Mini Chocolate Cake with Italian Meringue, Raspberry, and Shaved Chocolate

These mini chocolate cakes are amazingly moist and rich in chocolate flavours, and the marshmallowy toasted Italian meringue would simply melt in your mouth like a dream! I also used fresh raspberry and shaved chocolate as the toppings, because this time I want to keep the recipe as simple as possible, and these are the flavours that just go perfectly together. And the best part? They look fancy but they’re also incredibly easy to make – win win!

Also, I think you’ve already noticed it, BUT I WILL TELL YOU ALSO – I have done a make over for my blog today! To be honest, changing the appearance of my blog had been on my to-do list for quite some time because this blog is my creative outlet and I want it to speak volumes about who I am and my aesthetics. I am really happy with how my blog looks right now.

I made these cakes at the same night I made the earl grey honey cake. I usually wouldn’t dare to make two desserts on the same day here in Sydney- because firstly, although pastry chefs should be the master of multitasking, but I still prefer focusing on photographing and sharing one recipe with you guys before I move on to the other; and secondly, there are definitely too many cakes piling up in my fridge already (like always). However, I made these cakes spontaneously as I had too much left over sour cream, meringue, chocolate, fresh raspberry (and the list goes on and on and on…), and I just couldn’t bare not creating something else out of them. I added instant coffee and my beloved coffee liqueur to the cake mix to enhance the chocolate taste. For those who aren’t the biggest fan of coffee, don’t worry, as the addition of coffee is just to intensify the chocolate flavour.

And as you can see my random project turns out successful and I shamelessly brought them to my classmates who obviously have had too much cake in their daily lives already. I hope you enjoy this recipe and let me know how it goes if you try it out! Have a nice weekend everyone 🙂

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cake

• 240g all-purpose flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 250g butter
• 200g white granulated sugar
• 100g brown sugar
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 100g melted dark chocolate
• 150g sour cream
• 2 tbsp instant coffee powder (melted in 60ml hot water)
• 120 ml milk

Italian meringue

• 100g caster sugar
• 60ml water
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2  tsp vanilla

125g fresh raspberry

chocolate decorations

Instructions:

Chocolate cake

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175C) . Line your cake mould with melted butter. Set aside until ready to use.
2. Melt coffee powder in 60ml hot water. Stir until the coffee dissolves completely. Set aside to let cool.
3. In a mixing bowl, sift and combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. These are your dry ingredients. Set aside.
4. In another mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium high speed until creamy and smooth. This will take around 4-5 mins.
5. Slowly add eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, and continue beating for 2 mins.
6. Add melted chocolate and sour cream, beat until incorporated.
7. Turn to low speed, add the cooled coffee mixture and milk; mix until smooth.
8. In 3 batches, pour the prepared dry ingredients into the mixture, and gently stir with a spatula until incorporated. Don’t overmix.
9. Fill your cake mould to nearly full and bake for about 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the cupcake’s centre comes out clean. Take the cakes out from the mould once they have slightly cooled down. Let cool completely until ready to assemble.

Italian Meringue

1. Put sugar and water in a small saucepan and do NOT stir. Bring the water and sugar to boil at 118C. When the syrup reaches 115C, simultaneously start whisking the egg whites to soft peaks on a medium speed.
2. When the sugar reaches 118C, pour it over the egg whites (pour the hot syrup on the side of the mixing bowl to avoid cooking the egg whites). Add Vanilla,  turn the mixer to high speed and continue beating for about 5-7 mins, until the meringue is cooled down to 50C and glossy stiff peaks have formed.

Assemble
Using your favourite piping nozzle, pipe the meringue onto the cake and lightly toast them with a blowtorch. Top it with raspberries and chocolate.