Triple Chocolate Cake

My mother in law celebrated her birthday this weekend, and I am usually in charge of providing the birthday cakes at the family get togethers. We decided on a triple chocolate cake of some sort and so then I went scouring through my recipe books, favourite blogs and Pinterest. I came across this recipe and thought it looked delicious! I am sharing it with you today in case you need an amazing chocolate cake recipe too.

Triple-Layered Triple Chocolate Cake
(from Raspberri Cupcakes)
Butter, for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cups plain flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup good cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
240ml buttermilk (I add milk to 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to make my own)
120ml vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line 3 19cm round cake tins with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans. (I only had one pan so I used 2/3 mix on one bake cycle then the other third I cooked after the first cake had been removed from the pan.)

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.

With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared tins and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the tins for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely. (If you used two tins like me, wait until completely cool before slicing up cake into layers.)

For the chocolate ganache:
300g dark chocolate
150g milk chocolate
150g white chocolate
600ml pouring cream

Break up chocolate into small pieces and place in separate bowls. Slowly bring cream to just to the boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from the heat and cool for a couple minutes. Pour 300ml of cream over the dark chocolate, 150ml over the milk and 150ml over the white. Leave it to melt for a minute, then stir each of them to combine. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Using an electric mixer, beat each ganache separately until it is shiny, fluffy and just holds its shape. This part can take a while!

When ready to assemble, spread white chocolate ganache over bottom layer, cover with second layer of cake, then spread over milk chocolate ganache, top with final layer and cover entire cake with dark chocolate ganache. Make sure to work quickly or ganache will set. I added a Flake on top as well for extra chocolate garnish, but you could definitely get fancy with piping, chocolate etc.

Serve at room temperature, run a knife under hot water before slicing up.

This cake was everythihng I was looking for in a chocolate cake. It was moist, decadent, impressive and tasty. I was extrememly happy with the end result and plan on making this my go to chocolate cake recipe. Thanks to Raspberri Cupcakes for the recipe!

Meatless Monday: Pizza Pasta

In an effort to get the grocery bill down and get some vegetables and legumes into my family, I have started doing some Meatless Monday meals. The one I am sharing with you today is great because it tastes like pizza, yet doesn't have any meat in it and is a lot cheaper than ordering pizza! I hope you enjoy it.

Pizza Pasta

You will need:

1 jar of well flavoured pasta sauce (I like the Basil and Tomato flavour)
2 cups macaroni or any other small pasta
1 small onion
1 green pepper
6-10 cherry tomatoes
1 can crushed pineapple (undrained)
1 cup corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
1 cup grated cheese

Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and cook the macaroni for 6-7 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop up your onion, green pepper and tomato.

Mix the cooked pasta with the vegetables, pineapple, pasta sauce and corn, and place in 13″ x 9″ pan (coated with non-stick vegetable spray).

Cover and bake for 20 minutes in a 200 degree oven.

Remove from oven and top with the grated cheese.

Place pan back in oven and cook and additional 10-15 minutes until the cheese has melted.

Now serve and eat!

You can easily add your other favourite pizza toppings to this such as mushrooms, or even add some pepperoni or sausage to make it non-vegetarian. Feel free to play around with this recipe!

Craft: Cupcakes aplenty!

I saw a wonderful capcake card made by Julie and just knew I had to replicate it. I am so pleased with how it turned out- I think any girl big or old would love to receive this card.

The card was a bit more labour intensive than I usually like, but well worth it.