Who doesn’t love a decadent chocolate cake? How about a chocolate cake made with tahini and sprinkled with halewa (halva)and pistachios? This recipe may sound fancy, but it might be one of the easiest desserts we’ve ever made. It is adapted from one our favourite chocolate cake recipes that we originally thought could not be improved upon. Well, were we ever proven wrong! If you’ve ever had chocolate halewa you would know these two flavours marry very well together.
Halewa is a middle eastern confection (sweets) and it’s main ingredient is sesame butter or paste (same a tahini). It can be flaky or it can be stretchy (drooling just thinking about it). We used the flaky halewa to garnish our cake; fresh from the heart of Lebanon. If you love halewa and find yourself in Lebanon, you must try fresh halewa. No grocery store, sitting on the shelf halewa, no matter how well packaged, can hold a candle to fresh halewa – trust us!
I know it seems I’ve gone a little off topic but this cake captures some of that decadent rich flavour found in halewa, and thats why we love it so much.
Chocolate Tahini cake { كيك الشوكولاته و طحينة}
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ cup sugar
- 1½ tsp baking soda
- 1 cup tahini plus extra for greasing pan
- 1/3 cup cocoa power good quality
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla
Chocolate Ganache
- 4 oz dark or semi sweet chocolate finely chopped
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
Garnish
- 1/4 cup Halewa
- 2 tbsp crushed pistachio +2 tbsp to sprinkle in cake (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F and coat inside of cake pan with tahini to prevent sticking.
- Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, set aside
- In a separate bowl, mix sugar, tahini, and yogurt until well incorporated, beat in eggs one at a time (batter might get a little thick here); & vanilla and water and continue to beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Next, add the dry ingredients to the wet, beat until incorporated.
- Pour into cake pan and bake on medium rack until toothpick comes out clean; about 45 minutes.
- Optional: pour half batter into pan; sprinkle crushed pistachios then pour the remaining batter.
- Set cake to cool in pan for about 10- 15 minutes before turning onto cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
- While cake cools prepare ganache.
- For ganache; In a microwave-safe bowl combine chopped chocolate and heavy cream, and microwave for 1 minute. Whisk the cream and chocolate together until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth.Tip: If the chocolate is not completely melted return to microwave at 30-second intervals whisking in between until smooth.
- Once cake is cool drizzle chocolate ganache over top and garnish with halewa pieces and pistachio.