It is almost Christmas and it is time to make our plans for this special day. There are million things that have to be done and prepared but even if it may be a tiring and stressing period it is also the happiest one. “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” as the song says and for me is absolutely true. This year, partly because of the blog, I started to think about Christmas almost from September. A long festive season for me as you understand and I couldn’t be happier. I spent all these months searching about crafting supplies and recipes, Ι made some cute felt ornaments, I got a lot of jingle bells (don’t know what to do with all these but I got them anyway!!) and a lot of ribbons and of course I was dreaming and dreaming and dreaming!
Now, a few days before Christmas day, is time to make all these dreams come true and take some serious decisions. What presents should I take for my beloved ones? What will be the menu? Who will be the guests? What style my house decoration should be? Who will be the Santa? I can’t help you with all of these questions but I can make some suggestions mostly about the Christmas desserts.
The traditional Greek sweets are kourambiedes and melomakarona. Both of them are cookie-style sweets and there is no home in Greece without having them on the Christmas table. However I will not start my suggestions with these recipes but with something more international and all time classic. Chocolate! Who can imagine Christmas without chocolate? Nobody!
This chocolate cake is so chocolaty, so moist and so mouthwatering that is impossible for anyone to resist. Very easy to prepare (nothing to do but whisk) is everything you need for a celebration menu and a special occasion like this. Layers of cake and rich chocolate cream do the magic of Christmas to be a real thing and a tasty one too!
The fun has just started!
Chocolate cake with chocolate cream filling
(9 votes, average: 4.89 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- for the cake
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- 1 cup strong coffee
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- for the chocolate cream
- 200 gr semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 1/2 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup corn flour
Instructions
for the cake
Preheat the oven at 175°C.
Butter 2 loaf pans (approximately 25x10 cm) and line the bottom with parchment paper.
Put all the ingredients for the cake in a large bowl and stir until well combined.
Pour the mixture evenly to the loaf pans.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Let cool and cut each cake in half horizontally.
for the chocolate cream
Put all the ingredients in a pot and heat at low temperature until the cream is thicken, stirring often.
Remove from the heat and let the cream cool at room temperature.
Transfer the cream to a shallow pan and put it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
to assemble the cake
Place one piece of the cake to a plate.
Spread 1/3 of the cream over it.
Put another layer of the cake.
Spread another 1/3 of the cream over it.
Top with a third cake layer.
Spread the remaining cream on the top and the sides of the cake.
Crumble the remaining piece of cake and cover the top and the sides of the cake.
Put the cake in the fridge for at least 3 hours before serving.
Notes
It is crucial that you let the cream at the fridge for 2-3 hours before assembling the cake. This way the cream will stay on the cake when you put another layer over it and will not run out of the sides. I was in a hurry so I skip that part. This is the reason for the little amount of cream between the layers you see in my photos. Please have patience and wait until the cream is firm enough.
Adapted from a recipe by Vaggelis Driskas.
