Full question
When I made the Dark And Sumptuous Chocolate Cake icing, it went all grainy. What went wrong? I didn’t use coconut butter as I couldn’t find it in the shops. So I used butter instead. A little hot water brought it back but it was oily. Though the taste - absolutely lovely.
Our answer
Nigella's Dark And Sumptuous Chocolate Cake (from SIMPLY NIGELLA) is a moist chocolate cake that is filled and iced with a ganache-style icing. In the recipe Nigella uses coconut butter, but you could use most plant-based "butters" or even regular butter as alternatives.
If the chocolate icing turned grainy then it is most likely that the chocolate was overheated. Chocolate is very sensitive to heat and melts at just above body temperature. But if it gets too hot then it will turn grainy or lumpy and the fats will start to separate out. Sometimes this can be corrected by adding some cream or water. If the icing is slightly oily it may not be suitable for the cake but could be used as a chocolate sauce for ice cream or desserts. The butter, sugar, espresso powder and cocoa are put into a saucepan with water and heated, but then the heat is turned off to reduce the risk of the chocolate coming into contact with direct heat. However, if you have a cast-iron saucepan then these tend to retain heat even once the burner is switched off, so in this case you may need to let the pan and ingredients cool slightly before you add the chocolate to reduce the risk of the chocolate turning grainy.
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