{Earl Grey Chocolate Cakes w/ Lavender Caramel Ganache & Blackberries}

Aside · Posted by jen at chocolateandginger.com on August 7, 2012 · 9 Comments 

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the prolonged absence from the blog. I’ve been in the midst of packing up/unpacking and getting settled into our new home. Moving is an absolute pain in the butt, but it’s a great way to sort and discard/donate clutter in my life. Which is especially important when you’re living in a place that is open concept with not much storage space..

I have baked TWICE in my new kitchen and I thought I’d share a recipe I made last night for Sunday night dinner with the fam.

It starts with steeping 6 bags of Earl Grey tea in 1 cup of hot water. Set aside..

In a bowl, melt 4 oz of chopped dark chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between each time. If you want, you could also use a double boiler, but I’ve never had issues using this method, plus it’s WAY faster.

I creamed butter, eggs and sugar in my mixer with a paddle attachment. I then stirred in the melted chocolate added in my dry ingredients. The result will be a super glossy and airy batter.

The original recipe calls for this to be poured into a bundt pan, but I thought I’d make mini loaves instead for easy individual portions. I adjusted the cooking time from 50 minutes to about 30 minutes at 350F. Be sure to not overfill the tins, these cakes puff up A LOT while baking.

I let the cakes cool before removing them from the pan, flipped them over and draped the tops with a layer of chocolate caramel ganache infused with a couple drops of lavender essence to compliment the bergamot flavours in the earl grey. I topped it off with fresh blackberries and sprinkled them with powdered sugar.

The result was a not-too-sweet moist chocolate cake with a nice tartness from the berries to balance of the richness of the ganache. It’s light and airy texture makes it the perfect ending to a summer BBQ. Hope you enjoy, bon appetit!

* Side note: They tasted great out of the fridge the next day too 😉

Earl Grey Chocolate Cake with Lavender Caramel Ganache and Blackberries – serves 10 (recipe adapted from Shutterbean)

• 6 Earl Grey tea bags or 2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups granulated sugar (I reduced this to 1 1/2 cups)
• 4 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted & cooled (I used regular bar chocolate)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• confectioners’ sugar
• blackberries
• 4 oz dark chocolate and 1/2 cup heavy cream  for ganache
• 3 tbsp homemade caramel au beurre sale (recipe here) – you can use store bought too 🙂
• lavender essence (optional)

Heat oven to 350° F. Coat an 8-cup fluted tube pan or a mini loaf pan with cooking spray.

Brew the tea in the water 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags or strain the leaves and set the brewed tea aside.

Using a mixer, beat the butter, eggs, and granulated sugar until fluffy. Blend in the chocolate. Beat in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, yogurt, and brewed tea. Pour into pan.

Bake 50 minutes in a bundt pan or 30 minutes in a mini loaf pan or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes. Turn out of pan and cool.

Melt 4 oz of chopped chocolate in 1/2 cup heavy cream in a small pot on the stove (add a couple drops of lavender essence to the cream before you add in chocolate). Stir in the caramel sauce. Allow to cool to almost room temp and drizzle over tops of cakes. Decorate with blackberries and dust with confectioners’ sugar.

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On another note, here are a couple snapshots of what I’ve been doing while I’ve been away from the blog. This past month has included a lot of late nights and early mornings and plain old hard work as I make my new condo feel like a home. Here is the chalkboard feature wall going up in the kitchen with the help of my mom 🙂

This was just after all the boxes were moved in. It was super overwhelming standing in front of all this..WHERE TO START?!

Me, my mom and aunt painted the whole place in a one day (ambitious I know..) on the day of possession and moved everything in the next day. Here is a snapshot of our master bedroom. I love the contrast of the dark grey wall to the white (paint is Benjamin Moore in Steel Wool).

Everything is coming together finally. More to come soon…

Filed under Home/Decor, Recipes, Uncategorized · Tagged with blackberries, cake, chocolate, dessert, earl grey, ganache, lavender, recipe