Chocolate Traybake with a Luxurious Ganache Icing

This rich Chocolate Traybake with an absolutely luxurious ganache icing is an absolute winner when it comes to easy traybakes! This cake requires hardly any effort to make and is an absolute crowd-pleaser, perfect for a bake sale, birthday party, or get together with friends. All you need is a few store-cupboard ingredients and you are ready to go!

How do you make this Chocolate Traybake?

This chocolate traybake is extremely chocolatey and rich as it is made with a soured milk and real dark chocolate rather than cocoa powder. To prepare the milk, you need to add some lemon juice to it and let it stand for a few minutes to curdle slightly. In the meantime, you can gently melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave. Leave it to cool slightly before adding the chocolate and milk to the remaining ingredients and follow a simple all-in-one method to combine everything to make a smooth batter.

Once the cake has baked and cooled, you can make the chocolate ganache for the icing. This is quickly made by pouring almost-boiling double cream over finely chopped dark chocolate and mixed together until smooth and glossy. Wait for the icing to thicken slightly before spreading it over the cake and swirling it to make a nice pattern on top to decorate. And then all you have to do is cut it up and enjoy!!!

More Amazing Traybake Recipes

I love a good easy traybake and I make them all the time as they are so easy, quick, and delicious. I have a wide range of traybake recipes on my blog, so make sure to go check out some of my favourites listed below!

• Carrot Cake Traybake
• Donauwellen | German Cherry and Chocolate Traybake
• Butterscotch Traybake
• Mary Berry’s Lemon Drizzle Cake
• Chocolate Chip and Cherry Traybake
• The *Best Ever* Chocolate Brownies
• Pumpkin Spice Traybake
• Apple and Biscoff Traybake
• Mary Berry’s Chocolate and Beetroot Cake
• White Chocolate and Raspberry Brownies
• Himbeerschnitte | German Raspberry Cake

Chocolate Traybake with a Luxurious Ganache Icing

Recipe

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE

• 300g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 40g cocoa powder
• 150g soft light brown sugar
• 120g caster sugar
• 100g dark chocolate, melted
• 180g butter, softened
• 3 large eggs
• 180ml semi-skimmed milk
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

FOR THE GANACHE

• 150g double cream
• 150g dark chocolate
• Colourful sprinkles, optional

Methods:

1. To start with, measure out the milk into a measuring jug and add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Mix and then leave to stand to allow the milk to curdle slightly.
2. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water or in short bursts in the microwave. Then set aside and leave to cool.
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan and lightly grease and line a traybake tin with baking paper.
4. To make the cake batter, sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a large mixing bowl. Then add the softened butter, two types of sugar, eggs, cooled melted chocolate and curdled milk to the mixing bowl.
5. Mix all the ingredients together using a wooden spoon or an electric hand-held whisk until the batter is smooth. Carefully transfer into the prepared tin. Then bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until it starts to shrink from the edges and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
6. Once baked, remove the cake from the oven and place the tin on a wire rack. Leave to cool completely in the tin, then carefully turn the cake out and remove the baking paper.
7. To make the ganache icing, finely chop the dark chocolate and place into a heatproof bowl. Gently warm the cream in a small saucepan until just below boiling point. Pour the warm cream over the finely chopped chocolate and cover the bowl with a large dinner plate. Leave to stand for 1-2 minutes, then stir until the chocolate has melted completely.
8. Leave the ganache to stand for about half an hour until it has  thickened until it reaches a spreadable consistency. Spread the ganache over the top of the chocolate traybake in an even layer using a metal spoon, creating a few swirls for decoration. If you would like, you can decorate the cake with colourful sprinkles.
9. Leave the ganache to set before cutting the cake into pieces and serving.