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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Chocolate Enigma Cake


It’s Mike’s Birthday (last month) and every year, it’s going to be chocolate. When I saw this cake on Hearty Bakes, I totally loved how dark it looked and it seemed I can smell the chocolate from the screen, very very delicious looking. I’m not really an all chocolate girl, but I do eat chocolate once in a blue moon. But my hubby lurves this dark looking confectionary that I’m just so so with. Any chocolate cake, he’ll say, hmm,.. now this is what I call cake. Hahahaha!! So, how can I not make him chocolate cakes for his birthdays ??

I also had a can of black pitted cherries and I might as well use that to fill the cake, since the cake is rather short Well, I baked the cake in a 9 inch pan rather than a recommended 7 inch..
But when I opened the can of cherries, the colour is totally not what I expected. So, I’ve learnt my lesson not to buy Red Man’s canned cherries. The syrup didn’t even cover the fruits! In the end, I threw in some cubed strawberries into the filling. Might be weird to have an adult looking cake with some bits of strawberries in it, but, it’s nice to have some fresh fruits in it.

And I also copycatted Hearty Bakes in the way I decorated this cake. Just hop to this post  of hers and you can see how much I copied from her. Her cakes all look so well made.


Bitter Choc Chiffon
Adapted from Hearty Bakes

Ingredients:

(A) 100g Bittersweet chocolate (chopped)
10gm butter

(B) 5 egg yolks
20g sugar

(C) 40ml water

(D) 60g Cake flour
10g black cocoa powder (it looks like charcoal powder)
1/2tsp baking powder

(E) 5 egg whites
½ tsp cream of tartar
40g sugar


Choc Ganache:
100g Whipping cream
100g Dark Chocolate

Frosting:
400gm dairy whipping cream
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp gelatin
1 Tbsp water
1 cup chopped strawberries



Method:

Cake
1. Sieve Cake flour with cocoa powder and baking powder. Set aside
2. Preheat oven to 170deg C
3. Double boil to melt (A). Stir till smooth
4. In another bowl, whisk (B) till pale in colour
5. Add in melted choc (A) mixture, add (C) stir till combine
6. Add in (D), fold till mixture well-mixed.
7. In another bowl, whisk whites(E) till frothy, add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks and add sugar. Whisk till stiff peaks
8. Fold gently 1/3 whites with chocolate mixture
9. Fold the balance of whites
10. Pour batter into 7" cake pan (I used 9 inch springform pan)
11. Baking time around 40mins
12. Insert skewer to check if cake is done
13. Overturn cake tin to cool cake
14. Unmould cake

Ganache
1. Break chocolate and put into a bowl.
2. Bring cream to a boil, stirring all the time, it's ready when it has small bubble on the side.
3. Pour scalded cream onto chocolate and let it sit for 1 minute.
4. Stir until smooth. Set aside.

Frosting
1. Freeze bowl for at least 15 minutes before use. If using stainless steel bowl, prepare and ice bath for use later.
2. Place water in a heat proof bowl and sprinkle gelatin onto water. Let it sit for 1 minute and melt it in the microwave(high for 30 secs) or over a hot pan of water. Let it cool down.
3. Remove frozen bowl from freezer (place in ice bath if stainless steel bowl) and pour in cold whipping cream.
4. Beat on low speed until it starts to thicken then increase to high. When cream has reached soft peaks, put in sugar and beat until almost stiff. Pour in melted gelatin and beat until stiff.
5. Use immdiately to frost.

To assemble
1. Slice cooled cake into 3 layers
2. Place 3 Tbsp of ganache over the bottom layer and spread evenly. Put 1/2 cup of cream over bottom layer and spread. Sprinkle half the strawberries over.
3. Take another piece of cake and spread 3 Tbsp of ganache and another 1/2 cup of cream. Then put the creamed layer on top of the strawberries on bottom layer.
4. Spread 3 Tbsp of ganache onto the 2nd cake layer (now on top of bottom layer) and then repeat step 2 and 3. Now you will have 3 layers of cake sandwiched with 2 layers of filling.
5. Spread more cream all over cake and freeze the cake for 10 minutes
6. Prepare a piping bag with a 3 mm plain nozzle. Pour in all the remaining ganache.
7. Remove cake from freezer and pipe ganache to cover cake sides and lastly top with Ferrero Rodnoir.
8. Chill for few hours before serving.

Verdict:
Frankly, The cake was wonderful when it was unchilled. Lovely and chocolatey. Soft and moist. But once it was chilled, the cake somehow turned dry. Maybe it was due to the melted chocolate content that made it harder when cold. But when the cake was left overnight, the moisture from the strawberries seeped into the cake, and made it much better. I strongly recommend that some sort of fruits be added into the filling to avoid the dry mouthfeel when the cake is eaten chilled.
Mike said the cake is nice, and the only thing not nice is the Ferrero Rodnoir. He told me to use Rocher next time if I ever want to use Ferreros for his cakes. The Rodnoir somehow turned chewy after being chilled for some hours.

34 comments:

  1. Wow, it's a very very beautiful cake. I don't think I will have so much patience to make a cake like yours, LOL.

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  2. walaweiii... terpegun daku dengan kecoklatanmu itewww.... budak2 nih lg aritu mintak kek coklat, tapi aku buat bodoooo jerk! hahaha... leh la try!

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  3. beautifully done really admire u and jessie bakes and deco! i can't decorate well!

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  4. I'm totally speechless! U never allowed me to speak a word, but just drool! That is one lovely cake...simply loved the deco on it! Great job ya ;)

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  5. I actually bookmarked this cake recipe but still didn't get to it yet. You made it into a whole new look, impressive. :) hope my turn comes soon.

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  6. Fabulous! Wendy, I tried the chiffon too, however, my cake is not that dark like yours. I used Van Houten cocoa powder and used 55% cocoa chocolate instead of bitter sweet chocolate. Do you think this is the reason?

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  7. Happy be-be-belated Birthday Mike! So u used the black cocoa powder eh? looks darker hor.. Maybe u shud try the one PL uses, Hersheys super dark cocoa powder or something. She used in her zucchini brownie, very very dark

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  8. Superb-looking cake and how apt for a chocolate cake lover!

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  9. An awesome... tempting... cake. ;p

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  10. Very wonderful chocolate cake! This simple and nice decoration is a winner!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Belly Good,
    I didn't have much patience too, which is why I made the deco this way, a lot lot easier than facy piping




    Kak Hana,
    Tengkiu. Buat ler kek coklat kat anak, nanti anak hepi cium pipi kiri kanan, syok pe.



    Jess Kitchen,
    Takes some practice and observation :)
    Ttry to peek into bakery's kitchens :)




    Joceline,
    Thanks




    Love to Cook,
    LOL, thanks.




    Cathy,
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  12. Bee,
    Soon, don't try it too late. But then the cake taste best at room temp, not chilled.



    DG
    Oh, I'm not sure.
    But it could be.




    Sonia,
    Thanks



    Swee San,
    Next time I'll get a can of that




    Busygran,
    all the choc lovers in the house raved abt the cake, haha.




    Happy Flour
    thanks



    Kitchen Corner,
    Yeah, sometimes simple stuff looks a lot better, right?

    ReplyDelete
  13. The cake IS FINALLY here!!! Happy UBER, UBER Belated Birthday to Ah Mike!!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wah, very classy looking chocolate cake

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  15. Wow, sure Mike is impressed with the cake fr his lovely wife. It looks so professional.

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  16. 鲸鱼蓝蓝蓝,
    I did a shabby job this time, but then luckily the choc squiggles covered up my flaws



    Pei-Lin,
    Haha, yeah, now u see it again



    Pete,
    Thanks




    HomeKreation,
    Haha, he didn't like the ferreros. He said wasted. Next time dun use, but overall, he liked the cake.

    ReplyDelete
  17. what a beautiful cake..if i were to make this, it's going to be very tiring for me. btw, did you cut the cake to the shape of a dome?

    ReplyDelete
  18. lena,
    I used the special chiffon pan, the dome shaped one? Remember? In my oreo chiffon post.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Wow that is so yummy. Wonderful decoration..

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  20. So chocalatey!! Love the red speckles in the cake. Happy Belated Birthday to Mike.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Vasavi Suresh,
    Thanks



    Jennifurla,
    TX X2



    Gert,
    On behalf of Mike, "Thank you" and yeah, I do agree the red specks look great, like wearing rubies on a red dress :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Happy Belated Birthday to Mike!
    Love the clicks Wendy! Especially the last picture! The cake turns out beautifully decorated.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Those canned cherries look *yucks*! Did you taste them? Luckily you put in the strawberries...they make the cake "classy" leh.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Wendy, happy belated birthday to Mike, the cake looks georgous!

    ReplyDelete
  25. ur decoration nice lah i like it.well done and i like to visit ur blog lately.ur pic sharp and clear and ur explanation also clear.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hi Wendy,

    Can I ask if you're using dairy whipping cream for both frosting & ganache? Tks

    Yvonne

    ReplyDelete
  27. Is the brand Rich a dairy whipping cream?
    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  28. Angie,
    Nope. You can look at the ingredients to know.
    It's easy, just read the ingredient label. Non dairy surely has palm kernel oil in it and no dairy ingredients.

    ReplyDelete

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