A timeless chocolate cake – a classic birthday cake with salted caramel that everyone will love.
Ingredients
- Wheat flour, 2 and 2/3 cups
- Cocoa powder, 3/4 cup
- Baking powder, 2 teaspoons (level)
- Baking soda, 1/3 teaspoon
- Salt, a pinch
- Large eggs, 4, at room temperature
- Sugar, 1 and 1/2 cups
- Mayonnaise, 1 and 1/2 cups, at room temperature
- Warm water, 1 and 1/2 cups
Cream
- Dark or semi-sweet chocolate, 400 g
- Water, 1/4 cup
- Sugar, 3/4 cup
- Heavy cream (30%), 250 ml
- Butter, 200 g, soft
- Coarse sea salt, about 1/3 teaspoon, crushed
For decoration
- Crushed sea salt
- Optional: sugar, 1/4 cup and water, 1 tablespoon
Preparation
Cake: remove the butter, eggs, mayonnaise, and heavy cream from the refrigerator to warm up. Prepare and measure all ingredients. Grease three 22 cm diameter springform pans with butter and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 160°C (top and bottom heating, no fan). Place two racks or one rack and one baking sheet in the oven (for baking on two levels).
Sift the flour together with cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into one bowl, mix and set aside.
In another bowl, crack the eggs, add the sugar, and beat on the highest mixer speed for about 5 minutes until you get a thick, fluffy, pale mixture.
Add the mayonnaise and mix on low speed briefly, just until combined.
Add the dry ingredients in three parts, mixing on the lowest mixer speed each time just until combined. With the second portion of flour, add the water.
Divide the batter evenly into three springform pans, place in the oven (two pans on the upper rack and one on the lower rack). Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Halfway through baking, switch the pans from the upper rack to the lower rack and vice versa. Remove from the oven and cool.
Cream: break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a clean bowl. In a saucepan, bring the water and sugar to a boil, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Set to medium heat and cook for about 10 minutes until the mixture becomes syrupy, glossy, and amber-colored. Pour the cream into the caramel, stirring vigorously until smooth. Then cook for about 1 and 1/2 minutes. Pour over the chocolate and stir until melted, cool.
Beat the chocolate mixture with the gradually added butter (do not mix for more than about 1 minute, add the butter in short intervals, mixing until combined). Wait until the mixture thickens (you can place it in a cool place) enough to spread the cake (about 1/2 hour).
Place the first cake layer on a platter, spread with 1/3 of the cream, and sprinkle with a small pinch of salt. Cover with the second layer, spread with cream, and sprinkle with salt. Place the last cake layer, spread the sides and top of the cake with the remaining cream. Refrigerate for about 1 hour or longer (it can be prepared the day before).
Remove the cake from the refrigerator before serving to soften appropriately. You can sprinkle with the remaining salt and optionally drizzle with thickening caramel: cook the water and sugar the same way as for the cream. When amber-colored, remove from heat and decorate the cake with a spoon. Sprinkle with crushed sea salt.
