Toffee and Coconut Filled Chocolate Cake

Chocolate, Toffee and Coconut Filled Cake – with Rose Williams

Thanks to my friend Rose - a great chef and food stylist who helped me come up with this recipe to satisfy a sweet tooth for a birthday!  

Cake- Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate, Chocolate Cake 

I was thrilled to find that Rose's preferred chocolate cake recipe is the same one I use - straight from Hershey.  

Chocolate - Toffee filling:

1 1/3 whipping cream

7 T unsalted butter, diced

2 T. sour cream

2 T vanilla extract

1 1/3 c. English Toffee bits

1 2/3 c. melted milk chocolate chips

Stir cream and butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until butter melts and mixture comes to a boil. 

Remove from heat.

Add melted chocolate chips and whisk until smooth.  Whisk in sour cream and vanilla. Fold in toffee bits.  Let stand at room temperature until cool and slightly thick but still pourable, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour.

Coconut filling:

In a medium saucepan, mix 2 cups of dried unsweetened coconut with 1 can sweetened condensed milk, and the same amount of milk.  Bring to a boil, and cook until thickened and reduced.  Allow to cool.

Ganache: Scald 1.5 - 2 cups of Whipping Cream. 

Slowly pour whipping cream over 2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips and mix to a spreading consistency.  Allow to cool and thicken.  

Italian Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

Melt 8 oz of milk chocolate, using double boiler.  Set aside to cool. 

In a mixing bowl, add 9 egg whites, and 1.5 cups of sugar.  Place the bowl over a pan with water, and turn the stove on.  Mix the eggs with the whip attachment - mixing until the eggs are warm, but be careful not to cook the eggs.  

Place contents in a mixer and whip at high speed until soft peaks are formed.  Reduce speed, and add 6 tablespoons of room temperature butter, a small bit at a time - allowing it to become incorporated.  

Add the melted milk chocolate.  

If the butter doesn't melt well, place the bowl over the boiling double boiler for a few seconds, then remove and whip again. 

Directions:

Cut two 9 inch round cakes into 3 layers.

Freeze cake for easier handling.

Pipe each layer (on the inside edge) with ½” seam of chocolate ganache to contain and seal fillings. 

Fill alternating layers with chocolate toffee filling, and coconut filling.  Use thin dowels if necessary to keep cake from sliding.  Freeze.

Apply thin layer of ganache for crumb coat.  Immediately refrigerate. Once set, apply 2^nd thicker coat of ganache OR frosting. 

Garnish with coconut or toffee bars/bits.

Cakes

This seems to be a week of cakes, with two more still to go!

This one was done as a white and chocolate checkerboard with a german chocolate filling, a ganache crumb coat, frosted with a chocolate buttercream frosting.
I experimented with a fondant trim on the bottom, lined with edible pearls, which I also used for my drop string intersections.
My greatest discovery was that my pasta maker is perfect for rolling out fondant, and my pizza slicer is great for cutting it into the thin strips I needed.

A pasta maker - who knew? 

(said in a Flynn Rider from Disney's "Tangled" accent...as in, "Frying pans, who knew?")

This rainbow cake was made for a "Colors" party.  We loved how the cake looked very elegantly done up on the outside, yet was bursting with a party on the inside.  The colored sparkler candles were a hit too.

I used 2 yellow cake mixes (yellow made the colors a little brighter) and scooped 1 & 1/3 cups of batter into small bowls and colored them, then baked them individually - watching them carefully (smaller amounts=less time).

I assembled them with a buttercream frosting, using strawberry jam for filling in between a couple of the layers,to assist the flavor. Little Debbie's strawberry shortcake rolls aren't very tasty to eat, but were fun to border this cake with.

Finally - I've made this cake for the past two years in a row!  A decadent chocolate cake, filled with , coconut and toffee cake.
Thanks to my friend Rose Williams helped me figure this recipe out - she's a very talented chef and food stylist.

This is made as a decadent chocolate cake, with a coconut/toffee filling, crumb coated with a chocolate ganache, and a white chocolate buttercream frosting - decorated with Heath Toffee Bits.  

Here's a link to that recipe

Rich and Decadent Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes

Oh Boy!
Warm, rich, chocolatey, gooey, and did I mention decadent?
You could seriously hurt yourself on these things.



I have a friend who is finishing up cooking school, and I stopped by her house to visit last night. She told me about the molten lava cakes she’d made earlier that day and showed me the recipe.

I’ve been wanting to try these for a while, and had even just bought ramekins for them.  I was thrilled to have her share her recipe with me - definitely tried and tested!

These are so easy that I was able to memorize the essentials since I didn't write it down.  My family LOVED them.  And the best part is that they are simple, quick and easy, yet they seem so elegant, and like you've been slaving in the kitchen.

Just remember 6, 6, ¼, 2, 1.  That’s it.

Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes - 4 servings

6 oz chocolate squares (the higher percentage of cocoa butter, the better) 

6 T. unsalted butter

¼  C. sugar

2 Eggs – lightly beaten

1 T. flour

Place chocolate, butter and sugar in a double boiler, and allow to melt.  Once chocolate and butter have melted, stir until thoroughly mixed. 

Remove from double boiler – allow a few minutes to cool, then beat eggs into chocolate mixture – taking care to mix quickly so that the eggs don’t cook. 

Add flour, and spoon batter into 4 ramekins that have been sprayed with a cooking spray. 

Bake in 400* oven for 12-14 minutes depending on your oven (mine took 14, but my friend said 12).  If they over cook, the molten lava center will be cooked and it will turn into a small cake or large brownie.  Time may be adjusted for desired thickness of lava.  Less time = more liquid, more time = less liquid center.  

You can see in the following photo that the center doesn't look 'quite set'.  

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Invert onto serving dish and serve immediately. 

Sprinkle with powdered sugar, or serve with a chocolate sauce, ganache, or fresh raspberries/fruit.