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    Home • Recipes • Vegetarian Recipes

    Moist Chocolate Ginger Passion Cake

    Published: Mar 23, 2017 · Modified: Apr 20, 2022 by Jill Colonna14 Comments

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    Chocolate Ginger Passion Cake, a simple moist chocolate cake with 3 types of chocolate, passion fruit and candied ginger. Topped with a chocolate glaze, this takes it over the edge!

    chocolate ginger passion cake

    Chocolate Cake with Melted Chocolate and Cocoa

    Over the years of family birthdays, this is my ultimate best chocolate cake.  It's simple to make, it's moist and, above all, it's fluffy.  The result is a light yet intense chocolate cake made extra special with a touch of passion fruit and candied ginger.

    Although simple to make, there's one condition with this recipe: you must use the BEST quality ingredients you can find.

    I use 3 types of chocolate in this cake: a quality couverture (special baking) dark chocolate (Valhrona, Lindt, or Nestlé Corsé), unsweetened cocoa powder, and dark chocolate chips, give it that extra chocolate crunch for an exciting texture.
    The result is intense in chocolate, especially topped with a shiny chocolate glaze.

    chocolate ginger passion cake slice

    Chocolate and Passion Fruit - Best Together in a Cake!

    Not only is this a triple, fluffy chocolate cake but it's extra light with the strained juice of passion fruit and an exotic touch of ginger with chocolate.

    The touch of passion fruit adds a zingy acidity rekindling the taste of a Mogador chocolate-passion fruit macaron by Pierre Hermé in Paris. Chocolate and passion fruit together is the best combination ever!

    However, if passion fruits are difficult to come by it's just as easy to use a good quality mango or exotic fruit smoothie in place of the classic milk used in a recipe.

    chocolate ginger passion cake

    Simple, Moist Chocolate Cake

    If anyone has tried my dessert recipes, they're not too sweet and this is no exception - especially as the lower sugar quantity brings out the flavours much more.

    Moreover this moist chocolate cake is so simple to make. Instead of making 2 cakes or splitting one horizontally in the middle and filling it with buttercream, throw the whole lot in a non-stick cake pan. Bake, leave to cool on a wire rack, turn it upside down on its flat side, then pour over the creamy dark chocolate glaze.

    slice of chocolate plate with eiffel tower served with a thin custard sauce

    This moist chocolate cake is light and fluffy.  If you love a more dense, fudgy chocolate cake then try this French Chocolate Fondant Cake recipe. It's so fudgy, it doesn't need a glaze but in France, it's normally served with a crème anglaise light custardy sauce.

    Chocolate Ginger Passion Cake #Macarons

    How Do You Make A Chocolate Cake Moist From Scratch?

    chocolate ginger passion cake

    Moist Chocolate Ginger & Passion Fruit Cake

    Jill Colonna
    Chocolate Ginger Passion Cake, a simple moist chocolate cake with 3 types of chocolate, passion fruit and candied ginger. Topped with a chocolate glaze, this takes it over the edge!
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 25 minutes mins
    Cook Time 40 minutes mins
    Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins
    Course Dessert, teatime
    Cuisine British, French
    Servings 12 people
    Calories 376 kcal

    Ingredients
      

    • 170 g (6oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
    • 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
    • 50 g (2oz) unsweetened cocoa powder
    • 170 g (6oz) butter, unsalted at room temperature
    • 150 g (5.5oz) soft light brown sugar
    • good pinch fleur de sel salt
    • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
    • 50 g (2oz) dark bittersweet chocolate (min 64%)
    • 3 organic eggs at room temperature
    • 150 ml (5.5fl oz) passion fruit juice (from 4 passion fruits) or an exotic smoothie
    • 50 g (2oz) dark chocolate chips
    • 50 g (2oz) candied ginger roughly chopped

    Shiny Chocolate Glaze

    • 50 g (2oz) dark bittersweet chocolate (min 64%)
    • 50 g (2oz) butter, unsalted cubes
    • 50 g (2oz) icing (confectioner's) sugar
    • 50 g (2oz) Whipping cream (30% fat) Crème fleurette in France

    Instructions
     

    • Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan/360°F/Gas 4.
      Grease a springform cake tin or non-stick/silicone cake mould (24cm diameter).
    • In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder.
    • Cream together the butter and sugar in a food processor (or mix together in a large bowl by hand using a spatula) until light and fluffy. Add the salt then the eggs, one by one until well mixed.
    • Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (bain-marie*), ensuring the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl.  As soon as it starts to melt, take off the heat, stir until completely melted and leave aside to cool slightly.
    • Gradually add the flour mixture until well blended together, add the melted chocolate then the juice, chocolate chips and ginger until all well combined and smooth.
    • Pour into the cake mould/tin and bake for about 30 minutes until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
    • Set aside to cool with the uneven top the right way up.  When cool, you can cut off any excess hump with a good knife or cake slicer then turn the cake upside down, so that the smoothest side is facing upwards, ready to glaze.

    Chocolate Glaze

    • Melt together the chocolate, butter and icing sugar in a bain-marie (heatproof bowl over simmering water) then stir in the cream and mix together until smooth.  Leave to cool about 10 minutes then pour over the cake.

    Notes

    Before the glaze sets, decorate with edible flowers and macarons from my books (e.g. chocolate-ginger, exotic fruits, plain chocolate - in fact, any macarons go deliciously well with this versatile cake!)
    Keyword chocolate passion fruit cake, moist bittersweet chocolate cake, simple moist chocolate cake

    More Vegetarian Recipes

    • rhubarb cake with almonds
      Rhubarb Cake (Gâteau à la rhubarbe)
    • green asparagus spears baked in a roasting tin topped with toasted hazelnuts
      Oven-Roasted Asparagus (Asperges rôties)
    • cup of lemon ice cream with strawberries
      Creamy Lemon Ice Cream (Glace au citron)
    • gratin dish of sliced potato bake with autumn leaves
      Gratin Dauphinois (Creamy Potato Gratin)
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    Jill Colonna standing in a French patisserie lab holding a giant whisk over an oversized mixer bowl

    Meet Jill Colonna

    Jill is both Scottish and French and author of the book and blog, Mad About Macarons since 2010. Here she shares over 30 years of experience of living the healthy food life with her French family in Paris - via easy recipes and local food guides in France.

    More about Jill

    Reader Interactions

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    1. Millicent

      November 07, 2017 at 3:39 pm

      This will surely please my serious chocolate eaters with afternoon coffee..

      Reply
      • Jill Colonna

        November 07, 2017 at 5:47 pm

        I love it when it pleases serious chocolate eaters! Thanks, Millicent x

        Reply
    2. Enrique

      October 08, 2017 at 4:42 pm

      It's looks delicious

      Reply
      • Jill Colonna

        February 28, 2018 at 1:42 pm

        I hope you try it to confirm, Enrique.

        Reply
    3. Thomasina

      March 29, 2017 at 1:47 am

      This looks amazing Jill. I love how you have shown a slice of the cake and how the chocolate is drizzled down the sides of the whole cake. The professional cakes from patisseries are often far too sweet. Definitely a contender to be made for Easter.

      Reply
      • Jill Colonna

        March 30, 2017 at 7:04 pm

        Thanks so much, Thomasina. I hope you make it.

        Luckily the professional cakes from reputable Patisseries in Paris are certainly not that sweet at all - my mantra in "Teatime in Paris"! That's why I can really enjoy the occasional pastry or two here and taste the fruit and the good chocolate - even that play of salt makes it all rather addictive... Unfortunately the chain stores, supermarkets etc. are the same in France: just TOO sweet. Another reason why it's so good to make our own!

        Reply
    4. Salvatore C

      March 27, 2017 at 3:27 pm

      thank you for your two books: I have bought both !!! I have a request for next future: what do you think about a parisian cake book ? You are a wonderful teacher !!!
      Thank you for your attention.

      Reply
      • Jill Colonna

        April 02, 2017 at 2:05 pm

        What a lovely thing to say, Salvatore. Thank you! I'm not sure I have the energy left for a third book ... I'm giving everything away here on le blog! So happy you enjoy the recipes in the books.

        Reply
    5. Liz

      March 27, 2017 at 12:42 pm

      What a fabulous creation, Jill! So moist and luscious, and most important of all, CHOCOLATE! I remember you counting my chocolate posts back in our early blogging days. Not much has changed 😉

      Reply
      • Jill Colonna

        March 27, 2017 at 4:12 pm

        Thanks so much Liz. Yes, I was am rather a tease! And you still stay skinny at that... 🙂

        Reply
    6. Jean

      March 26, 2017 at 3:15 am

      I'm loving your recipes Jill. Made this chocolate cake at the weekend and it was a great success. Love the texture, enough chocolate, not too rich either and the ginger in it is great. Must try your brandy snaps with mojito and scones. Also have your Teatime book by the way. Made the financiers from it recently and they're my favorite recipe by far. Dying to try the eclairs next. Thank you!

      Reply
      • Jill Colonna

        March 27, 2017 at 9:44 am

        You've made my day Jean. So thrilled to hear you're making the recipes here and especially from "Teatime in Paris". The financiers are one of my favourites too: not too sweet but just enough. Have fun with the choux chapter and let me know how you get on.

        Reply
    7. Christina

      March 24, 2017 at 5:09 pm

      I could sink my teeth into a slice of this for breakfast right now! Not too sweet, you say? PERFECT! And of course, one must use top quality chocolate for a chocolate cake with chocolate glaze, or what is the point of even making it? 🙂 Looks absolutely heavenly, Jill, and I love the addition of the ginger and chips!

      P.S. Those mice are adorable!!

      Reply
      • Jill Colonna

        March 27, 2017 at 9:43 am

        thanks Christina. The passion fruit just adds that extra je ne sais quoi - and it's healthy too! Hehe, glad you like the mice. Made these when we had a moose in the hoose so went a bit crazy.

        Reply

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