I made a Dubai chocolate cake for my husbands birthday this year and wanted to share the recipe with y’all because it was absolutely amazing!

Moist chocolate cake filled with the classic pistachio kataifi and chocolate ganache, frosted in whipped chocolate frosting and whipped pistachio frosting and decorated with Dubai chocolate bars in the shape of hearts cuz I love my him so much!

I’ll give you the recipes for all the components in this Dubai chocolate cake below. I’m going to format it in order of how I put this Dubai chocolate cake together to help with timing. I’ll also give you the info on all the products I used and where to buy them. The Amazon links will be affiliates links. Ok let’s jump right in!

You can use any chocolate cake you desire but I just whipped up a chocolate box mix. However, I made some changes to the back of the box recipe to make it more moist. I usually use Duncan Hines box chocolate cake mix and then ignore the back recipe and add these things instead:

4 eggs, 1 cup milk, 6 tbsp melted butter, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, chocolate pudding mix and 1/4 cup sour cream

Then just mix and like you normally would and bake according to the directions on the back of the box. I used parchment paper and Pamela in 2 – 9 inch cake pans.

As your cake is cooling, toast the 2 of these packages of dried kataifi (200g total) in 4 tbsp butter. I used this large Dutch oven because as the kataifi toasts, they like to dance around and I didn’t want them to fly out of the pot.

This is what the kataifi should look like, keep stirring a few times throughout. I love this wooden utensil set. And also this pink induction burner is the best purchase of my life! I use it nearly every day to cook!

This says pistachio butter but it’s sweetened like a pistachio cream so I just add 1 1/2-2 of these on the kataifi and stir then set aside to cool. These are just from Walmart so they’re pretty cheap for pistachio cream.

Chocolate Ganache is the next thing I make because it needs time to cool too. Heat up 135g heavy cream in the microwave in 30 second intervals until it reaches in between 176-185°F. Then pour it over 75g dark chocolate and 25g milk chocolate (chopped) and let sit for 5 minutes to melt the chocolates. I love this pink food scale for baking, it’s just easier having accuracy you don’t get from measuring cups.

Then take your little gold whisk and start whisking your ganache. It seems like it’s not going to come together, but have faith, it will!

Then set your ganache aside to cool.

Now on to the Pistachio Whipped Frosting. I use this instant pistachio pudding mix from Walmart. I like to sift it and my powdered sugar so it incorporates perfectly, but also gets out the pistachio bits they put in the pudding mix.

This is another addition for stabilizing the whipped frostings.

I use mascarpone from Walmart for both this and the whipped chocolate frosting recipe.

So, in large bowl add

14g pistachio pudding mix, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 4oz mascarpone, 3 cups heavy cream, a couple drops of amaretti essence and green food coloring (optional).

I got this Amaretti di Saronno from Amazon and I’m obsessed! It’s pretty strong though so you only need a couple drops. You could also do almond extract instead. It just gives a little extra balance to the pistachio flavor.

Then just use a hand mixer to whip it up until stiff peaks form, making sure to scrape down the sides and bottom a couple of times.

Once your cake is completely cooled, it’s tome to start building the cake. I got these cake boards from Walmart and I highly recommend this cake turntable set. It makes life easier when decorating cakes. It also comes with an offset spatulas and some other items to help you.

Pipe the pistachio frosting around the top outer edge to create a barrier for the fillings.

Spread the kataifi. A lot of kataifi. Make sure you do save some to make Dubai chocolate bar hearts for decoration if you want to do those on your cake too.

Then pour and spread the ganache.

Add the second chocolate cake on top, but upside down so the bottom is the top, which makes the cake nice and flat. I chill this for another 10 minutes or so to firm up that ganache more.

Then I did a crumb coat of the pistachio frosting and put back in the fridge to chill more while I made the Dubai chocolates and chocolate whipped frosting.

Start the mini Dubai chocolates by melting some white chocolate in the microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring each time, then put half in another bowl and add a couple drops of green oil based food coloring. It must be oil based for chocolate.

The heart molds are from Amazon. I love them for these mini Dubai chocolates because they’re deep to fill a good amount of the kataifi.

Then I just do a little drizzle of the chocolates

using my little espresso spoons. And then let chill in the fridge while you melt the dark chocolate.

Then just pipe in your chocolate.

It’s just easier to use your fingers to spread the chocolate up the sides. It’s reason number a million that I love using these black disposable gloves. Then let them chill in the fridge for a minute or two until set.

Then you can fill the chocolates with the leftover kataifi.

Then fill with all the way with chocolate and let set.

And when you pop them out, they look so cool!

Then you have to try one. Baking tax.

Then I made the whipped chocolate frosting in a similar manner as the pistachio one.

1/2 of the chocolate pudding mix, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 4 oz mascarpone and a splash of vanilla extract.

I sift the instant pudding, cocoa powder and powdered sugar too.

Mix with a hand mixer, scraping down the sides with a silicone spatula a couple times until stiff peaks form.

Then you can spread on the cake and I love using this little tool to make the sides have a design. It comes in the cake turntable set.

I use this piping tip set that comes with the piping bags too to make some decoration and to write happy birthday.

And then just decorate to your hearts desire.

Be sure to watch my video too for more visuals and feel free to leave a comment or message me on social media if you have any other questions!

Oh yeah and these cake boxes are from Walmart. Super easy for transporting cake!

Ok love you bye

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