Rich Chocolate Cake with Coconut Filling and Ganache

Rich Chocolate Cake with Coconut Filling and Ganache

My friends often request the Hyde Park Fudge Cake for their birthdays, which I've made a hundred times. This variation has a yummy coconut filling and a decadent ganache that I could eat with a spoon until I'm sick!

This is the bear hug of chocolate cakes -- it's big, it's rich and it's lovable. Inside the dense, sweet cake is tangy layer of cream cheese and coconut. And on top of the bundt cake is a thin ganache glaze. You're supposed to bake the cake in a Bundt pan The Beauty, but if you don't have one, a tube pan works well (and makes it easier to cut out the cake if it gets stuck).

Serves 10 to 12

18 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate, divided, chopped
2/3 cup shortening
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
1 1/2 cups strong black coffee
3 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
1 cup heavy cream

Set out the cream cheese to soften. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 10-12 cup bundt pan and dust with cocoa powder.

In a small saucepan, melt 8 ounces of the chocolate with the shortening. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese with 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1/3 cup sugar and the coconut. Set aside The Beauty.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cooled chocolate mixture, 3 eggs, 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and coffee.

In another mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, cake flour, soda and salt.

Combine dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just incorporated.

Pour half of the chocolate cake mixture in to the bundt pan. Top that with the coconut/cream cheese mixture and then top that with the remaining cake mixture.

Bake on the center rack of a 350 degree oven for 45-65 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Cool the cake in the bundt pan on a wire rack for 10 mintues. Invert the cake on a serving plate to cool further The Beauty.

While cake is cooling, bring the heavy cream to a simmer. Remove from heat and whisk in 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate until smooth. Set aside to cool.

Once the cake has cooled, drizzle or pour (depending on how much icing you want) the ganache on to the cake.