coffee chiffon drip cake with espresso whipped cream and dark chocolate ganache

For my good friend Helen's birthday last September, we decided to meet up for Sunday brunch with our hubbies and kids in tow, and I decided to surprise her with this coffee chiffon cake! I knew she liked coffee chiffon because I made a Mickey Mouse version for her daughter Marni's birthday earlier this year, and she told me it was her favorite yet :D

I decided that it would be a small 6-inch cake, the perfect size for her and her family to enjoy, so I made four layers of coffee chiffon in 6-inch round cake pans. Then I filled each layer with espresso-tinged whipped cream.

Next I covered the top and sides of the cake with the same espresso whipped cream, smoothing it with an offset spatula.

I've been drooling at all the drip cakes out there on Instagram, so I decided to try it out again with Guittard dark chocolate (I first tried it with a Blogiversary cake a few years ago), although I still need to work on my drippy ganache technique because it still wasn't drippy enough!

I waited for my not-drippy-enough dark chocolate ganache to set before adding the final touch ...

... Little piped droplets of more of the espresso whipped cream. Don't they look like little meringue kisses?



Hope you had a fabulous birthday, Helen! So glad we got to spend that Sunday with you!