Amandina Chocolate Cake
This Amandina chocolate cake recipe is a new take on the original Amandina, a traditional Romanian cake. The original cakes are cut into single serving squares, and they are incredibly sweet. Although it’s tasty, I always found the original recipe to be too sweet to the point where I felt sick after eating one. Thus I challenged myself to create a recipe that is less sweet, but still has the same flavor as the original.
The original recipe calls for the cake to be heavily soaked in syrup. This adds a lot of sweetness, but it also gives nice consistency. To help cut the sweetness, but still achieve a fudgy consistency, I mixed regular flour with oat flour. Since oat flour has no gluten, the cake doe not rise as much, making it more fudge-like.
For the filling, the original recipe requires rum-flavored chocolate buttercream. I decided to make a semi-sweet chocolate ganache instead. The buttercream can be overpowering since it requires a lot of sugar.
Additionally, the original version calls for cocoa-flavored fondant glaze. I chose to use melted semi-sweet chocolate instead and I like it much better.
As you may be able to tell by now, this cake is very rich in chocolate. Sometimes I find chocolate cakes can feel a bit too rich. For that reason I like to serve them with whipped cream to balance out the flavors. Whipped cream is optional in this recipe, but if you have it I strongly recommend you serve it with the cake.
I’m quite proud of this result. Although it’s slightly different from the original recipe, I like it better. I was able to eat a whole slice without feeling sick due to too much sugar.
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Here is the recipe for the Amandina chocolate cake:
Amandina Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 ⅓ cups (200 g/ 7 oz.) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups (150 g/ 5 1⁄4 oz.) oat flour
- ¾ cup (150 g/ 5 ¼ oz.) granulated sugar
- 1 ½ sticks (180 g/ 6 ⅓ oz.) unsalted butter
- ¼ cup (25 g/ 1 oz.) Dutch processed cocoa powder
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- ¾ cup (180 ml/ 6 ⅓ fl. oz.) milk
- zest from one medium orange
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 2 tbsp. unsalted butter for greasing the baking pan
- 2-3 tbsp. oat flour, for dusting the baking pan
For the ganache filling:
- 180 g (6 ⅓ oz.) semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
- ¾ cup (180 g/ 6 ⅓ fl. oz.) cream (35% fat content)
For the glaze:
- 150 g (5 ¼ oz.) semi-sweet chocolate
Optional:
- whipped cream for serving
Instructions
For the ganache filling:
- Put the chopped chocolate into a bowl.
- Place the cream into a small pot over medium heat. Bring it to a simmer, then pour it over the chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate is melted. Set aside and allow to cool.
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F).
- Sift the all-purpose flour, oat flour, and cocoa powder into a bowl, add the baking powder and whisk. Set aside.
- Gently melt the butter over low temperature. Make sure the butter does not bubble. Once melted allow it to cool a little.
- Crack the eggs into another bowl, add the sugar and beat at high speed with an electric mixer. The mixture is ready when almost triple in volume and light in color. Then add the orange zest. vanilla extract, milk, salt and whisk. Gently pour the melted cooled butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Using a spatula add the flour mix to the eggs bowl in three-four steps, mixing after each step until the flour is well incorporated. Make sure not to over mix.
- Grease a cake pan with butter and dust it with oat flour. Pour batter into the cake pan and bake for 45-50 minutes. To check if the cake is fully baked, insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready to be taken out of the oven. Allow the cake to sit for 5 minutes in the pan. Transfer it to a rack and let it cool to room temperature.
- Once fully cooled, cut the cake in half lengthwise. Place the ganache filling in the middle and spread it evenly. Add the second cake layer on top of the ganache.
For the glaze:
- Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. Pour it over the cake and allow it to set for 20 minutes.
Optional:
- Serve the cake with whipped cream.
