Chocolate Truffle Cake

The glorious chocolate truffle cake. It's a beautiful, timeless chocolate cake, and its dense chocolate flavour comes from melted chocolate which also helps create a moist sponge. This cake, along with its rich sponge, has a homemade cookie butter filling made with Tim-tams that is so easy to make you can use the leftover butter as a spread. I frost this cake with a unique sour cream chocolate frosting that is smooth, silky and delicious. This cake is a chocolate lover's dream.

Ingredients

Cake Base

2½ cup Flour

1½ cup Full Fat Milk

1¾ cup Sugar

200g unsalted Butter

4 eggs

½ tsp Baking soda

2½ tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Vanilla extract

225g Dark Chocolate

Cookie Butter Filling

325g Tim Tam

60g unsalted Butter

½ cup Evaporated milk

Frosting

265g milk Chocolate

8 tbsp unsalted butter

1 cup Sour Cream

2 tsp Vanilla extract

3-5 cups of Icing sugar

Method

Step 1- Cake Base

In a pan, add milk, butter and chocolate. Place the pan on low heat, and cook till all the chocolate is completely melted.

Step 2

Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder, and whisk well in a bowl.

Step 3

In another bowl, add your eggs, sugar and vanilla extract. Whisk them together till thoroughly combined.

Step 4

Now add ½ of your melted chocolate to your eggs, and mix well, followed by half your dry ingredients.

Step 5

Add the rest of the chocolate batter and the dry ingredients and mix well together. The batter will be thin.

Step 6

Preheat the oven to 165°c. Line two 8-inch cake tins with parchment paper and grease the sides with butter.

Step 7

Now divide the batter into cake tins equally. Then bang the tin against the slab a couple of times.

Step 8

Place the tins in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or till the cakes pass the toothpick test.

Step 9

Now take the cakes out of the oven. Let them rest in the tin for 15-20 minutes. Then take the cakes out of the tin and let them cool to room temperature on a cooling rack.

Step 10 - Cookie butter

Meanwhile, in a zip lock bag, add Tim Tam and, with a rolling pin, beat them into crumbs or, in a food processor, pulse them to crumbs.

Step 11

Add melted butter and evaporated milk to the crumbs and combine in a food processor or a blender.

Step 12

Pulse till thoroughly combined, and the cookie butter is a smooth and fine paste. Keep aside.

Step 13 - Frosting

In a pan, add chocolate and butter. Place on low heat and cook till all the chocolate is melted. Then take off the heat and let it cool down to room temperature.

Step 14

Add sour cream and cream on medium speed in a bowl with a hand beater for 2-3 minutes.

Step 15

Now add the melted chocolate and vanilla extract. And beat till thoroughly combined. Now start adding your icing sugar, and scrape down the bowl occasionally.

Step 16

Once all the icing sugar is combined, the frosting should be fluffy and glossy.

Step 17 - Assembly

With a bread knife, level your cakes, wrap them in cling wrap and place them in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Step 18

After 30 minutes, take the cakes out; in a piping bag, add frosting. Take one cake, and make a dam with the frosting on the edges of the cake.

Step 19

Add the cookie butter in the middle generously. Now place the other cake on top and start spreading the frosting over and around it. Level the frosting and add some chocolate shavings.

Step 20

Place in the refrigerator for 5 hours or overnight and serve.

Tips

1. Always melt milk, butter and chocolate together in a water bath. Let all the ingredients come down to room temperature.

2. A toothpick is a must to ensure your cake is fully baked.

3. Let the cake sponges rest and come to room temperature before cutting into them.

4. You can make cookie butter in a mixer as well. Just beat the biscuit into crumbs with a rolling pin before adding them to the mixer.

5. Ensure your butter and chocolate are at room temperature before adding them to the sour cream.

6. Always cool your cake sponge before frosting.

7. Let your cake rest overnight for best results.