Chocolate Lovers Dream

Extreme Chocolate Cake

I live in a house of chocolate lovers, we firmly believe there is no such thing as too much chocolate.  So when my moms birthday rolled around and she said she wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  What else is there to do but to take it to the absolute extreme.  And now we're here; the Extreme Chocolate Lovers Cake.

I'm not going to post the whole recipe I used for this cake.  You can simply use your favorite chocolate cake mix for this. A tip: Anytime you're making chocolate cake if the recipe calls for water replace it with coffee.  Coffee brings out the chocolaty flavor.  This won't make the cake taste like coffee, just enhance the other flavors.  You can also add a shot of Kahlua into any chocolate cake for the same results.  

So go ahead and make your favorite chocolate cake recipe and allow the cakes to cool, and then frost them.  I used a basic chocolate buttercream frosting, but just like the cake, if you already have a favorite chocolate frosting, use that! Remember this is an extreme chocolate cake.  The more chocolate the better. 
Make sure you get the cake chilled after you frost it as well, so that the drips will naturally roll down the cake better.  I put my cake in the freezer for about 30 minutes after I frosted it.  

For my drips on the cake I used a traditional ganache and a zip-lock bag.  You can put it in a piping bag but I found that it wasn't necessary.  
For my ganache, I just heated about a cup of heavy cream in the microwave for about 2 minutes.  Be careful not to burn it, you might need to stir it every minute, but basically bring it to a boil and then take it out.  Stir in equal parts of chocolate chips.  I used dark chocolate but you can use whatever your favorite kind is.  (For white drips use white chocolate.)  Pour the ganache in a zip-lock bag.
Now, the longer you let the ganache chill for, the easier it will be to control the drips.  If you try to apply the drips while its still hot the drips will run all the way down.  I left mine at room temperature for about 15 minutes. If you decide your drips are too runny, pop it in the freezer.  If they're too thick and not running down the cake, put it in the microwave for 10 seconds.  
Always do a test drip first to see how it looks before you start going all the way around.  
Then, it's as simple as it sounds, go around the cake slowly and gently with your zip-lock bag of ganache and squeeze the bag every 1/2 inch or so.  

Now for the super fun part.  
THE CANDY.

Go to the store and buy all of your favorite candy and then decorate the top of your cake however you would like!
It's really simple and you can totally make it your own, and make it different every single time.

From my kitchen to yours,
MallaryMade💗