Baked Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Coffee Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

This week's assignment for Baked Sunday Mornings is the Chocolate Coffee Cake with Dark Chocolate Glaze -- which I think might be my favorite chocolate cake of all time. I first made this cake back in January, and I instantly fell in love. There is nothing not to love about this cake. The cake itself is light, moist, and very chocolatey with a delicate, fine crumb (it's also the same cake used in the Baked grasshopper cake). The coffee buttercream is lusciously smooth, and absolutely delicious. And the chocolate ganache and chocolate-covered espresso beans on top? Gorgeous. This cake is a showstopper.

I made this cake again recently, and I didn't change a thing. Well, I did make a point of trimming the cake a bit when I leveled the layers, because I was taking the cake to work (on the subway) and I wanted to make sure that the cake would fit into a 5-inch tall bakery box. 

The combination of the chocolate cake with the coffee buttercream is divine. This is the type of celebration cake where just having the cake is cause enough for celebration; it's absolute sweet splendor.

Recipe: "Chocolate Coffee Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache," from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.  Recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.

Previous Posts:

• "My New Cake Crush: Chocolate Coffee Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache," January 14, 2012.
• "My Cake Has a New Set of Clothes: Grasshopper Cake," January 24, 2012.