Mini Double Chocolate Berry Cakes

Last night was my little sisters birthday.

I made her a normal sized cake, of course.

But you all know how I love my individual desserts.

So I made a handful of these:

MINI DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BERRY CAKES

I just love mini cakes and these are simply presented with nothing more than a pile of fresh berries on top.

Just Chocolate cake, chocolate ganache, and berries.

Which pretty much equals a perfect dessert in my world.

A few things to note:

I made these cakes using tall, thin mason jars, not your average sized jar. The jars I used were about 2″ wide and  5-6″ tall with strait sides so they were easy to remove. These won’t work in traditional mason jars with an opening smaller than the overall width. 

This cake batter will rise more than you would think, so take extra care to not fill the jars over 1/3 full. Otherwise you’ll be scraping burnt piles of chocolate cake off of the oven floor.

I like to use coconut milk in this recipe. I find that it gives it a little bit of a richer, more dense texture. If you want to use regular cow’s milk, that will work fine as well.

Mini Double Chocolate Berry Cakes

 

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Serves: 10-12 Mini Cakes

Ingredients

• 1 C. Flour
• ¾ C. Sugar
• Heaping ⅓ C. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 1 t. Baking Powder
• ¾ t. Baking Soda
• ½ t. Salt
• ½ t. Espresso Powder
• ½ C. Coconut Milk
• ¼ C. Vegetable Oil
• 1 Egg
• 1 t. Vanilla
• ½ C. boiling water
• 1 Double Recipe Chocolate Ganache
• About 18 Strawberries, halved
• ½ pint Blueberries
• ½ pint Raspberries

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Grease and flour 5-6 tall, thin mason jars.
3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and espresso powder.
4. Add the coconut milk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
5. Add the hot water and mix in until the batter is smooth, scraping the bottom of the bowl once so that the batter is evenly mixed.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared mason jars. Make sure that you do not fill the jars up more than ⅓ full. If you fill them more than ⅓, your batter will likely spill over when baking.
7. Baking time will depend on the size of jars that you use. Start checking after about 12 minutes of baking for doneness. Cakes are done when the top of the cake is puffy and firm. Take care not to under-cook the cake. If under-cooked, the cakes will be very difficult to get out of the jars. A little over-done is better than under-done.
8. Let cakes cool for 5 minutes, then invert jars and remove cakes. You may need to run a knife around the edges before removing.
9. When the cakes are cool, level the tops and cut the cakes in half, making 10-12 mini cakes.
10. Place each cake on a little plate, or you can do what I did and use the metal jar tops that come with the jars as a plate(this way you can move the cakes around, but there won't be much "Plate" showing.
11. Frost with the chocolate ganache. Ganache should be at a spreadable consistency, not too firm to spread, but not runny. If it is too runny, let it set a little longer. If it is too firm, pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds and stir with a whisk.
12. After covering each cake in ganache and smoothing the tops and sides, run the tines of a fork or the bottom of a small paint brush around the sides of the ganache, all the way up the cakes.
13. Top each cake with about 3 strawberry halves, and as many raspberries and blueberries as you can pile on.
14. Serve as is or refrigerate for a more truffle-like cake.

3.2.2925

Cake recipe adapted from Add A Pinch