Recipe: Dark chocolate cake with salted Italian buttercream

This incredibly decadent dessert, using Dingle Sea Salt, serves up to 12 people and is bound to wow your guests this Easter

Ingredients:

For the cake

225g dark chocolate

225g unsalted butter

1 tbsp instant coffee granules dissolved into 125ml boiled water

175g plain flour

25g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

200g caster sugar

200g light brown sugar

4 medium eggs

75ml buttermilk

For the buttercream

4 large, room temperature egg whites

¼ lemon

220g caster sugar

60ml water

400-450g butter, room temperature but not completely soft, cut into cubes

2 tsp Dingle Sea Salt

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

To serve

A good quality store-bought caramel sauce

Method:

Cake

• Preheat your oven to 160°C. Line a large rectangular baking tray with parchment paper, then set aside until ready to use.

• Gently melt the dark chocolate and butter together, either in a heatproof bowl over gently simmering water or in the microwave in 30 second segments. When the instant coffee is dissolved into the boiled water, add this to the chocolate and butter. Stir to combine and set aside to cool slightly (10-15 minutes).

• In a large bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

• In another large bowl, beat the eggs and caster and brown sugar together with a hand mixer (or in the stand mixer with a whisk attachment) for 5-7 minutes, until extremely light and fluffy. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to this and mix to combine.

• Add the dry ingredients to this mixture and mix briefly, until just combined, and then add the buttermilk. Beat on high for 30 seconds to make sure everything is well incorporated.

• Pour the batter into the lined baking tray and bake for 35-40 minutes, checking after 35 minutes. When baked, a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake should come out clean. Let the cake cool in the tins for 15-20 minutes, then carefully remove it from the tray and cool completely on a wire rack.

• When the cake is cool, use a serrated knife to trim the edges, then divide the cake into two equal halves. Slice each piece along the middle to make four even sized layers.

Buttercream

• Wipe the bowl of a stand mixer with half a lemon (make sure the bowl is clean and dry before you do this). Add the egg whites to the bowl and, with the whisk attachment, whisk until stiff peaks are formed.

• While the egg whites are being whisked, make the simple syrup: in a saucepan, combine the caster sugar and water. Bring to a boil and cook the syrup for around 5-7 minutes, or until it reaches 115°C on a candy thermometer.

• When the egg whites have been whisked to stiff peaks, turn stand mixer down to low. Carefully drizzle the hot syrup into the whisked egg whites. You want to do this slowly, in a steady stream, but also do this before the syrup becomes too cool. When the hot syrup is added, continue whisking for another 5-10 minutes, until the bowl has begun to cool down (the syrup will make it very warm for a few minutes).

• When the bowl has cooled down, keep the machine going on low and start incorporating the butter into the mixture, a little bit at a time. The addition of fat will cause the meringue to deflate, so don’t be alarmed. Just slowly add the butter piece by piece and eventually, once most of the butter has been added, the mixture will transform into a thick, glossy buttercream.

• Add the Dingle Sea Salt and the vanilla at this stage. Increase the speed of the stand mixer to high and whisk for another 1-2 minutes, until everything is nicely whipped and well incorporated.

Assembly

• To assemble, place one cake layer on a cake plate and add a good dollop of buttercream on top. Spread it evenly over the cake and then place another layer on top of this. Repeat until all four layers are used. Then, add the remaining buttercream to the top of the cake and carefully spread it all over the top and sides to coat.

• The cake layers can be made ahead and frozen, but the buttercream is best used right away once made. Once assembled, this cake will keep in an airtight container for up to five days (but it won’t last that long). To serve, add a generous drizzle of a good quality caramel sauce.

This recipe was created by food writer Janine Kennedy for the Mar|Apr issue of Irish Country Magazine, in shops now.