Kladdkaka – Swedish Sticky Chocolate Cake with Coffee Ganache

Yesterday was my friend’s mom’s birthday and so of course I offered to bake a cake! All I was told is that she likes chocolate, so I made the best, most chocolatey cake I know: kladdkaka with a dark chocolate and coffee ganache.

Kladdkaka, or sticky chocolate cake, is a simple dense chocolate cake that is crispy on top and gooey on the inside. And then the ganache topping is made with just dark chocolate, heavy cream, and a couple tablespoons of strong coffee (which you can skip if you like). It’s silky smooth and not to sweet.

Kladdkaka

Kladdkaka is one of the easiest cakes I know, and probably the single cake I make the most often. The ingredients are so basic that I usually always have them already, so when I’m craving something sweet I’ll often whip up a mini kladdkaka. You can adjust the portion size by moving the slider in the recipe card, and then you can bake the smaller portion in a brownie pan for a shorter time.

I always melt the butter first before gathering the rest of the ingredients. This gives the butter a bit of time to cool before you add the sugar and eggs, so the eggs don’t start to cook in the butter.

Then mix together the dry ingredients and add to the butter and egg mixture. Stir the batter with a spoon until it’s smooth and then pour the batter into your cake form.

If you’ve made brownies before you’ll notice that this batter is very similar! And as with brownie batter, kladdkaka batter tastes so good. But the baked cake tastes even better, so try not to eat all the batter now!

I always line the bottom of my cake form with baking paper, as the bottom of the cake is very sticky. Once the cake has finished baking and cooling you can simply remove the springform and flip the cake onto a cutting board to peel off the paper before flipping it back onto a plate or serving platter.

Bake the kladdkaka for about 20-25 minutes. When I’m adding ganache on top I like to bake the cake closer to 25 minutes so that it’s not quite as gooey (but still nice and soft in the inside). If I’m not using ganache I’ll bake it for 20 minutes so the bottom is extra sticky. The top of the cake should be crispy but the center should still jiggle a bit when you take it out of the oven.

Ganache

Get started on the chocolate ganache as soon as the cake goes in the oven, as it will need plenty of time to cool before you add it to the cake at the end.

Bring the cream to a simmer and as soon as the edges start to bubble remove it from the heat and pour over the chopped chocolate. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes before adding in the coffee (if using) and stir vigorously with a spoon until the cream is totally smooth. Then let the chocolate cream cool on your counter until it solidifies.

Ideally you want the chocolate cream to cool completely at room temperature so that it cools evenly, but if you’re pressed for time you can pop it in the fridge after half an hour or so.

Once the ganache and cake are completely cooled you can use a spatula to spread the ganache over the cake.

I like to whip any leftover cream to serve alongside the cake.

You can switch the recipe from US measurements to metric by clicking from “US Customary” to “Metric” under Ingredients.