Chocolate, Yogurt and Olive Oil Cake

Here’s my favourite chocolate cake recipe, using my favourite Valrhona French style cocoa powder and grated Ecuadorean dark chocolate.

From time to time we serve variations of this cake in our chocolate shop and cafe! It’s popular alongside a our real hot chocolate and I love it with a strong espresso.

You can enjoy playing around with different sugars. I like to use rapadura sugar (also referred to as panela) for a beautiful texture and depth of flavour. Brown sugar will also work well or you try my favourite baking approach, which is to combine caster sugar and brown sugar,

Cake ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup Greek yogurt

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup pure cocoa powder

1/2 cup grated dark chocolate

Pinch salt

1 cup self raising flour

 

Ganache:

 

200 mL cream

200 g chocolate

I used

Republica del Cacao

Amazonia 75%

 

Method:

For the cake:

Prepare a 20cm round or Bundt tin

Whisk the eggs and combine with oil, vanilla extract, yogurt and sugar. Gently fold through chocolate, flour and salt. Bake for 35-40 mins at 180 degrees Celsius.

 

For the ganache:

Bring the cream to just below the boil. Remove from heat. Stir through the chocolate until well combined and glossy.

 

Leave 10 minutes.

 

Pour over cake and decorate with berries.

 

Variations:

Once you’re comfortable with baking this cake, please do play around with it! At our shop, we bake the cake in individual ramekins and often serve it with a whipped ganache. You could do the same, or perhaps try adding some chopped nuts or berries to the mixture for a different texture. 

Espresso Chocolate Cake:

From time to time, we tweak this cake recipe and create an espresso chocolate cake. To do this, prepare a few freshly poured shots of espresso and brush liberally over the cooled cakes. Allow the espresso to absorb into the cake and top with espresso buttercream. When serving this version in the shop, we drizzle the finished cake with tempered dark chocolate to finish it off beautifully!

 

Other pairing suggestions for your chocolate cake:

We are located in the Canberra district cool-climate wine region, which is known for excellent Shiraz and Syrah varieties. I am a big fan of chocolate and wine and suggest enjoying this cake alongside a beautiful local shiraz.