Double Chocolate Loaf Cake with Whipped Caramelised White Ganache

THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY DOVES FARM

Easter and Chocolate, it is a match made in heaven, or maybe just an excuse to enjoy more chocolate. Either way I couldn’t let the holiday pass without a very special chocolate recipe for you all. I wasn’t in the mood for anything too complicated but I did want a big hit of flavour, high impact, low effort. This bakery style loaf is dense but tender and has a rich chocolate flavour backed up with some Doves Farm Organic White Rye Flour. Wholemeal rye flour, which you may have seen me use many times before, especially paired with chocolate, has a strong tangy rye flavour and the added texture that comes with wholemeal flours. For this cake I wanted something that backed up the chocolate flavour but didn’t add as much of its own flavour, more of a team player than the star of the show if you will. For the frosting I went with a very simple whipped caramelised white chocolate ganache, topped with chopped mini eggs (it’s easter, they’re mandatory). If you’ve never made this type of chocolate before you can learn how to make it here, or you could just buy it.

Doves Farm Organic White Rye has a creamy off-white colour and a mild tangy flavour that is amazing in this cake. I call it a bakery style loaf, partly because it’s a large loaf but also because it’s a dense but tender loaf, it’s like if a British tea shop cake met an American pound cake and had loaf shaped baby. The rye flour adds a subtle tang which helps intensify the chocolate flavour and also helps gives this cake its characteristic texture. When you bake with rye, especially if you are substituting it for regular wheat flour, you’ll notice it absorbs more liquid than wheat flour. In this cake for example I have made versions with regular plain flour and a rye version and the latter was a noticeably thicker batter when made to the exact same recipe. To compensate for this, I have included a little more moisture than if making it with plain flour. As a general piece of advice, when it comes to alternative/ancient grains such as rye, when adding them into your baking it’s a good idea to start with a smaller amount and see how it affects your recipe. Generally if I am adding some to an existing recipe I would sub in 25% of the grain and this normally adds a new depth of flavour without changing the texture of the finished bake in any dramatic way. After that point you can add more of the grain should you think you’d like more of the flavour and if it hasn’t affected the texture in any negative way. In this cake for example I ended up using a 50% wheat flour cocoa powder mix and 50% Doves Farm Organic White Rye Flour for the perfect balance of flavour and texture. 

Doves Farm are a family owned British organic flour and food company, founded in 1978. Their Organic White Rye Flour is available direct from www.dovesfarm.co.uk or from Ocado, Sainsbury’s or Tesco. 

Double Chocolate Loaf Cake with Whipped Caramelised White Ganache
Serves 10-12

125g unsalted butter, diced
150g caster sugar
150g light brown sugar
5 large eggs
125ml sour cream
75ml strong black coffee
100g plain flour
50g cocoa powder (dutched/black)
150g Doves Farm Organic White Rye Flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
150g dark chocolate chips

Whipped Caramelised White Chocolate Ganache
150g caramelised white chocolate, finely chopped
75ml double cream
Chocolate mini eggs, roughly chopped, for decoration

@theboywhobakes When caramel meets chocolate #caramelizedwhitechocolate #caramel #bakinghacks #SixNationsRugby #JDAirMaxMode #GameTok #fypシ #tiktokbaker #chocolatelover #chocolaterecipe ♬ Why Are There Boundaries - FKJ

@theboywhobakes Whipped caramelised white chocolate ganache #caramelizedwhitechocolate #whippedganache #SixNationsRugby #JDAirMaxMode #caramel #fypシ #tiktokbaker #chocolatelover #chocolaterecipe #ganache ♬ Orange Juice - Tomppabeats

To make the cake you’ll need a loaf pan that measures 9x4x4 (the type I prefer is known as a small Pullman pan and is available here). If you only have a traditional 1lb loaf pan (the type normally called for in a loaf recipe) you can make a batter 3/5’s of the above recipe and bake for about 45 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan) and lightly grease your loaf pan and line with a strip of parchment paper that overhangs the long sides of the tin, securing in place with metal binder clips.

Place the butter in a small saucepan and place over low/medium heat and cook until the butter is fully melted. Remove from the heat and set aside for the moment. 

In a large bowl add the sugars and eggs and using an electric mixer whisk together for a minute or two until fully combined. Add the sour cream, and coffee and whisk briefly to combine. In a separate bowl whisk together the plain flour, cocoa powder, Doves Farm Organic White Rye Flour, baking powder and salt. As we are using both light brown sugar and cocoa powder it is advisable to sieve this mixture as both of these ingredients have a nasty habit of clumping. Add the dry goods to the egg mixture and use a balloon whisk to gently stir the batter together. Pour in the cooled melted butter and fold with the whisk until combined. Add the chocolate chips and very briefly mix into the batter. Be careful to only mix as needed, cakes with rye flour can become gummy if mixed for too long. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake in the preheated oven for about 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and set aside for 20 minutes before carefully unfolding and setting onto a wire rack to cool completely. To ensure the crust of the cake is tender and hasn’t dried out, whilst the cake is still warm cover with a clean kitchen towel. The warmth of the cake is caught by the towel and slightly steams the outside of the cake helping ensure it stays tender.

For the ganache place the chocolate and the cream into a small bowl and place over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate has fully melted. Remove from the heat and stir until you have a smooth silky ganache. Refrigerate for up to 30 minutes or until the ganache has thickened up but is still spreadable. Remove from the fridge and using an electric mixer whisk the ganache until it turns into a pale and fluffy cream like texture. Spread this over the top of the cake and decorate with the chopped mini eggs.

Kept covered this cake will keep for at least 3 days.

Easter Simnel Cake

This post is sponsored by Lyle’s Golden Syrup

This Easter cake is a British classic, a traditional fruit cake, lightly spiced and similar to a light Christmas cake or a Dundee cake. The difference is mainly in the decoration and the use of marzipan. Marzipan isn’t just used to coat the outside of the cake it is also baked into the cake itself, a hidden layer in the middle of the cake. Like all fruit cakes of this style it keeps incredibly well and actually gets better after it sits for a while. Also like other fruit cakes they can sometimes be a tad dry. To counter this issue you need to bake the cake correctly, prevent it from drying out in the oven. You can also choose the right ingredients, in this version I have used Lyle’s Golden Syrup as a sweetener as this gives both a great flavour and it has the added benefit of making the cake moist and keeping it that way for longer. 

The decoration of a Simnel cake is also traditional and has a story to it. Sat atop the cake is a layer of marzipan and around the edges a ring of marzipan balls, 11 of them. If you know the Christian Easter story you might guess that these are to represent the 12 apostles minus 1 which represents Judas and his betrayal of Jesus. Whilst the story attached to the cake is fairly widespread the actual origins of the cake are harder to pinpoint, simnel cakes of some fashion are known to have been made since medieval times but the exact origins are likely lost to history. 

Simnel Cake
Serves 12-15

170g sultanas 
170g raisins 
170g currants 
85g mixed peel 
85g glacé cherries 
Zest of 1 orange 
3 tbsp rum, brandy or whisky (or orange juice)
170g unsalted butter, room temperature
100g light brown sugar 
75g Lyle’s Golden Syrup
4 large eggs 
170g plain flour 
85g ground almonds 
1 tsp cinnamon 
1 tsp mixed spice 
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
450g marzipan 
Apricot jam, for decoration

The day before baking the cake prepare the dried fruit mixture. Add the sultanas, raisins, currants, mixed peel and glaze cherries into a large bowl and pour over the alcohol (or orange juice if you prefer). Zest the orange and add to the fruit. Stir everything together, cover and set aside until ready to bake. 

Preheat the oven to 150C (130C Fan). Lightly grease a deep 20cm (8 inch) round cake tin and line the base and sides with a double layer of parchment paper. 

In a large bowl beat together the butter, sugar and Lyle’s Golden Syrup, using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on medium speed for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until fully combined before adding another. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, almonds, spices and salt. Add this flour mixture to the bowl with the butter mixture and mix together until a smooth cake batter is formed. Add the soaked fruit mixture and mix briefly until evenly distributed. Set the cake batter aside for the moment. 

Take a third of the marzipan and roll out, on a work surface dusted lightly with icing sugar, into an 18cm circle. Scrape half of the cake batter into the prepared tin and spread into an even layer. Gently place the marzipan on top of cake batter, setting it in the middle of the tin so that there is a thin layer of batter showing all around the marzipan. Scrape the remaining cake batter into the tin and spread into an even layer. 

Bake in the preheated oven for about 2 & 1/2 - 2 & 3/4 hours or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Check the cake after about 100-120 minutes and if the cake is browning too quickly carefully tent with foil to prevent it browning further. Once baked remove and set aside for at least 6 hours to cool fully.

To decorate the cake add a couple tbsp of the jam into a small saucepan with a splash of water and bring to a simmer. Brush the top of the cake with the jam. Using another third of the marzipan roll out as before into a 20cm circle and place on top of the cake. For a decorative flourish, crimp the edges the marzipan like you are making a pie. Take the final third of the marzipan and divide into 11 equal sized pieces, rolling into balls. Brush the base of each ball with a little jam and use this to glue the balls around the edge of the cake. 

You can serve the cake as is but sometimes a little blowtorch action is called for. Light the blowtorch and lightly burnish the marzipan. I like to do this to the balls only but you can do this to the whole layer of marzipan if you prefer.

Kept in a sealed container and wrapped well this cake will keep for a couple weeks.

Vegan Hot Cross Buns

It’s clear if you’ve ever read more than one recipe on this site that I am not vegan. I always say veganising a recipe is a skill I don’t necessarily posses and whilst that is true I want to try harder and include more vegan recipes and options on the site. This recipe, a slight spin on classic hot cross buns, wasn’t originally a result of that thinking though. It was through necessity. I wanted to post a really good hot cross bun recipe for easter but I was concerned in this mad world we are all living in right now that a couple of the required ingredients were on the scare side at the moment. Removing the eggs would be fine, you can make a lovely bread dough with enriching it with eggs, but flour..well flour is needed for hot cross buns. I decided to go with spelt because I had found it to be available at a couple supermarkets still, ignored by those panic buying all the bread flour. Thankfully spelt makes for wonderful breads and works particularly well in this recipe. With no eggs, turning the recipe fully vegan seemed like a no brainer, the only other ingredients were milk and butter and vegan versions of those would be very easy straight swaps. 

For the flavourings I kept everything fairly classic, lots of spice and dried fruit but I switched things up just a little using dried cranberries and pistachios instead of the traditional raisins and currants, but as always use whatever you prefer.

Since we are also in our houses with no access to friends and family right now it is worth nothing these also freeze brilliantly. Once the buns are fully cooled separate them, place them onto a tray that will fit in your freezer and freeze until solid. At this point you can put them in a ziplock bag or box and they wont stick together. Defrost them and serve them warm with butter and you’ll have an incredible breakfast waiting for you. 

The Buns
500g spelt flour (I used a mix of Doves Farm white and wholewheat spelt flours)
1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
50g caster sugar
7g fast action dried yeast
300ml almond milk (other plant milks should also work fine)
65g vegan ‘butter’ block (I used stork block as it seems like the easiest to find in the UK)
85g dried cranberries
50g pistachios, roughly chopped

The Cross
3 tbsp spelt flour
3-4 tbsp almond milk

Apricot Glaze (optional)
2 tbsp smooth apricot jam

To make the dough place the flour, salt, spices, sugar and yeast into the bowl of a stand mixer and add in the milk and fat. With the dough shook attached mix on low speed until a shaggy dough is formed. Now at this point it is worth noting the differences when using spelt flour. The flour has gluten but it breaks down a lot easier than regular wheat flour so don’t be tempted to knead this for a long time, we’re going to do another 3-5 minutes on low speed just until the dough becomes smooth and looks a little elastic. 

Note: since we are talking about flour lets talk about availability. I know right now flour is scarce so I wrote this recipe with spelt as I noticed it was still available in some supermarkets I visited. If you have regular bread flour at home don’t worry just sub it in, kneading fully for about 10 minutes as you would with a normal bread dough. Also if I understand the situation properly you should see start seeing flour appear on supermarket shelves again soon, it wasn’t really a shortage but a supply chain issue because of the panic buying, it should start flowing back into the chain very soon.

Tip the dough out onto the worksurface and press into a flat disc. Add the cranberries and pistachios and lightly press them into the dough. Briefly knead the dough so the additions are evenly distributed. Add the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover and set aside to prove for about an hour or until doubled in size. 

Tip the dough out onto the worksurface and divide into 12 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a neat ball and place onto a parchment lined baking tray, in rows of three set a couple inches apart. Lightly cover the buns and set aside for about 45 minutes to an hour or until the buns have almost doubled in size. Whilst the buns proof preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan).

When the buns have risen we need to make the cross. Simply add the flour to a small bowl and mix in enough milk to form a thick but pipeable paste. Scrape the mixture into a piping bag. At this stage we would normally add an egg wash which you can of course do if keeping the buns vegan is not a concern but if it is you have a couple options. The dough has sugar so the crust will naturally brown, so you can just leave it off, but if you want something that more closely resembles traditional buns you can make a simple plant milk/syrup mixture. Take 2 tbsp of plant milk (I used almond) and to that add about 1 tsp of agave or maple syrup, I think even brown sugar would work, and mix together to combine. Brush a thin layer onto the buns.

Cut off the end of the piping bag to make a small opening and pipe a cross onto each bun. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and allow to cool before serving. Kept in a sealed container these will keep for a couple days but they can also br frozen for up to a month.

For the optional glaze place the jam and an equal amount of water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil until syrupy in consistency. Brush over the buns whilst still warm. The jam mixture will give the buns a wonderful shine and that characteristic sticky crust.