Thursday, June 2, 2011

Chocolate Cake

My husband put in his yearly request for a super chocolate birthday cake for his coworker who loves chocolate.  I was looking for something different from my usual chocolate cake so I decided to check out Monica's recipes over at Lick the Bowl Good.  She has lots of wonderful recipes and her pictures are beautiful, I always want to run to the kitchen and start cooking after visiting her site.

I opted for her Triple Chocolate Cake and definitely made a good choice.  The cake was a mayonnaise cake and was wonderfully moist, the filling was a creamy white chocolate mousse and it was topped with a silky sour cream chocolate icing.  The icing is very soft and I followed Monica's suggestion and thickened it slightly with some confectioners sugar, I also let it rest for a while before spreading.  It was very nice to work with, I didn't try piping with it, but it was great to spread and firmed up on the cake very nicely.  The individual components were delicious and from what I heard they combined to make a very flavorful and yummy cake.  Mike commented that the cake wasn't too sweet, but was a little too chocolaty for his taste - I think when you have a cake named Triple Chocolate it is bound to be super chocolaty.  


 Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake
Recipe from Sky High Irresistible Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne via Monica at Lick the Bowl Good

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 ½ ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup milk
1 ¼ cups hot, strongly brewed coffee
2 eggs
1 cup mayonnaise (not low fat or fat free)
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 9 inch round cake pans. Line the base of each pan with parchment.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

Put the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Bring the milk to a simmer. Pour the hot coffee and milk over the chocolate. Let stand for a minute, then whisk until smooth. Let the mocha liquid cool slightly.

In a mixer bowl, beat together the eggs, mayonnaise and vanilla until well blended. Gradually beat in the sugar. Add the dry ingredients and mocha liquid alternately in 2 or 3 additions, beating until smooth and well blended. Divide the batter among the 3 prepared pans.

Bake for 25 to 28 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out almost clean. Let the cakes cool in their pans for 10-15 minutes before un-molding onto a wire rack and carefully peeling off the paper. Leave to cool completely.


White Chocolate Mousse
4 ounces white chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1 egg white
1 tbsp sugar

Melt the white chocolate with ¼ cup cream in a double boiler. Whisk until smooth. Remove from the heat and let the white chocolate cream cool to room temperature.

When it has cooled, beat the remaining ¾ cup cream until soft peaks form. In a clean bowl whip the egg white with the sugar until fairly stiff peaks form.

Fold the beaten egg white into the white chocolate cream, then fold in the whipped cream until blended. Be sure not to over mix.


Sour Cream Chocolate Icing
12 ounces bittersweet or semi sweet chocolate, chopped
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
2 tbsp light corn syrup
¼ cup half-and-half at room temperature
½ cup sour cream, at room temperature

Melt the chocolate with the butter and corn syrup in a double boiler over barly simmering water. Remove from the heat and whisk until smooth.

Whisk in the half-and-half and sour cream. Use while still soft.


To Assemble
Place one layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or serving plate. Cover the top evenly with half the white chocolate mousse, leaving a ¼ inch margin around the edge. Repeat with the second layer and the remaining mousse. Set the third layer on top and pour half the sour cream chocolate icing over the filled cake. Spread all over the sides and top. Don’t worry if some of the cake shows through. This first frosting is to seal in the crumbs, and is known as a crumb coat. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes.

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