Chocolate Ganache Cake

A good ganache is hard to beat. So the other night when I was browsing through cookbooks looking for something good to bake for dessert the simple, but elegant chocolate ganache cake stood out. I got this recipe from Inspired Cooking, First Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, NC's recent cookbook. If there is one thing I've learned about church or junior league cookbooks it is that almost everything is good. First of all people only want to give their best recipes if their names are attached to them but secondly you're much more likely to run into recipes that have been passed down in families through generations.
This recipe is ridiculously easy but because the taste is so different from a regular chocolate cake people automatically assume you've put a lot of work into it (love those kind of desserts!) I served it alongside vanilla ice cream with raspberries. My stepdad commented that he liked it because it was "not overly chocolaty", which is something I have had to learn to take as a good thing despite the fact that overly chocolaty is what I look for in desserts. Basically, this dessert is too easy and good to not at least try.

Chocolate Ganache Cake
Cake:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 can (1 1/2 cups) chocolate syrup, preferably Hershey's
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour

Ganache:
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces semisweet chocolate morsels
1 teaspoon instant coffee crystals
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add syrup and vanilla extract. Add flour and mix to combine. Do not over mix. Butter an 8inch round cake pan and place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom. Pour batter into pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center come out clean. Let cool in pan. For the ganache, place all ingredients in a heavy saucepan and cook over medium heat until smooth and warm, stirring constantly. Place cake upside down on rack and pour ganache evenly over cake. Do not refrigerate.

Serves 8
(We made it work for 12)