Saffron Cake with White Chocolate Ganache

 

This saffron cake with white chocolate ganache was really something! I highly recommend it. 

I do recommend changing a few things, though. The recipe makes about 4 cups of batter, and since I don’t have a bundt pan that small, I used an 8” springform pan; I changed the directions below, since I prefer using standard-size pans, but feel free to look for another equivalent here. 

The original recipe also called for a ganache made with 1.8 ounces of white chocolate and ¼ cup of coconut milk. In my book, that’s more of a glaze, and I wanted something thicker. I used 3 ounces of white chocolate, but it was still much too liquid for me. Much of it sank into the cake, and I added more on top after colling it in the fridge. Next time, I’d make a proper ganache with a ratio more like 1 cup of chopped chocolate (closer to 150 g) to ¼ cup coconut milk. (Come to think of it, I also had this issue with Bon Appétit’s spiced chocolate pumpkin cake with spiced pumpkin glaze, even though I halved the amount of liquid in that one. I don’t know if the recipe is flawed, my taste is skewed, or there’s something going on with the humidity in San Antonio or the way the stars are aligned.) 

Make sure to check the dairy content of your white chocolate if lactose is an issue. 

For the cake

0.5 g (approximately ¼ tsp.) saffron 

1 tsp. granulated sugar 

1 Tbsp. dark rum (or warm water) 

7 oz. (1 ¾ sticks) lactose-free butter 

2/3 cup coconut milk 

240 g (1 2/3 cups) all-purpose flour 

2 tsp. baking powder 

¼ tsp. salt 

2 large eggs 

250 g (1 ¼ cups) granulated sugar 

For the ganache (see note above) 

50 g (1.8 oz) white chocolate, finely chopped 

¼ cup coconut milk 

1 pinch of salt 

¼ tsp. vanilla powder (vanilla or vanilla bean paste are also acceptable)r 

powdered sugar, for dusting (optional, I didn’t use it) 

For the cake 

Grind the saffron with 1 teaspoon of sugar and put in a small jar. Add dark rum and cover with a lid or plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature for at least one hour. 

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Grease and flour an 8” springform pan (or another pan of your choice, knowing that the recipe makes roughly 4 cups of batter; adjust the baking time as needed). 

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the coconut milk and saffron mixture and set aside. 

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside. 

Beat together the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the butter mixture and stir until combined. Add the dry ingredients and stir until batter is smooth. 

Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake on the bottom rack of the oven for 40-45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean (it was 45 minutes in my case, and my oven tends to run hot). Leave the cake to cool in its pan for 15 minutes before inverting it onto a cooling rack to cool completely (I let it cool completely in the pan). 

For the ganache 

Put the finely chopped chocolate in a small bowl. Heat the coconut milk in a saucepan until hot, but not boiling. Pour the hot coconut milk over the chocolate and let stand for 30 seconds. 

Stir with a small spoon until chocolate is melted and ganache is smooth. Add the salt and vanilla. Leave to cool until slightly thickened (it won’t thicken a lot, though). Dust cake with powdered sugar and drizzle with ganache.