Chocolate Gateau

Sharing is caring!

Chocolate gateau – a sinfully delicious chocolate cake layered with a chocolate-heavy cream filling.

Gateau Cake

Making a chocolate gateau cake is easier than you might think. It looks impressive, but the cakes are easy to make (the best chocolate cakes ever, by the way), and the filling is made with only heavy cream and two sorts of chocolate.

What can I tell you about this gateau?

• It is my favorite chocolate cake.
• I have been making this cake for at least 8 years now, not only for us but most of the time for other people, so I bake it about 7 or 8 times every year; there is no other one that I get to bake so often. I don’t even have to check the recipe anymore; it is the only cake recipe I know by heart.
• The chocolate gateau looks really impressive; one would think you’d have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen and use some fancy ingredients to make it, but don’t worry, making this particular cake is a “piece of cake”, everything is stirred in no time, and the filling must be one of the easiest I know.
• And the taste is just amazing: chocolate, a dense moist cake sandwiched with this wonderful, luscious cream filling.

Ingredients for the cake

• Coffee: You will not taste the coffee instead, but it’s a key ingredient. When added to the batter, coffee boosts the chocolate taste of baked goods.
• Cocoa powder: Make sure is the unsweetened kind used for baking and not drinking cocoa.
• Buttermilk: It helps leaven the cake, makes it tender, and adds flavor.
• Oil: I am a big fan of baking cakes with oil; it makes them incredibly moist and helps keep them fresh for a bit longer.

Ingredients for the filling

Chocolate:

• Buy good brands to make the filling, only the kind of chocolate you would enjoy eating as it is as well. There is so much of it in the filling that you will definitely be able to taste the chocolate itself, so it has to be something good.
• This is not a sponsored post, but I still recommend using Lindt dark chocolate 70% cocoa and Milka (German); they are the two sorts I use most of the time. Usually, I would go for dark Lindt and milk Milka. (Amazon affiliate links)

How to make a chocolate gateau?

How to make chocolate cream?

You will have to make the filling one day in advance, as it needs time to set in the fridge.

Steps:

• Chop the chocolate very finely (1).
• Pour the heavy cream into a small pot, slowly bring it to a boil, take off the heat, and add the chocolate to the cream.
• Stir slowly until the chocolate has melted (2).

• Place a piece of plastic foil directly over the cream (so that it doesn’t form a “skin”), let the mixture get cold, then place it in the fridge until the next day (3).
• When ready to use (the next day), whisk the cream mixture until stiff with the electric mixer like you would normally whisk heavy cream.

How to make the cake layers?

• Preparations: Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 360°F. Butter and flour 2 springforms or cake pans of 20 cm/8-inch diameter.
• Brew one cup of strong coffee.

• Mix and sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl (4).
• Combine buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract, preferably in a jug or in another bowl (5).

• Pour this mixture, slowly, over the dry ingredients whisking with an electric mixer at very low speed (7).
• Add the hot coffee and stir with a spatula very shortly until the ingredients are just combined. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl.

• Divide the mixture into two equal parts (I use the scale to make sure I divide the mixture evenly) and pour into the two prepared forms (8).

• Bake for about 40-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out relatively clean, it can still be a bit wet, but it should not be covered in chocolate.

• Cool in the pan for a while, then transfer the chocolate cakes to wire racks and let cool completely.

How to assemble the chocolate gateau?

• Cut each cake into two equal slices (9).
• Whisk the chocolate-heavy cream mixture until stiff with the electric mixer like you typically whisk the cream (10).

• Place one cake layer on a platter. Add some chocolate cream, the second cake layer, and so on (11).
• Cover with the remaining chocolate cream; you should use about half of it for layering the cake and half for covering the whole cake (See Expert Tips to learn about the parchment paper you see in the picture).

• Decorate the cake to your liking. I used dried strawberries and meringues, crushed between my fingers, some chopped pistachios, and some hazelnut brittle.

• This recipe is part of the Harry Potter series; my interpretation of the chocolate gateau Ron Wesley stuffs his face with in the 6th book of the series.

Expert Tips

• Always use a digital kitchen scale in baking; it guarantees for best results (Amazon affiliate link).

• Don’t be tempted to add sugar to the filling, even if you might think it could be sweeter. The cake itself is sweet enough so that the filling should not be sweeter than it already is.

• Make in advance: Both chocolate cream and chocolate gateau can be made one day in advance.
  • Let the cakes get cold on a wire rack, wrap them tightly in plastic foil to prevent them from drying out, and keep them refrigerated until the next day.
  • If it’s not too warm, you can keep them at room temperature until the next day as well; just make sure you wrap them well.

• Parchment paper: Use two pieces of parchment paper to cover the serving platter to keep it clean while filling and decorating the chocolate gateau.
  • Cut two pieces of paper and place them on the platter, overlapping them a little. Once you’ve finished filling and decoration, pull them out carefully and gently so that the cake stays put on the platter. This saves you the more difficult task of transferring the cake to a clean platter.

More chocolate cakes?

Sharing is caring!