Salted Dark Chocolate Cake With Ganache Frosting Recipe (2024)

Are you seriously criticizing a recipe that you didn't make according to the instructions? Buttermilk is bound to throw off the flavors, and it works differently with baking powder etc. If you'd made it as written, and had an issue with it, then fair enough, but adapting then suggesting it isn't good, is really something.

Made this today and it was very successful. As others have pointed out, there are significant differences between the cb and the NYT versions. I mainly used the cb. I think there's a trans-Pacific mistranslation in this NYT recipe. Self-raising flour (Australian/British) is _not_ the same as self-rising flour (U.S.). The former does not contain extra salt, and when making it from plain flour it needs approximately 1/2 tsp more extra baking powder per cup.

It requires just two bowls — one for the cake and one for the frosting — and there’s no need to separate wet and dry ingredients. You just toss everything into a bowl and stir. The end result is a tender, sophisticated cake slathered with a glossy milk chocolate-sour cream ganache.

Bittersweet or semisweet will both work. It's really a matter of taste. I used Ghirardelli bittersweet bars and Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips when I made the cake. Happy baking!

But you didn’t follow the recipe by using the buttermilk instead of whole milk so perhaps it isn’t the recipe that was the problem.

The cake is highly intensive, but worth the effort for special occasions. However, the frosting! Oh my! This is my new go-to frosting. It's super easy, delicious, and I almost always have the ingredients on hand.Changes I've made to the frosting: I use semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate. Much tastier! Also, the sour cream should be room temperature. Bonus: I made this with Non-Dairy Sour Cream and it was still delicious!

FWIW, this cake can be made in 9-inch pie pans just fine, but keep an eye on them! They'll bake a bit faster.

When baking gluten free, I always separate my eggs and whip the whites to stiff peaks. Then fold them in to the batter st the very end. This makes the batter less dense.

Do you have to line the sides of the pans?

Buttermilk and whole milk are absolutely not interchangeable in baking. Your results were expected based on the change you made.

Did it per instructions (had to do my own self-rising from the note; had to use 9 inch pans, just watch time carefully; used good quality, dutch-processed powder, and callebaut 60-40 block for the chocolate), found it to be excellent: moist and dense (not at all dry as some have claimed), rich and intense in flavor, but well balanced by ganache; keeps well in fridge too; all guests loved it. Favorite "standard" chocolate cake I've done (and I've tried quite a few).

Absolutely delicious! Followed recipe exactly except that I used 9 inch pans. Weighed ingredients where indicated. Not dry at all. Big hit at the dinner party. Possibly addictive.

Excellent cake and ganache. Easy to make, frost and slice. Did not layer the cakes and cut them into a total of 20 good-sized slices. Used 70% Trader Joe’s chocolate for the cake and their milk chocolate for the ganache. Added chocolate chips. The fleur de sel is good, but not essential. Cake was devoured by a horde of teenagers.

Use King Arthur Measure for Measure (the very best), or if you can't find that, Cup4Cup (close second). These are perfect subs for wheat flour and you don't need to do anything different. They are nearly indistinguishable from regular flour, especially in cakes. They are complete game changers. I have celiac and was a prolific baker in my prediagnosis days. It took a while to find my footing with GF baking, but these flours, particularly the KA, have made it so easy now.

I tried the whisking thing for about 20 seconds, then said, "Forget this," and dumped the whole thing into my food processor. Much easier! I used dark cocoa powder to make it taste & look darker, added 1 tsp espresso powder. Used 6 oz semisweet choc & 1 oz unsweetened so wouldn't be too sweet. I had to bake it a lot longer & if I made again would use 9-inch pans. (I did line the sides with aluminum foil to support the cake but it still rose VERY high.)

Cake was good but a bit dry. One bowl for cake a bit misleading. You can melt the butter & chocolate in the same bowl (make sure it's a big one) and use that as the main bowl. The beaten eggs require another bowl and if you sift the flour & cocoa you may need another bowl.

Often oil is used for chocolate cakes rather than butter. That could help with the dryness people are experiencing.

Pastry frostingHand mixFrosting from the notes

Sorry about the note below. It’s for the frosting suggested further below. This is my new family favorite, BUT use pastry flour and hand mix all dry ingredients then all wet ingredients separately. Mix together at the last minute and slowly fold together to prevent CO2 made by baking powder liquid from outgassing into the air instead of the cake. It rose to twice the height of the pans. Chemistry wins again!

½ c butter1 c peanut butter3 T creamVanillaWhisk until smoothUse for sides

Used Callebaut bitter sweet with 1.5 tsp espresso powder and about 1 tsp vanilla extract. Result was very intense and bitter. Otherwise the frosting was easy to make and to spread, with ample for a two layer, 8 inch cake.

Hated this ganache idk if i did something wrong but i literally hated it

Followed recipe exactly. Two 9" pans for 40 min. Sliced the dome off both layers once completely cool and at that time the scraps were moist and delicious. Frosted and assembled the cake and popped it into the fridge for about 3 hours. By the time we served it, it was like... a different cake. The crumb was incredibly dry and dense. And it had somehow lost most of its chocolate flavor. The two stars given here are both for the grenache, which was easy to make and had great flavor and texture.

Made recipe per instructions. The good: the ganache frosting. The less good: layers were too thick and were dry, despite baking less time than stated in recipe. Cake fell apart when I went to cut and it turned into a mess. Overall, maybe a master baker could make it work but I will pass on making it again. Too dense, dry and not worth the money for quality ingredients.

I really enjoyed the flavor of the cake, however the texture was very crumbly, which was surprising consider the amount of liquid in the cake itself. The ganache was great and will definitely use that recipe in the future.

Cake was too dry. Perhaps try baking it for less time but wouldn’t make it again.

This is a BIG cake -unless your 8 inch pans are really deep the mixture will not fit. I cooked in 9 inch pans and it still took almost 40 minutes to cook. The cake is a little crumbly but the flavor is good - a nice milky chocolatey taste. What it needs to finish it off perfectly is a rich, moist frosting. The ganache is too dry and there's nowhere near enough of it. I will make this again and finish with Nigella's All-in-One chocolate cake frosting then I think this will be really good.

This cake is perfect as written. I used 8.5 inch pans and made a peanut butter/butter cream frosting for the fill layer. 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup creamy peanut butter, 3 tablespoons cream, teaspoon vanilla. Whisk or beat until fluffy.

Like some other commentators, we found the cake to be somewhat dry. Baking time in 8-inch pans was about 50 minutes. The ganache was the best part - nicely tangy and not too sweet. We’ll use that part of the recipe again; the cake, not so much.

I’m not a big cake fan, but I made this for a friend’s birthday, and I’ve now been sold on chocolate cakes. The 3.5 ounces of dark chocolate per layer certainly helps. However, I found that half of this batter is way too much for an 8-inch cake pan! 9 inches is the way to go next time.