Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Devil's Food Cake with Whipped Peanut Butter Ganache

Chocolate cake - what could be better, right? For me the ideal chocolate cake is one that is quite chocolatey, but not overly rich. I like something that is a little bit on the light side, so that it isn't overkill. That's what I love best about a traditional chocolate devil's food cake. Now devil's food cake is traditionally made with a chocolate ganache, which is great, as I love chocolate ganache. I found a recipe for a  chocolate devils food cake in Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum but decided to top it with a whipped chocolate peanut butter ganache recipe that I found elsewhere in the same book. Now, if chocolate ganache is good, the whipped chocolate peanut butter ganache was amazing and was the perfect combination with the cake. The recipe below was used by me to make two cakes (I am not good at trimming cakes and stacking them to make layer cakes, as all bakers have their shortcomings, so I just made two cakes). Apologies on the picture quality - my camera ran out of batteries!


Rose's Devil's Food Cake
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup boiling water
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted and leveled off
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks of butter
2 9 x 2 inch round cake pans

Preheat the oven to 350. In a medium bowl, whisk the chocolate and boiling water until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and cool for about an hour at room temperature.

Combine  the eggs, yolks, sour cream and vanilla in another bowl.

Add all the dry ingredients to your stand mixer and cut in the butter and mix at medium speed until crumbly. Add the egg mixture and beat on medium speed for a minute and a half until smooth. Then, with the mixer on low speed, gradually add the chocolate mixture.  Beat, raising the speed, for about 30 seconds until fully incorporated. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans and bake cakes for about 30-40 minutes until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed in the center. Allow the cakes to cool before trimming and/or frosting.


Rose's Whipped Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache
8 oz dark chocolate
6 T creamy peanut butter (Jif)
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, stirring constantly. Take off the heat and whisk in the peanut better until melted and combined. The  whisk in the heavy cream. Place mixture in basin of your stand mixer and beat on high with the whisk attachment. You will get a nice, light, fluffy and thick ganache after a few minutes. Spread on the cakes using a spatula and enjoy!