touch. Turn off oven and cool cake in the oven with door ajar.

7. Remove from oven and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

The Glaze

1. Break chocolate into thin, small pieces, put it in a bowl.

2. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil.

3. Pour cream over chocolate; whisk until smooth. Let cool until thick yet pourable, 2 to 3 minutes.

The Chocolate Leaves

1. Get some stiff, fresh, non-poisonous leaves, wash and dry them.

2. Melt dark chocolate and white chocolate in separate bowls.

3. Brush the back of the leaves with a thin layer of melted, cooled chocolate. Use the dark chocolate first to create the darker color chocolate leaves, then mixed a little bit of white chocolate into the dark chocolate to make the lighter color chocolate leaves.

4. Allow to set at room temperature then carefully peel away leaf.

5. Note: sometimes the chocolate leaves break in the middle in the middle when you peel away the leaf. One trick to avoid it from happening is to apply another thin layer of chocolate right in the middle of the chocolate leaves, after the first layer of chocolate has set.

To Assemble & Serve:

1. Remove cake from refrigerator and place open a wire rack, on top of a tray.

2. Pour glaze over cake, smoothing it over edges and onto sides. Leave until completely set.

3. Transfer cake to a flat serving platter, and decorate with chocolate leaves.

Tips:

– Make the chocolate leaves in advance and the cake a day before serving to make sure that it’s completely cool before putting on the glaze and chocolate leaves decoration.

– You can store the cake in the refrigerator up to 3 days, but take it out from the fridge several hours to thaw it before serving.