Lisbon Chocolate Cake

By Dorie Greenspan

Updated Sept. 17, 2025

Lisbon Chocolate Cake
Christopher Testani for The New York Times
Total Time
About 1 hour, plus cooling
Rating
4(4,903)
Comments
Read comments

On my first day in Lisbon, I became a statistic: I lost all my credit cards to a talented thief on the No. 28 tram. After “the incident,” I wanted to leave Lisbon, but instead, my husband Michael and I decided to tackle our must-taste list. It was on our last day in Lisbon that we tasted the cake at Landeau Chocolate. It was intense, but not overwhelming; truly chocolate, but somehow each layer’s chocolateness was different. I returned home and made this cake, my version of the cake that cured my pickpocket blues. It’s a dense-but-not-heavy, brownielike cake topped with a whipped chocolate ganache (think: mousse) and a substantial dusting of cocoa. Because this cake is completely about the chocolate, choose one you love.

Featured in: The Chocolate Cake That Saved My Vacation

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Ingredients

Yield:One 9-inch cake (about 10 servings)

    For the Cake

    • ½cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into chunks, plus more for greasing the pan
    • ⅓cup/30 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
    • 1½tablespoons cornstarch
    • ¼teaspoon baking powder
    • ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
    • 5ounces/140 grams semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
    • ½cup/100 grams granulated sugar
    • 3large eggs, chilled

    For the Ganache

    • 1¾cups/420 milliliters heavy cream
    • 6ounces/170 grams semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

    For the Topping

    • 3tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)

450 calories; 36 grams fat; 22 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 35 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 28 grams sugars; 5 grams protein; 106 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Make the cake: Center a rack in the oven, and heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9-inch cake pan, line with parchment paper and butter the paper.

  2. Step 2

    Sift together the cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk to blend.

  3. Step 3

    Put the ½ cup butter in a large heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Scatter the semisweet or bittersweet chocolate on top, and heat, stirring often, until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Remove the bowl from the pan, and stir in the sugar. One by one, energetically stir in the eggs, beating for 1 minute after the last egg is added. The mixture will look like pudding. Stir in the dry ingredients. Scrape the mixture into the cake pan, and give the pan a couple of good raps against the counter to settle the batter.

  4. Step 4

    Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean (or with only a tiny streak of chocolate). Transfer to a rack, cool for 5 minutes, then unmold the cake. Peel off the paper, invert the cake and cool to room temperature. Wash and dry the cake pan.

  5. Step 5

    Make the ganache: Pour 1¼ cups cream into a small saucepan; refrigerate the rest. Scald the cream over medium heat, turn off the heat and stir in the semisweet or bittersweet chocolate until fully incorporated. Transfer to a heatproof bowl. Refrigerate the ganache for 10 minutes, whisk it, then refrigerate again for 10 minutes. Repeat chilling and whisking steps until the ganache is thick enough to make tracks when you stir, 50 to 60 minutes.

  6. Step 6

    Cut two 3-by-16-inch pieces of parchment or foil, and crisscross them in the cake pan. Carefully return the cake to the pan. (The mousse layer is too soft to stand on its own until it's chilled. It needs the support of the pan sides.)

  7. Step 7

    Whip the remaining ½ cup cream until it holds medium peaks.

  8. Step 8

    Using a whisk, gently beat the ganache until it’s soft and spreadable. With a spatula, fold in the whipped cream. Spread over the cake, and refrigerate for 2 hours (or cover and keep for up to 2 days). The cake is best served cool or at room temperature, so take it out of the fridge about 20 minutes before serving.

  9. Step 9

    To finish, put the cocoa powder in a fine-mesh strainer, and shake it over the top of the cake. Run a table knife along the sides of the pan. Using the parchment or foil handles, carefully lift the cake out of the pan and onto a serving plate. Discard the strips. Cut the cake using a long knife that has been run under hot water and wiped dry between each cut.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
4,903 user ratings
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Comments

WK

Former pastry chef here. I think the best cocoa is Valrhona. It has an assertive chocolate flavor but doesn't ever produce a bitter product. It's also a beautiful rich color, deep warm brown. You can order it from Worldwide Chocolate, Chocosphere or Kalustyan's. I have a simple brownie recipe made with cocoa only - no unsweetened chocolate -- and Valrhona does the trick.

Matt

Why do virtually all recipes that call for using an oven give, as the first step, to preheat the oven, regardless of how much time will be spent preparing what goes into the oven will transpire ? Commenters here are mentioning how long it takes them to get to the stage where the oven is actually used. i doubt many ovens take more than 15 minutes to reach 325 degrees F. It's a waste of energy. Stop doing it.

Mary

I made this Friday and served it Saturday. I used a springform pan and had no trouble whatsoever with setting the mousse. I added a pinch of espresso powder to the cake. I added a pinch of fine sea salt and a drop of vanilla to the ganache. The cake was refrigerated overnight and I took it out 3 hours before serving. I served it at a dinner party for 7 people. It was a smashing success. This cake was easy and delicious, I only used a hand mixer to whip the cream. I highly recommend this cake.

5 Stars, Highly recommend

My husband and I thought this was fabulous. It’s an easy cake to make with a big wow factor. I was just making it for “research” so I used chocolate chips (bittersweet in the cake and just plain ol Tollhouse in the ganache) and it almost makes me love it more how good it tasted and how easy it was. I whipped the ganache with a beater and got it fluffier than the instructions say, which we also liked!

Nadine

One thing to note: It's important to use the right kind of chocolate. I've figured out it's important NOT to use chocolate chip, because they have stabilizers that don't let the melted chips to thicken. I tried to make with Ghiradelli bittersweet and semisweet chips and it would only chill to the consisitency of a thick-ish chocolate sauce.

Heidinni

I made this a few weeks ago using all semisweet chocolate chips (because I had a ton of them). They were great for the cake but for the ganache it did not set properly in an hour of refridgeration. I remade it today and substituted 4g of the ganache chocolate with bakers chocolate and it set perfectly. So I recommend using part semisweet and part bittersweet for the top ganache. The more bittersweet you use the quicker it will set, so be careful, but all semisweet won't set properly.

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