Mini Chocolate Cakes

What’s better than Mini Chocolate Cakes making an appearance at your brunch or afternoon tea spread? ❤

There’s something rather endearing about tea time. Be it exquisitely laid out afternoon tea spreads in hotels, an assortment of little cakes and confections gleaming in the light streaming in from the windows; or an early evening on the porch, surrounded by your girls, gorging on the latest gossip with a side of tiny sandwiches and cake, tea time is special.

Fancy or not, I believe everyone must have a tea time/ coffee time ritual, a few moments everyday set aside for you and your cuppa! Like most, tea time is a chance for me to come up for a breather; it is also when my mum and I have the most fascinating conversations about everything under the sun. It has been a long standing tradition in our home; whenever mom and I are under the same roof, we come together sometime around 5:45-6pm, she makes her tea, while I get my coffee going. Soon we settle on the kitchen floor, with some cake or cookies between us; and as we sip, the words unfurl.

When I’m away from mum, I try to honour our little tradition, and that means baking lovely little cakes to go with my coffee, like these to-die-for Mini Chocolate Cakes! 😉

This recipe makes 8 mini cakes or one standard-size loaf cake. Here’s what you need:

• All Purpose Flour – 3/4 cup (115 g)
• Cocoa Powder – 1/4 cup (20 g)
• Baking Powder – 1/4 + 1/8 tsp (2 g)
• Salt – 1/4 + 1/8 tsp (2 g)
• Unsalted Butter – 1 stick (113 g)
• Granulated Sugar – 1/2 cup (110 g)
• Egg – 1 whole
• Egg Yolk – 1
• Greek Yogurt – 1/6 cup (40 g)
• Brewed Coffee – 1/2 tbsp (can be subsituted with 1/2 tbsp of instant black coffee)
• Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
• 70% Dark Chocolate – 80 g, finely chopped into tiny cubes/ slivers
• 70% Dark Chocolate – 50 g, melted, to use as glaze (optional)

Here’s how you make these glossy beauts:

• Prep the dry ingredients: Preheat the oven to 165 ºC/ 325ºF. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Whisk them until mixed properly and set aside.
• Prep the wet ingredients: In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar for 3 minutes, or until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Add in the egg and egg yolk and beat the mixture for another 3 minutes until airy and light.
• Mix the batter: Add in half the dry ingredients into the egg, butter, sugar mixture and beat until just incorporated. Pour in the Greek yogurt, coffee and vanilla extract and mix in. Add in the remaining dry ingredients and beat the batter until well incorporated. Tip in the finely chopped dark chocolate and give the batter a final mix.
• Bake the mini chocolate cakes: Grease a mini cake baking pan (or a cupcake tin) with non-stick spray or butter and pour in the batter into each cup, until three-quarters of the way full. Pop the pan into the oven and bake the cakes for 18 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out with moist crumbs attached.
• Serve: Once the cakes are done, pull them out of the oven and leave them to cool for 10 minutes. Turn the pan over and release the mini chocolate cakes. Drizzle some melted dark chocolate over them (optional) and serve while still warm.

Whenever I’m at the store, I find myself reaching for the mini chocolate pound cakes, because what’s better than pound cake for tea time?! And if there are sampler bites of the cakes sitting on a tray, you can count on me to sneak in a few extra! 😛 But the problem with the store-bought variety is that they lack consistency. Some days they are perfectly moist, other days they are dry and tough; sometimes they are just the right amount of sweet, other times, they are cloying.

So to avoid the whole ‘I wonder if the cake sitting in my cart is as good as the last one’ conundrum, I decided to make these perfect-every-time Mini Chocolate Tea Cakes.

Best eaten warm, and fresh out of the oven (rewarm them in the microwave and no one can tell the difference!), these little dreamy cakes are a real treat. The dense, moist chocolate sponge boasts of a deep chocolate flavour, elevated by the unapparent presence of brewed coffee. As you bite in, speckles of 70% dark chocolate offer the slightest bit of crunch, while larger chunks result in oozing pockets of chocolaty goodness. And THAT GLAZE (fancy term for melted chocolate 😛 )! While it is totally optional, the glossy chocolate glaze pushes the chocolate lover over the edge, right into euphoria!

Fudgey, melt-in-the-mouth and gooey, these Mini Chocolate Tea Cakes are begging to be recreated in your home. Rest assured that your tummy and all your dear ones will love you more for baking these! ❤

Want to Pin This recipe for later? Here you go…

Psst… If you’d like to, you could come check me out on Pinterest! I pin a tonne of fun stuff – chocolate, lots of dessert, easy weeknight recipes; and home decor (I’m obsessed with home office spaces!)😛

Also, for regular updates on what’s happening in The Foodscape kitchen, follow me on Instagram at @thefoodscape! You’ll love all the deliciousness there, I promise! ❤