Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache Filling and Frosting

Just celebrated our anniversary yesterday on Valentine's Day. That shows my love for Valentine's Day, as I chose that day to get married. Its been 12 years and it still feels like yesterday. 

As I was still thinking what cake to bake for this occasion , my younger one who's 4 said he really wished for a heart cake. Since it was Valentine's day and our anniversary chocolate heart shaped cake did not seem like a bad idea. My older who's 8 and my DH said that  anything's fine. Its the usual  guy thing I guess and I'm outnumbered being the only  girl in the house. 

So this is what I baked- Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache  filling and frosting. Also used some Chocolate shavings to garnish the cake and make it extra special.

Chocolate Cake  

Ingredients :

• 1 + 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 orange juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs

Preparation: 

• Preheat oven to 350 deg F (180 deg C). Grease a 9 inch heart cake pan.
• In a bowl sieve together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl mix together sugar, vegetable oil , eggs, orange juice and vanilla essence until all ingredients are blended , either by hand or by using an electric mixer at slow speed. Then add the dry mixture and  mix it well.
• Pour into the prepared cake pan. Bake in preheated oven for about 35 to 40 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
• Allow the cake to cool. Then slice the cake through the middle to make two layers .  Apply a liberal amount of the Chocolate Ganache filling on the top of the lower layer. Carefully place the top layer. Then add the rest of the Chocolate Ganache  and cover the entire cake. Try to make it as smooth as possible and then garnish it with some Chocolate  Shavings.

Chocolate Ganache  

Ingredients :

• 1 cup heavy whipped cream 
• 12 oz Ghirardelli semi-sweet Chocolate baking chips

Preparation:  Heat the cream on medium high flame. Now pour this hot cream onto the semi-sweet chocolate chips. Whisk it well until  the chips dissolve and make a smooth chocolate Ganache frosting.  Ganache in French simply means a mixture of chocolate and cream.