| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 3 hr 35 min |
| Prep: | 45 min |
| Inactive: | 2 hr |
| Cook: | 50 min |
| Yield: | about 20 servings |
| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 3 hr 35 min |
| Prep: | 45 min |
| Inactive: | 2 hr |
| Cook: | 50 min |
| Yield: | about 20 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch salt
- 5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1 3/4 cups hot coffee
- 1/4 cup bourbon
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 12 ounces semisweet chocolate (either blocks cut into small pieces or chocolate chips)
- 8 ounces heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons your favorite liqueur or extract, optional
Instructions
- Place the sifted flour in a medium bowl and stir in the baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, place the chocolate and the butter. Pour the hot coffee over the chocolate and butter and then add the bourbon. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand until chocolate and butter are melted. Remove the cover and whisk to fully incorporate. Set aside until mixture has cooled.
- Grease and flour 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
- When coffee mixture has cooled, add the sugar and whisk until blended. Add the flour mixture, half at a time and stir until just combined. Add the eggs, vanilla, and coconut and whisk until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for about 10 minutes and then cool completely on a rack before icing.
- While cakes are cooling, make ganache: Place the chocolate in a large bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan just until it starts to boil. Immediately pour the cream over the chocolate, making sure that all of the chocolate is covered. Cover the bowl and let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk the chocolate until dark and shiny and then let cool to room temperature. The more you whisk this icing as it cools, the stiffer it will get. If you refrigerate the icing before you put it on the cake, it will get very hard and you will have to microwave it for a few seconds to soften it to a spreadable state.
- Frost cake: Spread ganache over bottom layer of cake. Place the second cake layer on top of the ganache. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining ganache.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 20 servings |
| Calories | 400 |
| Total Fat | 24 g |
| Saturated Fat | 15 g |
| Carbohydrates | 44 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Sugar | 30 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Cholesterol | 56 mg |
| Sodium | 87 mg |
| Serving Size | 1 of 20 servings |
| Calories | 400 |
| Total Fat | 24 g |
| Saturated Fat | 15 g |
| Carbohydrates | 44 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Sugar | 30 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Cholesterol | 56 mg |
| Sodium | 87 mg |
Reviews
I made this cake for my boyfriend’s birthday. And it was absolutely delicious! The cake was very moist, light but flavorful. The ganache was very chocolaty yet not over power the overall taste. I am loving it! Thank you for sharing the recipe!!
For cupcakes, I cut this recipe in half, used premium dark chocolate and baked at 275 for 22 minutes… They were incredible. A nice balance between all the flavors (I did use the full amount of bourbon- it needed it and the ganache on top (also with dark chocolate was rich without being overwhelming as frosting can sometimes be. I toasted some coconut and garnished the top with it for an extra little something. Overall an easy, delicious homemade treat that makes for a special birthday!
Is the oven temp correct? I made it exactly according to the recipe but it took forever for the rounds to be fully baked, easily an additional 15 minutes and my oven isn’t off. Greasing and flouring the pans didn’t seem to be enough. They stuck badly and one broke when it was finally freed from the pan. Next time I would definitely use parchment paper and raise the oven temp by 50 degrees. All else is great. Moist cake, very good taste, delicious shiny ganache. I used 1 tsp of coconut extract in the ganache to enhance the overall coconut flavor.
I absolutely LOVE this cake. I’ve made it several times and it’s always a big hit–moist, perfect crumb, the ganache is incredible. I’ve actually never used bourbon though: substituted Gosling’s Black Seal rum, or Bacardi CoCo.
Once I used the Starbucks Via Italian roast instant coffee and it made the coffee flavor much stronger; usually I use e.g. Nescafe instant and that works great too.
I also like to sprinkle coconut flakes over the top for a nice look.
I increased all the ingredients by a third to make a three layer. The layers were very flat, they actually did not rise in the center at all, so my layer were somewhat convex. Is there a trick to converting a recipe for a three layer cake? I also had to beat in some powdered sugar to the frosting, it was way too loose.
But folks loved the flavor of the cake, and it was very moist!
Excellant way to try something different than a simple chocolate cake. Great taste with some of my favorite ingredients.
I had to make this cake gluten-free using gluten free flour. Make sure if you do this that you line grease the pans well and line with parchment paper as your batter will be looser than regular flour. This cake was sooooo good!!!
What a chocolate cake! I made this today for a Kentucky Derby event, put a little peppermint extract in the ganache and called it a ‘mint julep’ cake – what a hit! The marriage with the ever so slight bourbon flavor was perfect. The texture and flavor of this cake are perhaps the best I’ve ever made and I’ve tried a LOT of different chocolate cake recipes. Make this cake, you won’t be sorry.
nice fudgey cake, good strong flavor.
I made this for my dad’s birthday since he loves chocolate and coconut. The one thing I did different was take the coconut and put it in a food processor until it was crumbly. I don’t like long strands of coconut in my cake when I am eating a piece so this works very well. All the flavor is there but not the strands. Delicious!