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Triple Chocolate Espresso Cakes

Triple Chocolate Espresso Cakes
When you’re in the mood for chocolate cake, you really can’t have too much chocolate. These Triple Chocolate Espresso Cakes boast three types of chocolate: dark, milk and white chocolate. The dark and milk chocolate are melted into the espresso-spiked batter, giving the cakes a strong bittersweet chocolate flavor. It might be tempting to skip the milk chocolate here if you’re not generally a milk chocolate fan, but it adds a little extra sweetness to the cake and helps to soften the strong dark chocolate flavor a little bit. If you were to substitute the milk chocolate for more dark chocolate, you would need to increase the sugar in the cake slightly. White chocolate comes in as chocolate chips, stirred into the batter along with more dark chocolate (semisweet chocolate chips are dark chocolate, even if they’re not labeled as such) and coarsely chopped walnuts.

The blend of chocolates in these cakes is delicious, well-balanced and very satisfying. The walnuts add a nice crunch to the moist, dense cake. The cakes are brownie-like, but they are sturdier and less overtly fudgy than brownies are. I baked these cakes in my Wilton Ice Cream Cookie Bowl Pan, using the inside of the cavities. They are slightly larger than a standard muffin cup and have a wonderful fluted design! They are the perfect size for a single serving cake. If you don’t have a pan like this one, you can use a standard nonstick muffin cup. You’ll probably get 12 mini cakes instead of 10 with a standard muffin cup and the baking time will need to be reduced slightly to accommodate a slightly smaller cake, but the finished treats will still be delicious!

I finished off my cakes with a chocolate ganache glaze, which dripped down the sides of the cakes for a beautiful look and yet another layer of rich chocolate flavor. The cakes can also be warmed up slightly and served with ice cream, but when you’re going for a dessert that has triple chocolate in the name, you might as well go for as much chocolate as you can get in every bite.

Triple Chocolate Espresso Cakes

Triple Chocolate Espresso Cakes
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4-oz dark chocolate, chopped
4-oz milk chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butter
1 tbsp instant espresso powder
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly butter the inside cavities of Wilton’s Ice Cream Cookie Bowl Pan* (or a 12-cup muffin tin, for slightly smaller cakes).
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a medium sized, microwave-safe bowl, melt together dark chocolate, milk chocolate and butter. Stir every 30-45 seconds to ensure that mixture is smooth and chocolate does not burn. Stir in espresso powder and allow to cool slightly.
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla extract. Whisk in cooled chocolate mixture, then stir in the dry ingredients, mixing just until no streaks of flour remain visible. Stir in chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and walnuts until well-distributed.
Ladle a scant 1 cup of batter into each of the cavities on the prepared pan (slightly less for a muffin tin).
Bake for 16-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached.
Allow cakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
When cakes are cooled, serve as is or finish with chocolate ganache glaze (recipe below).

Makes 8 cakes.

*Recipe will make 8 cakes, so the pan will need to be cooled and wiped clean, then reused to make the last two cakes. The batter can sit as the first batch bakes.

Glazing Triple Chocolate Espresso Cakes

Dark Chocolate Ganache Glaze
4-oz heavy cream
4-oz dark chocolate, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small saucepan or small microwave-safe bowl, bring cream to a boil.
Place chocolate and vanilla in a medium bowl. Pour boiling cream over the chocolate and allow mixture to sit for 1 minute to soften the chocolate. Stir with a whisk until all chocolate is melted and the ganache is smooth.
Drizzle over cooled cakes.

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2 Comments
  • Medeja
    July 24, 2014

    You can’t have too much chocolate.. Indeed 🙂 and you can’t have too many of these lovely cakes too 😀

  • Joyce laferrera
    July 26, 2014

    They all look delicious.

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