Midnight Cake with Dark Chocolate Fig Ganache & Pomegranate Syrup

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If you spend any amount of time poking around this blog, you’ll find there aren’t many cakes here. Actually, you’ll find there aren’t that many dessert recipes period. The truth is I’m no prolific baker. I find the activity rather stressful with a high degree of difficulty. But the desire to be better is always there. And as a person who enjoys aesthetics, I do feel a real desire to make beautiful desserts. So, every now and then, I try my hand at a layer cake to see if I’m just as clumsy as I was before. And with today’s Midnight Cake with Dark Chocolate Fig Ganache, I do feel like I’ve leveled up…maybe to, like, a green belt? Or is that really high? I never took tae kwon do.

Well, whatever belt I’ve earned with this Midnight Cake, I can’t say it was hard-won. This cake, for all its elegance, was actually an easy decorating job, especially when compared to this headache of a cake. And the truth is I owe it all to my pal Libby, who posts her prolific cake projects under the handle @sift.baking on Instagram. One day, I unloaded my many cake-decorating-hangups on her and in return, she patiently asked me a question, “What kind of buttercream are you using?” I blinked and told her American. She smiled and suggested I try frosting with Swiss meringue instead. And that has made all the difference.

If that sounds too cut and dry, let me assure you this story is 100% true. Swiss meringue buttercream is a godsend. It spreads easily, pipes beautifully and is stable as all hell. I mean, it starts to fall apart under extreme humidity but what frosting doesn’t?

Okay, with all thank yous aside, let’s dissect this Midnight Cake. Now, I opted for a 6-inch cake. Why? Well, my household is two people and I was making a cake for the heck of it. We love cake but we can’t eat that much cake. Having said that, the recipe below will give you two 8-inch layers of cake and enough buttercream to cover them. And as for the ganache, well, you will have leftovers of that and, I promise, you won’t be the least bit sorry.

So, first things first – the Midnight Cake itself. This cake is your basic chocolate cake with a little black cocoa. That’s why the cake looks so foreboding. Greek yogurt keeps things nice and moist, while vegetable oil gives it a nice light crumb. Honestly, this is THE chocolate cake. You don’t need anything else, well, except for this stout cake. It’s pretty dang good too!

The next layer is the Dark Chocolate Fig Ganache. Now, you may be wondering where the fig comes in. Well, trust me when I say, nothing about the fig’s involvement is complicated. I suppose you could make it complicated. But why would you want to? The fig in this Dark Chocolate Fig Ganache is storebought fig jam. All you have to do is whisk it into the dark chocolate ganache while it’s still liquid. That’s it! And ganache? Ganache is nothing. You make it once and you’re pretty much an expert.

Okay, now it’s time for the game-changer, the frosting. For the Midnight Cake, I made a simple Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream. While it is true that Swiss Meringue is more complicated to make than the American version, the time you lose making the buttercream you more than make up for in time saved decorating. The secret to a good Swiss Meringue Buttercream is temperature control. Keeping everything at the optimal temperature will result in a silky, airy frosting every time.

Why is temperature so important? Well, with Swiss Meringue you have egg whites that yoy have to heat gently right off the bat. This is to help the sugar dissolve into the egg whites so the finished buttercream isn’t gritty. But then you have to whip soft but cold butter into the egg whites. If the eggs are still hot the butter melts and you have soup. I don’t say this to scare you, I just want you to have a good idea of the balance you have to strike. It’s actually a very simple process provided you have patience.

Now, the final element we have to talk about is the pomegranate syrup. You can buy the syrup but I chose to cook down a bottle of pomegranate juice. I did this because I wanted to have more control over the final consistency. This part can be a pain, so if you don’t want to deal with the headache, just skip the syrup. But if you want the flavor of syrup without the drip look, drizzle the pom syrup over the ganache layer before placing the final layer of cake. Once you decided where to put your syrup, it’s simply a matter of arranging fresh fruit on top of the cake to your liking. I used pomegranate, figs, blackberries, fresh sage, and fresh bay leaves on my cake.

So that’s everything you need to know about this beauty of a cake. She takes a little time, love, and a fair bit of patience. But trust me when I say every bite of chocolaty goodness is well worth the effort.

Enjoy!

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