Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Vanilla-Lemon Curd

This dessert is sort of a collaboration between Bev and myself. If I may say so myself, it is so simple to make, and yet so decadent in taste.

Bev did most of the work, and was thus responsible for baking the (fantastic) chocolate buttermilk cakes, while I prepared the simple chocolate ganache and put together a cheater bug's version of a vanilla-lemon curd (you'll see what I mean shortly).

The recipe is as follows:

Chocolate buttermilk cake

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
230 gms butter, at room temperature
170 gms good quality chocolate, melted
4 eggs (59gm each), at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Beat butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl till pale yellow, and sugars have dissolved. Add eggs into mixture till fully incorporated. Then, add the melted chocolate and continue beating till smooth.

Sift all dry ingredients together into a bowl. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and fold thoroughly. Add 1/3 buttermilk, that have been mixed with the vanilla, and fold again till smooth. Keep repeating with 1/3 each of dry ingredients, then buttermilk, till all have been used up.

Pour into individual rectangular/round/square moulds which have been brushed with melted butter. Bake at 170 degrees celsius for 20-25 minutes till cooked through. To test, insert a wooden skewer to the middle of the cake. If the skewer comes out clean, cake is cooked through.

Rest in moulds, undisturbed, till cool enough to handle.

Basic chocolate ganache

100 gm chocolate (use either compound or couverture)
100 ml thickened cream

Heat cream in a saucepan till just below boiling point.
Pour over the chocolate in a clean, dry bowl.
Mix well.
Ganache may be used immediately, or cooled and reheated later on.

sneaky 30 second vanilla-lemon curd

1 jar store-bought lemon butter or lemon curd (we got ours, homemade, from the farmers' market)
1 vanilla bean

Split vanilla bean in half. Scoop out seeds and mix well in a bowl with the lemon curd/butter. Refrigerate for at least 30 mins before using.



To assemble:

Place cake on a plate. Spread a layer of warm chocolate ganache on top of the cake, then top with fruit. The ganache helps the fruit to adhere to the cake. In this instance, I used kiwi fruit. Berries of any sort would work beautifully too. Spoon a generous amount of vanilla-lemon curd over the fruit. Garnish the rest of the plate with some chocolate ganache or lemon curd if desired.

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