Chocolate Coffee Cake Topped with Dried Rose Petals

With spring/summer in full force here in Holland, flowers are everywhere. Holland is known for its flowers, not only flowers you get at a store but also flowers people plant outside their homes. There is such a burst of color everywhere you look. It is virtually impossible not to feel some sort of joy when looking at the beauty.

This season I have suddenly fallen in love with roses. I never did like roses because of  everything cliched that they represent. Looking around me, seeing how wildly beautiful they grow at every street corner, I have fallen in love with them. The roses in a store have a different appeal, but these that grow so free are so incredibly irresistible.

It all started when Charlize and I started smelling all the roses we saw around us. Her idea, to find the most beautiful and the most fragrant rose. As beautiful as they all were or are, and had the promise of the delicious fragrance that a rose must possess, they all disappointed. Till we suddenly saw a pale orange rose desperately trying to show itself amongst the bush of other flowers in our very own tiny backyard. By now we were quite sure this rose, as beautiful as it was, would not have the fragrance we were so desperate to find. I plucked just one of it luxurious petals and held it gingerly to my nose. I was knocked off of my feet when the fragrance, so sweet and so intoxicating wafted into my senses. The rose in hiding or should I say in plain sight, was our perfect rose.

And then I left the petal on a table and forgot all about it.

Several days later, I saw that pale orange petal transformed to a flaming dried red one. How the color changed I have no idea. It was as if that lone petal sucked all the color around it. In death, it became yet more beautiful. Nor did it sacrifice its scent.

This event was too beautiful to not try again. Maybe it would not happen again. So I tried with yet one more petal. The exact same thing happened again.

For me roses go perfectly with chocolate. This cake happened because of that rose and not the other way around. I love that because of the way it surprised me. I patiently looked at all the petals from 2 roses from the backyard, turn to a flaming red.These are the petals you will so on top of this cake.

The rose also gently reminded me of how love, beauty comes to us in the most unexpected ways, by accident and most often by things or people right under our noses.

Chocolate Coffee Cake Topped with Dried Rose Petals

 

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Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 30 mins

 

I found this cake on Vogue Living and it really is a deep rich soul satisfying cake.

Author: boxofspice

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

• For Cake
• 85 grams Dutch cocoa powder
• 320 ml sour cream
• 4 large eggs
• ⅓ cup strong coffee*
• 3 tsps vanilla extract
• 320 grams plain flour
• 2 cups fine sugar
• 1½ tsps baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 400 grams unsalted butter, softened (should be very very soft and not just room temperature)
• 
  
• For the Coffee Ganache
• 2 cups icing sugar
• ⅓ cup Dutch cocoa powder
• ⅓ cup cold espresso coffee**

Instructions

1. To prepare the cake, preheat oven to 175° C/350° F.
2. Grease a bundt cake pan of your choice. Lightly dust with flour.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the cocoa, sour cream, eggs, coffee and vanilla extract until just combined.
4. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add half of the flour mixture to the cocoa mixture and beat until just combined. Add half of butter to cocoa mixture and beat until combined. Add remaining flour mixture and butter, in batches, beating until well combined. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
5. Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Set aside for 20 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.
6. For the coffee glaze, combine icing sugar and cocoa in a medium bowl. Gradually stir in coffee until mixture reaches a pouring consistency.
7. Pour over cake once the cake is cool.

Notes

* I made the strong coffee by mixing 2 tbsps of instant coffee granules into ⅓ cup hot water.

** For the cold espresso coffee, mix 1 tbsp instant coffee into ⅓ cup cool water.

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