Name: Soft chocolate cake with a hint of coffee
Prep time: 45 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 12 servings
Cuisine: Finnish

← Recipes

Kuva: Johannes P. 2026

🍫 Soft chocolate cake with a hint of coffee

⏱ 45 min 👥 12 servings 📊 , kcal / serving

Baking Celebration Rich

This recipe is a departure from the ones usually found on the site, as it isn't exactly at the healthy end of the scale. Even so, it's absolutely worth sharing, which is why it now finds its way into RestinCal's recipes. The base turns out exceptionally moist, and it is both frosted and filled with whipped milk-chocolate ganache. The recipe uses a couple of baking tricks: a small amount of instant coffee and a pinch of fine sea salt can't be tasted in the finished cake, instead they deepen the chocolate's own aroma. The combination of butter and oil, in turn, keeps the cake soft even when served fridge-cold.

A rich chocolate cake with accurate nutritional values

This recipe is not from the healthiest end of the site, and it is not meant to be. There are 522 kilocalories in a serving, and that shows in the nutritional values. The cake has still been calculated just as carefully as the lightest recipes on the site, and that is exactly the point of it.

Leaving treats out of tracking altogether is a common pitfall. When the energy content of a serving is not known, it is almost always estimated as too small, and the total for the day slips out of hand without anyone noticing. When the number is known, the treat can be placed into the day deliberately. One serving is a twelfth of the cake, about 127 grams, which is a whole slice and not a thin sliver.

The nutritional values have been calculated per ingredient and they update in the calculator on this page if ingredients are removed or edited. This way the cake can be adapted to your own ingredients without the numbers going wrong.

Coffee and salt: two ingredients that are not meant to be tasted

The recipe contains a small amount of instant coffee and a pinch of fine sea salt. These are often left out in the belief that the cake would end up tasting of coffee or salt. Neither of them, however, is meant to be tasted separately.

Instant coffee contains the same roasted aroma compounds as cocoa. A small amount in the batter does not bring a coffee flavour, it deepens the chocolate's own aroma and makes the taste fuller. Salt works on the same principle. A pinch does not make the cake salty, it lifts the sweetness and the cocoa forward and rounds off the whole. These two ingredients are the cheapest way in the recipe to raise an ordinary chocolate cake to a clearly better one.

Why does the batter contain both butter and oil?

This detail separates a dry cake from a moist one. Butter brings the flavour and oil brings the texture. A cake made with butter alone is delicious when warm, but it hardens in the fridge, because the fat in butter solidifies in the cold. Oil stays liquid even when cold, so the cake keeps soft even when it is served straight from the fridge.

In practice this means the cake can be made the day before without the quality suffering, which is a significant advantage when preparing for a celebration. The eggs, butter and cream should be taken out to reach room temperature in good time, because they blend more evenly and the batter does not split.

Whipping the ganache, the most critical stage of the recipe

Whipped ganache is the best part of the cake, but it is also the stage where the result is decided. The ganache has to be completely cooled before whipping, not lukewarm but properly cold. Ganache whipped while too warm does not turn fluffy, it stays loose and will not hold between the cake layers.

The other pitfall is overwhipping. The ganache turns pale and fluffy in about a minute, and that is the point where whipping stops. If whipping continues, the fat separates and the mixture splits, and it cannot be brought back. It is therefore better to follow the texture than the clock.

Serving size, storage and freezing

The cake is divided into twelve servings, and it is worth slicing it into pieces right away. From a sliced cake you take one piece and the serving size stays known. A piece cut from an unsliced cake is almost always larger than intended, which also means the energy amount recorded stays smaller than the real one.

The cake keeps in the fridge under a lid for about 3 days and stays soft thanks to the oil. The slices can also be frozen individually, so that one piece is taken from the freezer at a time and it thaws in the fridge in a few hours. This way the cake keeps longer and the whole tin does not have to be eaten in a couple of days.

📊 Nutrition

kcal

Protein

Carbs

Fat

Fiber,

Sugar,

Saturated fat,

Salt,

Select which ingredients to include in the calculation:

🛒 Ingredients (12 servings)

Butter (for the batter)100 g

Rapeseed oil20 g (approx. 2 tbsp)

Dark chocolate (approx. 70%)100 g

Milk chocolate (for the batter)40 g

Milk100 g (100 ml)

Caster sugar200 g (approx. 230 ml)

Wheat flour120 g (approx. 180 ml)

Cocoa powder35 g (approx. 100 ml)

Baking powder5 g (1.2 tsp)

Eggs2 (approx. 110 g)

Whipping cream (for the batter)100 g (100 ml)

Vanilla sugar (batter & ganache)10 g (2 tsp)

Instant coffee powder2 g (approx. 1 tsp)

Fine sea salt2 g (divided)

Milk chocolate (for the ganache)300 g

Whipping cream (for the ganache)300 g (300 ml)

Butter (for the ganache)10 g

Strong coffee (for soaking)100 g (100 ml)

👨‍🍳 Instructions

Prepare the tin and oven: Heat the oven to 175 °C (350 °F). Line the base of a roughly 20 cm springform tin with baking paper, and place strips of baking paper around the sides too, so the cake releases cleanly without tearing the surface. Take the eggs, butter and cream out in good time to reach room temperature, they blend more evenly and keep the batter from splitting.

Make the chocolate mixture: Chop the dark chocolate and milk chocolate into a saucepan. Add the milk and about half of the sugar. *At this stage the sugar helps create a smooth emulsion so the chocolate milk doesn't separate.* Heat gently, stirring constantly, until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Remove from the heat and let it cool to lukewarm.

Combine the dry ingredients: Measure the wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, vanilla sugar, instant coffee powder and half of the sea salt into a separate bowl. Mix well. *Instant coffee contains the same roasted aroma compounds as cocoa, so it doesn't taste of coffee in the cake, it deepens and brings the chocolate's own flavour to life. Vanilla, in turn, rounds out the flavours and softens the sharpness of the cocoa.*

Beat the butter and sugar: Beat the soft butter, rapeseed oil and the remaining sugar into a pale, airy foam. *Combining butter and oil is a perfect pairing: butter brings the flavour, while rapeseed oil stays liquid when cold and keeps the cake exceptionally moist even served straight from the fridge.* Add the eggs one at a time, stirring in a spoonful of the flour mixture after each egg, which keeps the batter from splitting.

Finish the batter and bake: Add the rest of the dry ingredients in a few batches, alternating with the whipping cream and the cooled chocolate mixture. Fold the batter gently with a spatula, just enough to combine, so the texture stays soft. Pour into the tin and bake on the lower rack at 175 °C (350 °F) for about 40–45 minutes (check doneness with a skewer). Let it cool thoroughly, ideally to fridge-cold, before slicing.

Make the chocolate ganache: Finely chop the ganache milk chocolate into a bowl. Heat the whipping cream in a saucepan to just below boiling and pour it straight over the chocolate. Let it rest for a minute so the heat spreads evenly, then stir gently from the centre outwards until smooth. Stir in 10 g of butter, the vanilla sugar and a pinch of sea salt. *Sea salt acts as a flavour enhancer that cuts excessive sweetness and brings out the chocolate. The butter added at the end gives the frosting its shine and a smooth mouthfeel.* Cover with cling film so it touches the surface of the ganache and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Whip and assemble the cake: Whip the fully chilled ganache with an electric mixer into a fluffy, pale foam (about a minute, be careful not to overwhip or it will split). Slice the cake base into two layers. Place the bottom layer on a serving plate and lightly moisten it with strong coffee. Spread about a third of the ganache in the middle. Set the second layer on top, moisten it, and spread the rest of the filling over the top and sides of the cake.

Decorate: Just before serving, finish the cake with, for example, chocolate shavings, fresh raspberries and toasted hazelnuts or cacao nibs. The toppings add pleasant texture and freshness. Let the cake rest a little longer in the fridge before serving so the flavours settle perfectly!

📋 Copy to your collection

Save this recipe to your own recipes, you can adjust the serving size and ingredients.