Marks' Chocolate-Cream Cheese Cake With Pecans |
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Prep Time: 120 Minutes Cook Time: 25 Minutes |
Ready In: 145 Minutes Servings: 4 |
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This is a lush, delicious chocolate cake filled with fresh cream cheese cream and crunchy pecans and frosted with rich chocolate icing. I came up with this cake for my boyfriends’ birthday and everyone said it was the best they ever tasted. I found the recipe for chocolate icing in a cooking book Chocolate sensations. I recommend that you prepare the cake and pecans a day before and finish it in the morning. The cake must cool in the fridge at lest 3 hours but you should leave it on room temperature for an hour before serving. That way the cake is moist and icing creamy. Note: For cream cheese filling I used instant gelatine. You can use gelatine in powder or leaves but you will probably have to adjust the preparation. Or you can fill the cake with your favourite cream cheese filling. The preparation time does not include cooling time. Ingredients:
125 g butter, softened |
2 cups caster sugar |
2 teaspoons vanilla essence |
1 3/4 cups flour |
2 teaspoons baking powder |
3/4 cup cocoa powder |
1 cup buttermilk |
250 g cream cheese |
250 g whipped cream |
1 teaspoon vanilla essence |
15 g gelatin, instant |
70 g icing sugar |
150 g pecans |
5 tablespoons icing sugar |
water |
250 g butter, softened |
1 egg |
2 egg yolks |
1 cup icing sugar |
185 g dark chocolate, melted and cooled |
Directions:
1. Place butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla essence in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Sift together flour, baking powder and cocoa powder.
2. Fold flour mixture and buttermilk, alternately, into butter mixture. Divide mixture between 3 greased and lined 23 cm round cake tins and bake for 25 minutes or until baked in oven temperature 160 °C. Leave cakes to cool.
3. For filling first make pecans. Spread pecans on large lined tin. Mix icing sugar with a little water until you get icing-like texture. Spread it over pecans and make sure that they are well covered. Bake them in oven temperature 200 °C until the sugar melts and turns brown. Leave to cool. Save some pecans for decoration and chop the others.
4. For cream cheese filling mix cream cheese with vanilla until smooth. Add instant gelatine and mix with electric mixer for at least 1 minute. Add icing sugar and carefully fold in whipped cream.
5. To assemble cake, place one cake on a serving plate, spread with half of cream cheese filling, sprinkle with half pecans. Top with a second cake and remaining cream and nuts. Finish with a layer of cake.
6. To make icing, place butter in a mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Mix in egg, egg yolks and icing sugar. Add chocolate and beat until icing is thick and creamy. Cover top and sides of cake with icing and decorate with saved pecans.
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