Here we have a very moist and velvety chocolate sponge cake. You can add any filling, cream, or frosting you like. This sponge has an intense chocolate flavour and a delicate caramel aroma, so it will be the perfect base for plenty of cakes. Today we gonna make it with a caramel cream cheese frosting, it is very fast and easy to prepare and it fits perfectly with this sponge.
Here is the recipe:
Ingredients for the chocolate sponge batter:
- 120 g cake flour (sifted)
- 25 g pure cacao
- 1,5 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- a pinch of salt
- 60 g brown sugar
- 60 g muscovado sugar (it’s an unrefined cane sugar with a strong molasses content and flavour, it will add a special aroma to the sponge), but if it is not available just add 60 g of brown sugar instead, so you’ll need 120 g totally for the batter.
- 2 whole eggs (at room temperature, large)
- 2 tbsp of honey
- 3 tbsp of olive oil
- 125 g of greek yogurt (not sweet, warm)
- vanilla essence
Directions for the cake:
- Preheat an oven to 180°C (356°F)
- Lightly grease the interior of a baking mold with butter.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, cacao, cinnamon, and salt together.
- Beat the eggs with sugar and muscovado sugar to white soft peaks.
- Add the warm yogurt, mix a bit,then add several drops of vanilla essence, olive oil, and honey, and mix until everything is blended in completely. Scrap the sides of the bowl.
- Add half of the sifted dry ingredients and mix for a few moments until incorporated. Add the other half of the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Do not overmix the batter!
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking mold (I used a round mold, d=18 cm) and spread it out evenly.
- Bake for around 25 minutes, until baked.
- Let the cake cool to room temperature and then de-mold it.
If you have enough time, then when the sponge is cooled to room temperature, wrap it in a plastic film and send it to the fringe for 12-24 hours, it will be even better.
Ingredients for the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 70 g sugar powder
- 120 g heavy cream (min 35%), cold
- 250 g mascarpone cheese, cold
- 4-6 tbsp of caramel sauce or Dulce de Leche (to your taste)
- 1-2 tbsp of chocolate sauce (to your taste, optional)
Directions for the Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Chill the cream and all equipment thoroughly, especially in hot weather. If the cream is too warm, it is hard to whip it and it curdles easily.
- Whip the cream with sifted sugar powder (confectioner’s sugar). Use the whip attachment of your mixer and run the machine at medium speed.
Do not overwhip. Stop beating when the cream forms peaks that hold their shape. If the cream is whipped longer, it first becomes grainy and then curdles (separates into butter and whey).
- Here we need to slightly under beat the cream, because we are going to mix it with mascarpone cheese later, and the action of mixing whips it more and may overbeat it.
- Slightly whip the mascarpone cheese in a separate bowl, it should have a creamy and smooth texture.
- Combine the whipped cream and mascarpone cheese, add caramel and chocolate sauces and mix the cream at a low speed until well blended, do not overwhip.
- Put the cream in a pastry bag, if you are not going to use it immediately, store it in a refrigerator.
I did not use a pastry bag to decorate this cake, I spread the cream and some chocolate sauce with a spatula on the top of the cake and then drew a spiral pattern with a fork.
Assembling and Decoration with cream:
- Cut your cooled sponge into 2 layers.
- Spread some caramel and chocolate sauces on the cake layers.
- Sandwich them together with the cream cheese.
- Spread the cream on the top or decorate as desired using a pastry bag with piping additional cream, making patterns, etc.
Enjoy!
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