Wedding Cake Attempt 2 - The Ultimate Chocolate Cake

The weekend is here again and I'm back to baking and the purpose today is a birthday cake. I can cook a thousand cakes for no purpose at all and they will all end out perfact, delicious and wonderful and the time I actually want the cake to be great hell no!! It just aint going to happen.


So it's 11:45pm and I have just put my second cake in the oven. The first one had gone perfect until I had started talking to my very good friend on spark and forget my cake was in the oven. The cake wasn't burnt to a cinder but did end up very cooked and very hard. I think if I threw it at a window it would definitely break the glass!!


Even Andy my other half thought it was solid and suggested I bake another cake, so right now, I am in my nighty with my apron on waiting for a cake which is going to take at least another hour to cook. I can't even use the excuse that its a new recipe, because nope, I've made this one before with excellent results.


Anyhows, thats enough of my trials and tribulations - here is the recipe, it is taken from Hotel Chocolate 101 Best Chocolate Recipes.


The Recipe - Angela Nilsens - Ultimate Chocolate Cake
200g butter, plus extra to grease
200g dark chocolate (about 60% cocoa solids) in pieces
1 tbsp instant coffee granules
125ml cold water
85g self raising flour
85g plain flour
1/4 tsp bicarb of soda
200g light muscavado sugar
200g golden caster sugar
25g cocoa powder
3 medium eggs
75ml buttermilk


Ganache
200g good-quality dark chocolate , as above
284ml carton double cream (pouring type)
2 tbsp golden caster sugar 

The Method

1. Butter a 20cm round cake tin (7.5cm deep) and line the base. Preheat the oven to fan 140C/conventional 160C/ gas 3. Break the chocolate in pieces into a medium, heavy-based pan. Tip in the butter, then mix the coffee granules into 125ml/4fl oz cold water and pour into the pan. Warm through over a low heat just until everything is melted - don't overheat. Or melt in the microwave on Medium for about 5 minutes, stirring half way through. 
2. While the chocolate is melting, mix the two flours, bicarbonate of soda, sugars and cocoa in a big bowl, mixing with your hands to get rid of any lumps. Beat the eggs in a bowl and stir in the buttermilk. 
3. Now pour the melted chocolate mixture and the egg mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just until everything is well blended and you have a smooth, quite runny consistency. Pour this into the tin and bake for 1 hour 25- 1 hour 30 minutes - if you push a skewer in the centre it should come out clean and the top should feel firm (don't worry if it cracks a bit). Leave to cool in the tin (don't worry if it dips slightly), then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4.  When the cake is cold, cut it horizontally into three. Make the ganache: chop the chocolate into small pieces and tip into a bowl. Pour the cream into a pan, add the sugar, and heat until it is about to boil. Take off the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
5. Sandwich the layers together with just a little of the ganache. Pour the rest over the cake letting it fall down the sides and smoothing to cover with a palette knife. Decorate with grated chocolate or a pile of chocolate curls. The cake keeps moist and gooey for 3-4 days.

You can also find this recipe at http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3092/ultimate-chocolate-cake . I played around with using a white chocolate ganache as well as the one in this recipe, both work really well and taste delicious.

Chocolate Wedding Cake Attempt 1

For my Australian wedding I am looking at making my own wedding cake so will be trying out a series of chocolate cake recipes until I find the cake most suitable for me. It has to be rich dense and fudgey and to be honest I am not so sure where to start. Before I attack my own recipe books I plan to have a good search and find some decent recipes online.


The first one I plan on trying is one from the BBC Good Food Website http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4577/wedding-cake--rich-dark-chocolate-cake It sounds right up my alley, I don't have a 30cm pan and there is no way one would fit in my oven anyhow so I will be halving this recipe and using a 20cm pan. 


The Recipe - Attempt Number 1 - Chocolate Wedding Cake from BBC Good Food website
650g unsalted butter
650g plain chocolate (70% cocoa)
100ml very strong coffee- espresso is ideal
3 tsp vanilla essence
650g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
950g light soft brown sugar
10 eggs
2 x 284ml/9.5 fl oz soured cream

The Method

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into the biggest bowl you have. Add the sugar, breaking down any lumps with your fingertips if necessary. Beat the eggs and soured cream together in a jug or bowl and pour into the flour mix. Pour in the melted chocolate mix as well, then stir with a wooden spoon until you have a thick, even chocolaty batter.
3. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 2½ hrs - don't open the oven door before 2 hrs is up, as this will cause the cake to sink. Once cooked, leave in the tin to cool completely. The unfilled cake will keep for up to four days, wrapped as before, or frozen for a month.
4. to decorate and fill this cake I made a simple white chocolate ganache by bringing 100ml cream to almost boiling point and pouring it over 220g white chocolate. Once the chocolate was smooth, Iet it cool before using it to fill and top the cake

The height on this cake was awesome, if it had rose anymore it would have spilled over the top of the paper, which wouldn't have been good. Once cool, I took of the cracked top (the recipe had mentioned to not open the over for 2 hours or the cake would crack), sliced it in half and filled it with the ganache. the cake inside was light chocolatey and rich looking, and once filled gave off a beautiful aroma.

So I took half of this cake into work and asked people to rate it out of ten, here is how it scored:
Camaryn:  10
Alice: 8
Lynton: 7
Scott: 7.5
Me: 7
A total of 49.5, not bad!!

Not my 'Favourite Chocolate Cake'

I was looking for a chocolate cake for my Bank Holiday BBQ, something rich and dense and finally picked Patrick Anthony's 'Favourite Chocolate Cake' from Hotel Chocolat 101 Best-Loved Chocolate Recipes.


Its definitely not my favourite chocolate cake, but this could have been the oven I was using cooking a little high. My cake looked like a mountain range and was a bit dry, his recipe states to serve with a raspberry ice cream which would have finished this off but I didn't have the time to make it.


The Recipe - Patrick Anthony's Favourite Chocolate Cake (from Hotel Chocolat 101 Best-Loved Chocolate Recipes)
A little oil to grease the pan
225g dark chocolate, (70% +), in pieces
110g butter
225g caster sugar
4 large eggs
3 tbsp whisky, rum or orange liqueur
2 heaped tsp plain flour
50g walnuts or pecans, chopped (optional - I didn't use these)
cocoa powder and icing sugar to dust


Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees C. Lightly oil a 23cm springform cake tin, at least 8cm deep.


Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heavy-based saucepan over a gentle heat, giving an occasional stir. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sugar. Next, add the eggs and beat into the mixture. Add your choice of booze, plus the flour and stir until well blended. Add the nits if using and stir to distribute.


Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake at the centre of the oven for 30 minutes. The cake will rise and sink back down and it might crack. Run a knife around the edge of the cake and leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then release the tin and place on a wire rack to cool. 


My cake looked like a hilly landscape and did not sink back down, it looked a little better when I had sprinkled cocoa and icing sugar all over it but was not the rich fudgy cake I was hoping for.