Rich Chocolate Cake with Coconut Filling and Ganache

By nannydeb, posted 6 months ago

Photo: Sarah Shatz

Amanda & Merrill's Notes:

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, 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). - A&M

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! - nannydeb

Serves 10 to 12

18 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate, divided, chopped
2/3 cups shortening
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
1 1/2 cup strong black coffee
3 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoon 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.
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 45-50 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.
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.

Comments (49)Add yours

likestocooklovestoeat about 1 month ago: In addition to my comment above about baking time (40 minutes extra and it overflowed our 11 cup baking pan like crazy), I thought I'd add that it came out of the pan like a dream - we greased our heavy non-stick Bundt three times to ensure every nook and cranny was covered, cocoa-ed it up and stuck it in the fridge; that did the trick. The end product is tasty, so it was worth the extra hassle.
Adriana 5 months ago: Setting aside the sad fact that it took me a month to get around to making this cake (time to rethink my priorities) I would like to note two things. First, coconut oil works as an excellent substitute for shortening and will make your kitchen smell like you're living inside a macaroon. Also, to get around the wet/heavy problem I used a spring form pan with a McCann's Irish oatmeal can inside for a makeshift tube pan that would releases the cake more easily--it worked! Lined with waxed paper, by the way. Since I live with infidels who do not worship chocolate it's whipped cream with more coconut flakes instead of the ganache for us.
personalchef 5 months ago: Just checked on my cake in the oven after 45 minutes and half of it has spilled out over the cake pan onto the bottom of my oven. I thought I did everything right after spending good money on the ingredients and making sure I had the correct size bundt pan. I think it might take another 30 minutes to finish and them at least an hour or so to re-clean my oven. Has anyone else run into this problem? Very disappointing.
likestocooklovestoeat about 1 month ago: We're running into a long cooking time as well; at least 30 extra minutes, and the tester is *just about clean* so it will probably be 40 minutes extra before it's done. We also ran into the spillover too, so far all contained by a cookie sheet.
CASJ 5 months ago: Oh man, is this cake good. It almost made it onto the plate in one piece ;-) It is rich indeed, and heavy and moist and just divine. A perfect birthday cake for me. Thanks nannydeb! You must make it for aargersi.
nannydeb 5 months ago: Making this cake on Saturday, I, too had a bit of sticking on one side when removing it from the pan. It stuck to the pan where the coconut filling had baked too close to the side. My first reaction was to eat the pieces stuck to the pan, but instead I took them out, put them on the cake and glued them there with the ganache. I took the cake to a family party and no one was the wiser...
Aurora Kangaspuu 5 months ago: Actually, I meant to say that neither my culinary Weltanschauung nor my worldview @ a grander, more general existential scale, recognizes the C-word, Cr_ _ _ o, or the concept of shortening. I am disappointed that yours does.
amanda 5 months ago: We used Spectrum shortening, which is made with palm oil and doesn't contain trans fats.
merrill 5 months ago: Here at food52, the culinary Weltanschauung is all about broadening our horizons -- we find we learn a lot that way!
Helenthenanny 5 months ago: I once ate a big spoonful of buttered flavored Crisco just to see how it was. It was quite the experience, that big glob just moved around in my mouth like wax. It made me Weltanschauung all over myself. I'll give this Spectrum shortening a go though, I'm all for healthy alternatives, thanks Amanda! And you were right Merrill, I did learn something ; )
monkeymom 5 months ago: I had to google welta-whatever. I am glad that I can also learn new vocabulary from using this site! Helen, you are so hilarious, you almost made me weltanschauung my pants.
Helenthenanny 5 months ago: LOL, thank you monkeymom! And sorry about your pants!
Aurora Kangaspuu 5 months ago: I am so offended by the use of the word, "shortening," in this recipe. Actually, I was very excited by the AH tweet; when I tracked down the recipe, I wilted. I was crushed. I don't ever, ever, ever consider a recipe with ....the C-word. It may be ruined for me -- I don't even know if I could manage to try the recipe out even by substituting in a real food product, butter. : (
amanda 5 months ago: There's nothing wrong with trying it with butter -- lots of people on the site make substitutions in the recipes, and it's always interesting to hear how these substitutions turn out. If you try this with butter, please let us know how it goes!
Maria Teresa Jorge 5 months ago: Congratulations for having been chosen as one of the best chocolate cakes!
nannydeb 5 months ago: Thank you, it was a thrill and an honor to be a finalist.
jocelyng 5 months ago: It's in the oven right now. It's going to be donated to my daughter's teachers' luncheon tomorrow, so we won't get to try it (sob).
jocelyng 5 months ago: Just took it out of the oven. Total fail :-(. I checked it for doneness and it came out clean. Sadly it's completely uncooked in the middle. Grr.
TinaMiB 5 months ago: Good luck!!!
bhivedesign 5 months ago: I tried this cake yesterday as a lover of both chocolate and coconut (with a hankering) and as a budding-baker who had not yet found a recipe I love enough to make again and again. The flavors, tenderness and moistness of this cake could make it my all time favorite. And the recipe was easy to follow, up until I went to free my steamy chocolate decadence from it's bundt container. This sucker just wouldn't come out for love or money. I'm a solid cook, but only an amateur baker. I do know my way around a kitchen but no trick I knew would get this delicious devil out in one piece! Pre-baking I carefully, carefully greased and coco-ed the pan. I set my timer for 10 minutes of cooling on the rack (it was still a bit warm, but I was trusting the recipe). I wet a dish towel and ran it over the bottom. I let it cool a bit more. I finally had to whack the pan with a mallet (having worked myself up into a red-in-the-face chocolate frenzy) and conjure up an incantation to get what bits I could out. I ended up cutting the blobby-mess in half and topping it with itself. The ganache hid a multitude of sins and it tasted sooooo good. But in my fit of pique, I threw the pan in the garbage. Now I have to buy a new pan... any suggestions? I will try this again with a new pan, if I'm armed with some recommendations to get it out, or I'll have to never eat this heavenly confection again ... which makes me sad.
nannydeb 5 months ago: I did not add this to the directions because I have no scientific proof that it works, but after I grease and flour (or in this case cocoa powder) my bundt pan I put it in the freezer. I have limited counter space and this gets it out of my way also. Also, I often make a cake in stages because of time constraints. I may butter and flour my pan (put it in the freezer) and get my dry ingredients together and not make the cake until the next morning. I have two different bundt pans, one heavy metal and one cheapy thin metal and they both usually come out whole. I hope this step works so that you don't have to throw any more pans away!
jocelyng 5 months ago: I have a heavy-duty Kaiser bundt pan. It was like $35 or something crazy, but I make a banana bundt cake from Dorie Greenspan almost every month, so it was worth it. I love it.
amanda 5 months ago: Not sure if you saw our slideshow, but we also had trouble unmolding it, but we decided it was my bundt pan (which is heavy and "non stick") because I've had issues with that pan before. To be safe, you can make the cake in a tube pan and that way you can cut it out. It's a heavy cake so no matter the pan, it's going to be challenging to unmold. Hope you'll give it another try -- and also check out nannydeb's suggestions in this thread.
amanda 5 months ago: I should have also added, though, that an assistant editor who works with us also made the cake (before the photo shoot) and it unmolded without a hitch. Seems like it's just a finicky one so maybe a tube pan is best. Again, sorry you had a frustrating time!
Adriana 5 months ago: Ooh, coconut and chocolate--I'm going to try coconut oil in place of shortening. Could be overkill, but it's not like I make chocolate cake out of a sense of moderation.
nannydeb 5 months ago: I thought about half coffee and half coconut milk or coconut water too. Let us know how it turns out!
testkitchenette 5 months ago: Great recipe! I have been in the Bahamas this past week and didn't do it but will be hacking my own coconut next time to make this decadent treat!
mrsp 5 months ago: what exactly do you mean by shortening? crisco? butter? margarine?
nannydeb 5 months ago: I used Crisco shortening. I haven't tried using butter or margarine, but I bet that would work too.
merrill 5 months ago: We used Spectrum Organic's shortening, which contains no hydrogenated oils. It's great!
Helenthenanny 5 months ago: Hi Nanny from Austin!!! This cake is a beauty and you have my vote, well done and Congrats!
nannydeb 5 months ago: Thanks!
Mardi@eatlivetravelwrite 5 months ago: YIKES - the choice between these two recipes is so hard! I love them both! Can you send me a slice to test?? ;-)
AntoniaJames 5 months ago: The word "decadent" has just taken on a whole new meaning. ;o)
CASJ 5 months ago: I'm making this for my birthday. Thank you!
nannydeb 5 months ago: I always make my own birthday cake! That way, I get the joy of baking it too!
Naked Beet 5 months ago: I love both, but I can't resist the pull of coconut, it keeps bringing me back in!
TasteFood 5 months ago: Congratulations! What an intense cake - I will have to pace myself this weekend.
Feeding the Saints (A. C. Parker) 5 months ago: Looks great! Congrats on making it into the finals, and good luck. I think, like many others here, I'll be doing a lot of cake baking in the next couple of days to test these recipes out myself... who can resist? They both look so good. Don't know how I'll ever choose. Yum.
Illeanamedina 5 months ago: Girl, you got it.
Jennifer Perillo 5 months ago: Ok, this week is really a tough call. I may just have to bake these both myself before I can click the "vote button.
nannydeb 5 months ago: Good idea! I'm going to make Kelsey's cake this weekend. Any ol' excuse to eat chocolate cake!
marley16 5 months ago: Guess what I want for my birthday? Sonar
Jennifer Ann 6 months ago: I would love to have slice of this with a very strong cup of coffee.
mrslarkin 6 months ago: oh, that looks yummy!
arielleclementine 6 months ago: hooray for hyde park fudge cake! this sounds delicious!
aargersi 6 months ago: Yum! How come you have never made this for ME? I shall sulk until you do.
nannydeb 6 months ago: I figured you for a peanut brittle junky.
aargersi 6 months ago: well, yeah, but can't I have BOTH?????