Yellow Vanilla Cake With Chocolate Ganache Frosting

I’m heading off to Bloodstock festival tomorrow; I go to at least one festival every year and am usually very well prepared the way in advance. This year, however, it seems like time has gone by much quicker than usual and I am utterly unprepared, so today is going to be spent in a mad rush trying to get everything packed and sorted. I haven’t even cleaned our tent after last years camping so that is going to be a grim job!

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Because I have so much to do today I will keep this post short. I made this yellow vanilla cake with chocolate ganache frosting a while back but didn’t get round to posting it. It is a really delicious, moist, tender cake that is great for feeding a crowd and is very easy to make. The ‘yellow’ refers to the fact that it is just made with egg yolks rather than whole eggs which give the crumb a lovely color and flavor. It is quite a common cake in the US but hasn’t really made it over to the UK which is a shame as it is a really delicious cake.

The yellow vanilla cake goes perfectly with a whipped ganache topping; it is literally just chocolate ganache that has been cooled then whisked until light and spreadable. It makes a really good cake topping as it is chocolatey but light and not too sweet. I used half dark and half milk chocolate so that it isn’t overly rich and will be good for children as well as adults. As you can see I decorated my cake with M&M’s and mini M&M type sweets (from the cake decorating section of the supermarket, they were called something like ‘choco beans’); it is rather more colourful than I usually go for but I think it works and the sweets provide a nice contrast in texture.

Ingredients

Cake:

270 g (2 + 1/4 cups) plain flour
30 g (1/4 cup) cornflour (cornstarch)
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
170 g (3/4 cup) softened butter
265 g (1 + 1/3 cups) caster sugar
6 large egg yolks
240 ml (1 cup) milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting:

100 g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate chopped
100 g (3.5 oz) milk chocolate chopped
200 ml (1 cup minus 3 Tbsp) double (heavy) cream
1/2 Tbsp golden syrup
30 g (2 Tbsp) butter
M&M's, mini M&M's, sprinkles etc to decorate

Instructions

Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Grease a 23cm square cake tin and line the base with a strip of baking parchment.

Sift together the flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for a good few minutes until extremely light and fluffy. Whisk in the egg yolks one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in the vanilla extract.

Fold in one-third of the flour, then half of the milk followed by another third of the flour, the rest of the milk then the rest of the flour.

Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and spread it level. Bake for about 40 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center, comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 20 minutes then carefully turn it out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Once the cake has cooled make the ganache. Place the chopped chocolates and the cream in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Stir regularly until melted and smooth. 

Remove from the heat and add the golden syrup and butter; stir until melted then place in the fridge until cold but not set.
Whisk with an electric mixer until thickened, be careful not to overmix. If you find that it is not becoming thick then the ganache may be too warm still, pop it back in the fridge until cool then try again.

Spread the whipped ganache over the cake and sprinkle with M&M's, mini M&M's, sprinkles, chopped chocolate bars etc.