Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Ganache

17Feb08

In five hours, yesterday afternoon, I managed to whip up four cakes: hummingbird cake with cream cheese icing, orange poppyseed syrup cake, peach raspberry almond yoghurt cake and a chocolate buttermilk cake with chocolate ganache. I made them for the christening celebration of my friend Chloe’s beautiful daughter Alyssa today.

The party actually finished a few hours ago and all of the cakes were a hit. Not surprisingly, the first one demolished was the chocolate buttermilk cake :)

Try it yourself, share it with your friends and family and you’ll see why it’s such a crowd pleaser.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

250g butter

300g caster sugar

3 eggs

275g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

75g Dutch-processed cocoa powder

250ml buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 25 centimetre ring tin with oil spray.
Cream the butter and the sugar until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, beating well within additions.
Add the sifted ingredients (cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, flour). Mix in the buttermilk until just combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 40 minutes or when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool on wire rack.

Chocolate Ganache

250ml thickened cream

200g good quality dark chocolate, chopped

25g unsalted butter

Place all ingredients in a heatproof bowl (metal, glass or ceramic).
Balance the bowl on top of a saucepan which is a third full of simmering water. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water. Stir the ingredients until the chocolate has melted and becomes smooth and shiny.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

You can use the ganache while it’s still rather warm and runny and pour it over your cake, or you can leave it to thicken and spread it on your cake.

Alyssa is just so darn cute that I just had to post a photo of her! Just gorgeous :)

Note: The original photo of the cake I used was terrible, so I have replaced it with another one :)

Filed under: cakes, chocolate, recipes |
Tags: baking, buttermilk, cake, chocolate, recipe

13 Responses to “Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Ganache”

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1 Gretchen Noelle on February 17, 2008 said:

This sounds so easy!!! What a lovely gesture to bake up a bunch of cakes! I look forward to exploring your blog a bit!
2 brilynn on February 18, 2008 said:

That cake looks amazing and the ganache is so smooth and shiny!
3 joythebaker on February 18, 2008 said:

So many cakes!! Such a beautiful baby!! So cool that you baked such a variety. I owe you an email! I’m getting to that… thank you so much for writing!
4 justopia on February 18, 2008 said:

What a beautiful cake! I can’t wait to try it!
5 misslionheart on February 18, 2008 said:

Looks *so* good!

I’ll be back…
6 Linda on February 18, 2008 said:

Gretchen, Brilynn and Justopia - thank you!

Joy - Alyssa is simply gorgeous! No rush about the email. You seem like a busy woman :)

Misslionheart - Come back anytime :)
7 Shannon on February 19, 2008 said:

Linda-

This cake looked so wonderful I just had to make it - mine is in the oven now and I’ll be posting pics and reviews on my food blog.

Thank you for sharing! If the cake tastes as good as the batter - mmmmmmmm!!

Shannon
8 Linda on February 19, 2008 said:

Shannon - Whoo! Can’t wait to see how it goes :)
9 Joy on February 19, 2008 said:

Alyssa is SO cute!

I’ll have to try this buttermilk cake…mmm.
10 kate on February 19, 2008 said:

this looks stunning. what a perfect looking cake. Honey u just made it to my blogroll with this number !!! welcome aboard !
11 Linda on February 19, 2008 said:

Joy - Try playing with her for a few hours. You just want to eat her! :)

Kate - THANK YOU! Get ready for more :D
12 Lorraine E on March 16, 2008 said:

That opening photo is breathtakingly delicious! Well done :)
13 Linda on March 17, 2008 said:

Thank you Lorraine! The first photo I used was a shocker. I’m glad you like this one.