Coffee Mascarpone Layered Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache
Coffee Mascarpone Layered Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache, the cake of my dreams, one I baked in a hurry for my birthday! It was delicious once sliced, the flavours coming together just as I had hoped they would. Coffee and chocolate are my to-go flavour combination, and my basic sponge recipe a favourite too, one that lives in my head. It’s been a while since I baked a layer cake. The better half appreciatively called this one an old-fashioned cake, possibly because I fast track most cakes these days.
It’s often a quick cheesecake or a flourless cake that I turn out, a reflection of ‘so much to do and so little time, also one that points towards my habit of procrastination. This one was planned no differently, yet, happily enough, I made a layered cake!
A special occasion cake needs more effort, and for my birthday, no matter what, it’s A L W A Y S a coffee chocolate one I bake! And call me a sucker for punishment or what you like, I just came in from a long exhausting shoot the previous day. That was great fun but had me on my feet for almost 15 hours every day, and I came back to excited puppies and guinea pigs. Family too of course!
All I wanted to was to vegetate, basically sit in one place and grow roots. Yet just the thought of coffee cake had me turn on the Kitchen Aid, eight eggs & sugar whipping away silently as I readied the other stuff. There’s barely anything else to this sponge other than lining the tins and preheating the oven of course. Add some flavour {vanilla, coffee powder, coffee extract if you like}, throw in some baking powder and a pinch of salt. A quick sifting of flour over, and a gentle fold through and that’s all it takes.
Then I pretty much had to think the filling and frosting. That the filling was going to be coffee mascarpone was already in my head. Then I got a little lazy since I had forgotten to chill the cream, and decided to go with a dark chocolate ganache just because it seemed so much simpler! That was the simplest thing ever, one I hurriedly made as the sponges baked. Since the weather is quite cool, I left the chocolate ganache out at room temperature for 2-3 hours to rest. Once you have all the elements sorted out, the Coffee Mascarpone Layered Cake doesn’t take long to assemble.
A quick brush of a simple coffee syrup, then coffee mascarpone, and repeat with all four layers. Since I was short on time, I popped it into the freezer for 30 minutes. Ideally I would have left it to sit for a couple of hours, or overnight, for the flavours to mature. That done, it was time for the ganache which was perfectly smooth at room temperature.
You do need to move quick as the ganache hits the chilled cake. One thin base coat, followed by a generous top coat, a sifting over of cocoa powder, a scattering of chocolate flakes, a few coffee beans and we’re good to go! Into the fridge to chill for a couple of hours to allow the flavours to mature, hoping it was going to be delicious once sliced. I really had to chase the light to get a shot; daylight is really at a premium these days.
Coffee Mascarpone Layered Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
Coffee sponge 8" X 2
- 8 eggs
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup vanilla sugar
- 3 tbsp instant coffee
- 1 tsp coffee extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp cornflour
Coffee Syrup
- 1/3 cup Water
- cup ½sugar
- 1 tbsp instant coffee powder
Coffee Mascarpone Filling
- 250 g cream chilled
- 50 g icing sugar {to taste}
- 3 tsp instant coffee powder
- 250 g mascarpone chilled
Dark chocolate ganache
- 300 g single cream
- 450 g 52% couverture chocolate
Garnish
- cocoa powder chocolate shavings, coffee beans
Instructions
Coffee Sponge
- Preheat the oven to 180C. Line the bottom and sides of 2 X 8″ spring form/loose bottomed round tins.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs with both sugars till thick and mousse like, 7-10 minutes.
- Add the coffee and vanilla extract and beat in again for a minute, then beat in the baking powder and pinch of salt.
- Sift the flour over, folding gently in 3 lots, lightly till it’s mixed through well. Be careful not to release the beaten in air.
- Turn the batter into the prepared baking tin, and bake for 30-35 minutes, till a tester comes out clean.
- Cool completely on racks, then slice into two horizontally, total 4 layers.
Coffee Syrup
- Place ingredients in a small pan and stir until sugar dissolves. Cool.
- tbsp instant coffee powder
Coffee Mascarpone Filling
- Whip the cream, sugar and coffee together till medium stiff peaks form. Fold in the mascarpone. Taste and adjust sweetness if required.
Dark Chocolate Ganache
- Place chopped chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl and run at high in the microwave for 1 minute. Whisk until smooth, then leave it to rest to cool. Whisk again before using.
Assemble
- Brush each layer with the coffee syrup, and sandwich with the filling.
- Give the whole cake a thin layer of ganache as a base coat. Let it set for about 5 minutes.
- Frost with the remaining ganache.
- Sift over with cocoa powder and garnish with chocolate shavings and coffee beans.
- Chill for about an hour or overnight. The flavours mature nicely over time.
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
20 Comments
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hi,
thanks for this great recopies which was you have made as well as posted here very gratefully so thanks for this posting ,
regards,
mansi desai
Gulia Arno
Wow, your photos are so professional! Do you use retouching? Tell me what you think about these tips and ideas for food photography retouching http://fixthephoto.com/blog/retouch-tips/how-to-edit-food-photos.html. I would like to hear your advice. Thanks in advance!
mary lynne johnson
Coffee Mascarpone Layered Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache looks good. I want to make it myself. But I need to ask a few questions if possible.
Is this cake made in one 8×2 layer pan or two 8×2 layer pans?
If one can’t find vanilla sugar, what is a good substitute?
If one can’t find corn flour, what is a good substitute?
Please let me know for I would really like to make this. I’d do it for Christmas, but time is kind of short now. So I’ll probably do it for Easter.
Thank you for sharing fantastic foods.
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Mary,
Thank you for wanting to try the recipe.
Is this cake made in one 8×2 layer pan or two 8×2 layer pans? – 2 pans 8″ diameter each
If one can’t find vanilla sugar, what is a good substitute? – Normal sugar is fine.
If one can’t find corn flour, what is a good substitute? – Either corn starch or all purpose flour
Hope this helps.
Please message back if you need anything else!
Trina
Hello Deeba, awesome snaps and recipe! I’m just wondering how far in advance I can make this cake? Would 3 days ahead be alright? Or do you reckon the texture of the sponge will become soggy by then? Alternatively, can the sponge layers be baked up and frozen for future use? If so, how long would they last frozen? Cheers!
online cakes kanpur
Your post is very nice thanks for sharing this post..
Amit Shroff
Can you suggest replacement for Egg, the exactly qty like milk or yogurt.
Cooking courses in Mumbai
Thanks for sharing this recipe. Keep up sharing more!
wandalii
Hii.. love your recipes, and this one got me definitely hooked!
Is there anything we can use instead of mascarpone? Its really hard to find here.. you have so many nice recipes with mascarpone abd if there would be an alternative, that would be awesome!!!
Thanks for sharing all those mouthwatering pictures ?
Deeba @ PAB
Hey hi, Thanks so much for your sweet words. Please use a whipping cream. Should work well. Flavour it as you like.
Shubhra Sharma
Hi, cake looks tempting, my sister is a big fan of coffee and her birthday is tomorrow so I’m planning on making it today. I have never used coffee in cakes, which brand of coffee do you use? and what is coffee extract? Any help on coffee would be appreciated.
Thanks for the recipe
Deeba @ PAB
Hey Shubhra, Thanks for stopping by. I normally use an instant coffee like Bru. You can use a 1/2 tsp extra and use vanilla extract instead. Hope this helps.
Joyeeta Sinha
Hi
Beautiful cake and photography! A lot of your cake recipes I find have no oil or butter – how is the texture? Wouldn’t it be dry? Would be wonderful to see a close up shot of the sliced cake to get an idea.Thanks!
Deeba @ PAB
Thank you so much Joyeeta. if it’s a layered sponge cake, I normally don’t use any fat. The mositness is added either with a syrup, fruit, or filling, sometimes all 3. As a habit, I keep the layered cake in the fridge overnight to let it get nice and moist & let the flavours mature. Hope this helps
Cheshta
The cream in Coffee Mascarpone filling is which cream ?
Deeba @ PAB
Amul Fresh
Prachi Lohade
Hi Deeba. Could you suggest a substitute for the 8 eggs in the recipe? Would love if I can try this one eggless!
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Prachi, going eggless on this isn’t going to be easy.
Sorry.