Rich, Triple Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
Soft and gooey on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside, this intensely chocolatey, fudgy, cake makes an ideal dessert, with ice cream, or a rare treat, with a cup of tea. With a contrasting hint of salt and dotted with delectable, luscious lumps of dark chocolate hidden, like treasure, throughout the cake, you will be addicted from the first bite! Sweet, juicy strawberries, dipped in creamy white chocolate, finish this delightful cake with aplomb.
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 200g unsalted butter, in cubes
- 200g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces, divided
- 150g soft brown sugar
- 50g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 100g plain/all-purpose flour, sieved
- 25g unsweetened cocoa, sieved
- ½ teaspoon instant coffee powder, sieved
- 100g extra dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
For the strawberries and white chocolate:
- 10 – 12 fresh strawberries
- 100g white chocolate
- icing sugar
Instructions
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Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
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Preheat oven to fan oven 170°C /190°C/375°F/Gas 5.
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Make the cake: chop the butter into squares and place in a microwave safe bowl with the chopped chocolate. Melt in a microwave or a bain marie and mix until smooth. (See Recipe Notes for details.)
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Meanwhile put the sugars, eggs and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. This will take around 4 – 5 minutes.
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Pour the chocolate and butter into the eggs and sugar mix, whilst whisking, and mix thoroughly with the electric whisk until smooth and glossy.
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Put a sieve over the bowl and add the flour, cocoa and coffee. Sift directly over the cake batter. Fold until nearly mixed in.
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Chop the additional dark chocolate, ideally creating a mix of smaller and larger pieces. Add to the cake batter and fold in.
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Transfer to your greased and lined 23cm/9in round baking tin and level the surface.
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Bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for 20 – 25 minutes, depending on how squidgy you like the centre to be. (I cook mine for 23 minutes in London and 24 minutes in Switzerland.) This gives me a slightly crispy top but a gorgeous gooey centre. The cake will be slightly risen and cracked around the edge but the centre will feel quite soft.
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Remember, the cake will continue to cook after you have taken it out of the oven.
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When the cake has cooled, transfer to a serving plate.
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Make the white chocolate dipped strawberries and finish the cake: break or chop the white chocolate into squares and place in a microwave safe bowl. Melt in a microwave or a bain marie and mix until smooth. (See Recipe Notes for details.)
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Dip ¾ of each strawberry into the melted chocolate to coat, and then leave on baking parchment for the chocolate to set.
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Lightly sift some icing sugar over the top of the cake and then decorate with the strawberries.
Recipe Notes
Equipment
- Kitchen scales and measuring spoons
- Large microwave safe jug or heatproof bowl x 2
- Electric whisk and mixing bowl
- Sieve
- Chopping board and knife as well as rolling pin or mallet
- 23cm/9inch round baking tin greased and lined with baking parchment
Be very careful melting the chocolate. Chocolate can be very difficult to work with. You can overheat it very easily and the mixture will go grainy. When this happens, there is no way to resolve it I’m afraid!
Microwave: I give the chocolate (and butter) a minute in the microwave, take it out and stir it well, then let it sit for a few minutes to see if it continues melting sufficiently to melt all the chocolate. If not, I then continue with the microwave but in 10 – 15 second bursts.
Bain Marie: if you do not have a microwave, put the chocolate (and butter) in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Heat until the chocolate and butter are very nearly melted then take it off the heat and take the bowl off the saucepan. Be very careful not to burn yourself as the bowl will be hot and steam will escape from the saucepan. Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes for the residual heat to melt the remainder of the mixture. Again, be careful not to over-heat.
Where is this recipe from?
This recipe is adapted from my Daffodil Brownies – Core Recipe. For further ideas and inspiration, see here.