Soft chocolate cake layers meet a silky nutella ganache filling and a speculoos cookie mascarpone frosting. This cake does not only convince with its flavor but also with its elegant decoration.
Biscoff cookies are the popular brand name of speculoos cookies that are mostly eaten around the holidays.
The trick of getting a Smooth frosting like this: do not over mix it!
To make buttercream you have to mix it for a long time to get it nice and fluffy. This frosting is completely the opposite. Only mix it on a low speed and for a short time otherwise you will make it turn to butter and it gets all grainy and liquid.
To avoid that keep and eye on your frosting and as soon as you added the last bit of heavy cream add the powdered sugar, mix it for 2 to 3 rounds and that's it. If you want to, you can always mix everything with a spatula to make sure it is fully combined.
Speculoos Cookie Chocolatecake
Ingredients: for 8 or 9 inch cake
2 cups (400 g) sugar
2 cups (240 g) flour
3/4 cups (75 g) cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup (240 ml) milk
1/2 cup (125 ml) vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup (250 ml) coffee, hot
For the Nutella Ganache Filling:
1 cup (300 g) Nutella
1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream, hot
1/4 cup (30 g) powdered sugar
For the mascarpone frosting:
16 oz (454 g) mascarpone cheese
3 tbsp heavy cream
7 oz (200 g) speculoos cookie crumbs
2 cups (480 ml) heavy cream
1/4 cup (30 g) powdered sugar
For the chocolate ornaments:
3 oz (100 g) dark chocolate
12 - 14 speculoos cookies for decoration
INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1:
Preheat the oven to 350 °F. The first step is to make the chocolate cake. Start off with a large bowl. Combine the sugar, eggs, oil, salt, and vanilla. Add butter milk and mix it until it is combined. Sift in flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda and mix until everything is thoroughly incorporated. Stir in the hot coffee; the batter will be very thin. Do not over mix it after adding the flour.
Step 2:
Divide the batter evenly in three 8-inch cake pans. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the layers in the pans for 10 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely.
Step 3:
For the Nutella ganache filling warm heavy cream in the microwave or a sauce pan until it simmers. Add Nutella to a heat proof mixing bowl and pour over the hot heavy cream. Let it sit for a few minutes. Then mix it until it is smooth. Then use a hand mixer and whip it on a low to medium speed until it starts to thicken. Mix in powdered sugar and keep whisking until it is thickened.
Step 4:
The next step is to make the mascarpone frosting. Use a big mixing bowl or a stand mixer. Add the cold mascarpone cheese and speculoos cookie crumbs. Mix it until combined. Slowly add cold heavy cream and keep mixing it so no lumps form. Mix it on a low speed because it can curdle quickly and then it gets ruined. Mix in powdered sugar just until it is combined.
Step 5:
To decorate the cake level each cake layer to have an even height. Place it on a cake plate and add some mascarpone frosting. Smooth it with a spatula. Add a layer of nutella ganache and make it even. I like to pipe a border of frosting to keep the filling in the center.
Step 6:
Repeat these steps for the second cake layer and top the cake with the last layer. Then cover the whole cake with frosting and smooth it out. you can place it in the fridge for about 40 minutes at this point but it is not necessary. To decorate the cake pipe some frosting on the back of speculoos cookies and place them on the sides of the cake. Then pipe some swirls of frosting on the top of the cake and place chocolate ornaments on top.
Step 7:
To make a chocolate ornament simply melt dark chocolate and fill it into a piping bag. Then pipe overlaying circles on parchment paper a bit bigger Than the size of the cake. Freeze it and with a warm knife cut the ornaments in slices.
Enjoy!
**PRO-TIPS**
Instead of coffee you can add hot water to your chocolate cake batter
Substitute cream cheese instead of mascarpone cheese for the frosting
You can use any type of cookies in the frosting like sugar cookies or shortbread cookies
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