Dark Chocolate, Caramel and Bacon Cake

By Chef Thobeka Shangase

This one is going down in the history books! Hold on to your apron strings folks, I haven’t lost my mind. Your eyes do not deceive you, I didn’t make a typing error, I really mean it, its chocolate, caramel and bacon!

Before you throw your baking pans and whisks me, remember that bacon makes everything better, so why not cake?! This is a valid question I am posing to you Sugar Freaks.

Pig tastes really good smothered in chocolate. We all know that we have to season our desserts with salt, the combination of salty and sweet is hard to resist and one I love very much, salted caramel is a classic example of this combination.

So after being introduced to chocolate covered bacon recently, my taste buds were forever changed, when I bit into that chocolate covered piece of swine, there was an explosion in my mouth, a million sensations firing all at once.

This was a taste I had to replicate immediately. I went home and the first thing I thought of was chocolate cake, I wanted to create a truly decadent and gluttonous feel to this dessert, so I decided to use my classic dark chocolate cake recipe as a foundation for this cake.

Then to kick up the yum factor I wanted to add on something else into this cake that would really drive home the sweet and salty theme I was going for and it was obvious to me, caramel.

Bacon, chocolate and caramel, these have to be some of the most sinful foods known to man kind and I was going to put them in a cake.

Why a cake? Everybody loves cake and I felt that the bacon would some how make the cake moist, like how some people wrap chicken with bacon to keep it moist during cooking. I don’t know if that was the case or not for this cake, but in my mind I was convinced it was going to work out this way.

My sister loves the salty sweet combination, her favourite snack is Nik Naks and banana’s eaten together and she loves bacon, so she was the perfect lab rat for me to test out this cake.

Result?: excellent

Two gold stars for me.

Dark Chocolate, Bacon and Caramel Cake

12 slices bacon

2 cups self-raising flour

190ml cocoa

2 cups white sugar

2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon sea salt

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup hot water

1 capsule espresso

125ml vegetable oil

Caramel Filling

125ml butter

250ml dark brown sugar, tightly packed

¼ cup milk + extra

500ml icing sugar

Pinch of sea salt

Dark chocolate Ganache

500g dark chocolate, chopped

1 ¾ cups double cream

Preheat oven to 180.

Grease two 23 cm round cake tins.

Dissolve the coffee in hot water and leave to cool completely it must be cold.

Cook the bacon in a pan over medium heat until it brown and crispy, drain on a paper towel and leave to cool before chopping up roughly.

In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients and make a well in the center.

In another bowl combine the oil, cold coffee, buttermilk and eggs and mix well. Add the liquid into the flour and mix until just combined.

Add in the bacon and fold through. Pour the batter in the tins and bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven and cool in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

When the cakes are completely cool, place them in the fridge so they can be easier to handle when icing.

Caramel filling: melt butter in a pot and add brown sugar and the ¼ cup milk and boil on a low heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and bring to room temp. When cool add in the icing sugar, pour in a little milk if the mixture is too stiff. When icing is the right consistency add in a pinch of sea salt and lightly mix through.

Ganache: Place the chocolate and cream in a double boiler over simmering water and stir until chocolate melts and is smooth. Remove from heat and stir until glossy. Let the ganache cool completely, divide and place 2/3 of it in a mixing bowl and leave the rest in a double boiler. Put the rest over the simmering water to just keep it at a pourable consistency, don’t over heat it.

Whip the rest of the ganache on high speed for 5 minutes, it will get light in colour and fluffs up.

Place one cake on a serving plate and fill the top of the cake with the caramel. Spread the caramel evenly on top of the cake.

Place the second cake on top and spread the fluffy ganache all over the cake, on top and around. Place in the fridge for 1 hour.

 Pour on the remaining ganache over the chilled cake, it will run down the sides and thicken slightly. Spread it around with a spatula. Sprinkle the bacon on top of the cake.

 Place in the fridge to set for 20 minutes.