This Christmas Chocolate Toffee Cake is a chocolate lover’s dream. Decadent chocolate cake with smooth and silky chocolate ganache filling and toffee bits, topped with caramel whipped cream and white chocolate curls!
Christmas Chocolate Toffee Cake
If you love chocolate cake as much as I do, I think you’re really going to enjoy this Christmas Chocolate Toffee Cake I’m sharing with you today, too.
After many delicious desserts recipes I shared recently (like this very popular Custard Cake), it was high time I baked a cake, DECADENT CHOCOLATE CAKE!
While it still seemed to have a lot of time until holidays, I opened my Christmas baking season a long time ago. But the time passes so quickly. So I wanted to supply you with great recipes that will make planning your Christmas Baking a snap this year.
Also, I tried to find the perfect cookies for Santa this year so I made White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies and Strawberry Shortbread Cookies. But I’m sure that Santa won’t mint if you leave him on Christmas Eve White Chocolate Cranberry Pistachio Truffles instead of cookies. And they are melt-in-your-mouth good.
Already you must have seen my fun and festive Christmas Lasagna or Candy Cane Pie. These are all delicious Christmas dessert recipes, too. But I start craving for some chocolate, real chocolate!!!
If you take a look at my cake recipes, you will probably notice that the majority of them have thick layer of chocolate ganache on top. I like to put chocolate ganache on top of everything, cheesecakes (Triple Chocolate Cheesecake with Oreo Crust, Reese’s Cheesecake), cakes (Oreo Cheesecake Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Pound Cake, Boston Cream Pie Pound Cake), cupcakes…
Well, chocolate ganache is the amazing chocolate concoction. Two simple ingredients, chocolate and cream, and you could make everything from glazes to truffles.
This time I did not want to settle for just one layer of chocolate ganache on top of the cake. I wanted more! This rich and decadent chocolate goodness have to be in every single bite of this Christmas Chocolate Toffee Cake. Therefore I’ve decided to use chocolate ganache as a filling for my cake.
But this is not just another ordinary chocolate cake what you’ve seen a million times! I wanted this Christmas Chocolate Toffee Cake to became a really special, festive dessert!
Therefore I’ve decided to spice things up a little bit! I made this dense but moist chocolate cake with smooth and silky chocolate ganache filling but I covered each ganache layer with a cup of toffee bits. Toffee bites take this decadent chocolate cake over the top.
Since this cake is intended to be a Christmas treat, I wanted it to be white on the outside. Christmas Chocolate Toffee Cake already has enough of chocolate flavor so I could cover it with whipped cream. But it’s not just ordinary whipped cream. I made caramel flavored whipped cream and garnished it with white chocolate curls on top. If you bake it for Christmas you could garnished it with some gingerbread cookies, the taste will match perfectly.
Happy baking!
Christmas Chocolate Toffee Cake
Prep Time: 20 minutes- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
Category: Dessert
Method: Oven
Cuisine: American
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
This Christmas Chocolate Toffee Cake is a chocolate lover’s dream. Decadent chocolate cake with smooth and silky chocolate ganache filling and toffee bits, topped with caramel whipped cream and white chocolate curls!
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter -softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 and 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup sour cream
Filling:
- 16 oz. semisweet chocolate chopped into small pieces
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons runny honey or light corn syrup
- 1 and 1/2 cups toffee bits
For topping:
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar(or more to taste)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup caramel sauce
- White chocolate block or bar for garnish-optional
Instructions
- To make the cake preheat oven to 350°F, grease three 9-inch round baking pans, line bottoms with parchment paper, grease and flour paper, set aside
- First, stir cocoa and boiling water until smooth, set aside to cool.
- In medium bowl stir together flour, baking soda and salt, set aside, too.
- Next, in a large bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then stir in vanilla. Gradually add cocoa mixture and beat well until evenly combined.
- Alternately add 1/3 of flour mixture, milk, 1/3 of flour mixture, sour cream, the rest of flour mixture. Mix until well blended. Divide batter into prepared pans and bake 28-35 minutes (until the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean). Cool 10 minutes in the pans, remove from pans to wire racks and carefully peel off wax paper. Cool completely.
- To make the ganache place finely chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl.
- In a small sauce pan combine heavy cream and honey, heat over low-medium heat until just start to simmer around the edges, don’t boil the heavy cream. Now, pour over chopped chocolate and let it sit for a few minutes. Then, stir well until the chocolate is completely melted and the ganache is smooth and shiny. Cover the ganache and chill, stirring occasionally, until thickened but spreadable, about 3 hours. It should be smooth enough to spread, but not too runny!!! If it’s too thick let it sit at room temperature until softened.
Assembling the cake:
- Place the first cake layer on serving plate, spread half of the ganache, sprinkle with ¾ cup toffee bits. Then, place second cake layer, spread the rest of the ganache and sprinkle with ¾ cup toffee bits. Finally, top with 3rd cake layer. Place in the fridge to set.
Topping:
- Beat heavy cream until soft peaks form, add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until stiff peaks form. Add caramel sauce and mix well to combine. Add more powdered sugar if it’s not sweet to your taste. Cover the cake with whipped cream.
- Garnish as desired. If you want to make white chocolate curls, use potato peeler to shave the curls from the block or bar of white chocolate.
Notes
- Make the ganache in advance it takes a few hours to set!!! It should be smooth enough to spread, but not too runny!!!
20 comments
What a beautiful, luscious looking cake! I absolutely love all of your desserts Vera! <3
Thanks Kim 🙂 I really appreciate that! I admire your blog, you have so many great recipes too 🙂
This cake looks gorgeous, too perfect to eat! I am impressed with all those flavors and the toffee above the ganache is a great idea.
I’m interested to see that the caramel sauce didn’t discolor the cream, I thought it might go a caramel color but it is still beautiful and white. Honestly, it is one of the most beautiful looking cakes I’ve seen (and it really appeals to my taste buds!)
Thanks 🙂 The cream is not completely white, but it has only 1/4 cup of caramel mixed in.
Should this be stored in the fridge if it’s not being served immediately? I’m thinking of making this for our Christmas Eve dinner but am not sure if I should make it the day before or or the day of.
Hi Beka, store it in the fridge.It’s good for a few days in the fridge.
Hi,
I live in Australia and i’m not sure if I am able to get toffee bits. What can you recommend as a substitute if they can’t be found
Hi Sarah,
I was reading this recipe and reviews on this gorgeous cake and saw your question about toffee. I am The Toffee Peddler. I would love to mail you my product. Check out my Facebook page…The Toffee Peddler!
Theresa
I never normally leave comments or reviews but I just had to for this recipe.. I’ve made this cake twice and both times it turned out amazing! The cake got rave reviews from everyone – kids and adults! This cake is moist, rich, and not too sweet – everything a cake should be. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
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How many would you say this serves?
Hi Ashley, it’s very rich cake so you don’t have to cut thick slices. You can serve 12 or more.
I made this cake for Thanksgiving at my friends house. It did not disappoint! I served it along with a side of Tillamook Salted Butterscotch ice cream and sprinkled a few extra toffee bits over it…This is my new favorite desert.
Thanks Tara!
Everything has turned out great so far except for the ganache. I have had it in the fridge for 2 hours now and it has hardly set at all. I put it in the freezer to see if that’ll form it up at all otherwise I’m outta luck and will have to make a different ganache. I followed instructions exactly as they were listed. The cake itself smells incredible. I only had two cake pans so I was worried about using too much batter when doing it so I ended up with four thin cake layers instead of three which is fine, just means more ganache and toffee ❤️
Holy Moly!!! This cake is awesome! It’s quite a process but worth it! I made the cake layers early, and froze them. It’s very rich and will serve lots of people. The cake is beautiful and will become our holiday tradition! ?????
Thanks Susan!
Happy holidays!
Hi! I had a bit of a catastrophe and I’ve only got two layers but I REALLY want two layers of ganache. Can I put a layer of ganache on the top and then put whipped cream all over it? Will that make the whipped cream get weird?
What is runny honey?