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Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Chocolate Feather Bed for my BIL - Birthday Week #2



The 2nd cake of the week. Yes, I made 3 birthday cakes within 6 days. Lydia's 2nd cake will be posted on Friday. I'm finding time to get the pictures done. Not easy to squeeze time. Which is why my posts are rarely 2 weeks fresh. :p

I made this cake for my one and only BIL, Mike's younger brother Nic. He likes cream cakes, and last year I made him a not so successful Chocolate Banana Cake. His birthday and Lydia's is just 3 days apart :)




I've been eyeing this recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes for a long long time. It's a flourless cake that is supposed to taste pretty light in texture, not in flavour. It is intensely chocolatey. I didn't even use the type of chocolate stated as I do not have that in hand. I only have the regular dark compound choc. And it already tasted delicious. Wonder how it would be with a good choc. Super dee duper good I guess.

I halved her recipe and got myself a nice 8-servings cake, about the size of 5X7inches about 2 inches in height(without curls). I chose her second method to make the filling as I found the direct beating of ganache leaves me with not much extra filling compared to unwhipped, except that it feels lighter. When I beat the cream separately, the volume of the filling is more, making it even lighter in texture. My cake looks dense... hmmm..maybe it's due to me covering it with a tray instead of a towel (condensation of vapour hence condensing of cake :p), but it still taste absolutely light. It's flourless!!!!

Everybody loved it and I am already thinking of ways to impart this technique to make other flavours and filling. It's very easy to do, provided you know the basic techniques like folding, whipping whites and whipping dairy cream.


Chocolate Feather Bed
Recipe source: Rose's Heavenly Cakes 
Instructions rewritten based on my experience

Cake
113gm dark chocolate (53-62% preferred, but I used Beryl’s Dark Compound Chocolate)
50 +25gm caster sugar
180gm egg whites (from 5 Grade A eggs, recipe says 6 large eggs, but our Grade A eggs are 65gm each, not 55gm)
112gm egg yolks (from 5 Grade A eggs, smaller eggs will need more eggs to achieve 112gm)
¾ tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160(fan)/180 and fully line a 17X12 inch baking pan (the pan that comes with your built in oven). Make sure you have overlaps so that you can lift the cake out easily. (I prefer doing this step after preparing the yolks as my oven only takes 6 minutes to preheat)
2. Melt chocolate. Stir and set aside to cool as you prepare the egg yolks(step 3). Let it turn warm to touch but still fluid.
3. Beat yolks with 50gm sugar on high speed for 5 mins until pale and fluffy. Scrape in the melted chocolate and beat on medium speed until well incorporated. Scrape the sides as needed.
4. In another clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Put in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks. Gradually beat in the 25gm sugar and beat the whites until stiff.
5. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Pour the lightened chocolate mixture back into the whites and gently fold until incorporated.
6. Pour batter into pan and level surface.
7. Bake for 16 minutes (yes I did that exactly as per the book) on the lower 3rd of the oven. Cake is done when it has lost its shine and springs back when lightly pressed.
8. Place baked cake on wire rack to cool and place a towel over it to prevent it from drying out. (I used another tray, no big towel :p)
9. When cake has totally cooled, snip cake into 4 pieces (with paper still underneath, do not peel) and stack on top of each other. Place stacked cake into a container (I used Tupperware) and chill for 12 hours. (I chilled overnight)

Light Whipped Ganache Filling
113gm dark chocolate (53-62% preferred, but I used Beryl’s Dark Compound Chocolate)
58 + 174gm whipping cream
½ tsp vanilla extract
Dark chocolate curls for decoration

1. Place mixing bowl in freezer (if you’re using ceramic or glass bowl. But if you are using stainless steel, skip this step and beat the cream later over a ice waterbath)
2. Place dark choc with 58gm whipping cream in a microwavable container and zap on high, stirring every 10 seconds to see if it’s melted. Or you place the container over some hot water to melt the chocolate in cream. Make sure the chocolate has fully melted in the cream and let it cool down, but still fluid.
3. Remove bowl from freezer and beat whipping cream until traces of beater marks shows distinctly. Scrape in the chocolate mixture and vanilla and beat until cream mounds softly (like whipped cream). Be careful of over whipping, or else the cream turns grainy. Use the cream immediately

Assembly
1. Remove cake layers from fridge.
2. Put a bit of the cream onto cake board/plate (the small bit of cream acts like glue to the plate/board)
3. Take one layer of cake, and peel off the lining paper and place one piece of cake onto the board
4. Spread ¼ of the cream onto the cake.
5. Peel another layer of cake and place it on top of the 1st layer. Spread another ¼ of the cream on top. Repeat until finish.
6. Sprinkle chocolate curls on top as decoration.
7. Chill cake thoroughly again and trim the sides to get a smooth bare sided cake to show off the layers.


The sides of the whole cake may not look as pretty as it is inside as I tried to trim off as little as I could. The sides of the baked cake sheet are taller than the insides, so unless you trim off at least one inch off the sides of the assembled cake, you won't get it nice like what you see from the cut up pics.


Here's Lyanne cleaning up my beaters after preparing the filling. She licked them so clean! Saved me dish detergent money. LOL.

44 comments:

  1. This cake look like bought from the cake shop!! From the look at it, I know it is indeed a very delicious cake!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks amazing! :)

    Was wondering where do you get Beryl’s Dark Compound Chocolate in KL? Which baking shop?

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mel,
    Thankyou. The choc curls do add some "wow factor to it


    cupcakearmbar,
    No idea. I got mine in Ipoh. Available at Wah Seng and Intrico

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the pretty layers you created. Evenly done!

    ReplyDelete
  5. wow, your cake look so professional, very nice.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wonder when will I be able to make a cake like this one.. :-O It's awesome!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello Wendy...This cake looks really tempting dear! How I wish I can make this for my kids...b4 they get back to U....aarghh! :))

    ReplyDelete
  8. i wish i can share a slice of your nice choc cake.... looks so yummy!

    eileen with love

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lyanne's super cute licking the beaters! What a nice way to clean em! ;)The cake looks awesome btw! Another level up, Wendy!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I have this book too, but have yet to try any cake yet..This cake look so tempting!

    ReplyDelete
  11. edith,
    The cake is baked whole sheet and cut into required pieces, which is why they are so even, LOL.



    amelia,
    Thanks


    Belly Good,
    It's actually a pretty easy cake.One of my fasted and easiest birthday cakes ever.



    Nur Misnan,
    Canon has a huge range of cameras, from low to professional. How the picture turns out depends on the photographer and how one edits it. Not camera brand dependant.


    Ummi,
    totally agree on how kids meddle with birthday cakes. they always get too excited about it


    eileenlee,
    Make one and you can taste it :)


    Anonymous,
    She came in while I was almost finishing up the cake, and lucky her :)



    Sonia,
    I have tried a few recipes and some are in the blog too. So far, they are quite good, but very long winded on the instructions, even more long winded than me.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Very impressive piece of cake, although not so easy to make huh! Sinful too! But I like the fact that it is flourless:) Your girl's so helpful in the kitchen lol!

    ReplyDelete
  13. a pretty cake you have made...your family so lucky to have you to bake birthday cake for them...like buying from bakery...:)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Lyanne is so cuteeeee....:) Nice cake, I like the way you displayed it. Looks so classy and delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  15. that's a beautiful chocolate cake!I just love the idea of a light flourless choc cake, thanks for summarising everything into one post, rose's instructions very long..normally takes pages for a cake!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow, what a beautiful cake......Happy birthday to your BIL!

    ReplyDelete
  17. The cake look nicely layered and so decadent. I am sure you BIL is very happy with it.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wendy, you always inspire me on birthday cakes! I need to bake another birthday cake the week after next, so this flour less chocolate cake looks like the perfect one for the chocoholic birthday guy! Actually I have the book too, will go check out Rose's long winded explanation later, lol! :D thanks ya!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Jeannie,
    It's actually very easy to make, don't be intimidated by the long winded instrcutiosn. For you it should be kacang.



    sherleen,
    thankyou



    Reese,
    I just follow how it was done in the book.
    :) Lyanne's cute in this pic, but haiyo... quite a menace these days



    lena,
    I wanted to type even shorter. But sigh, still need to be long winded for the benefit of new bakers



    Pete,
    sudah last week dia birthday. LOL.
    anyway, thanks



    Stefania,
    thanks



    Gert,
    He was very happy about it :)



    Bee,
    do try out this recipe, for me, it's very nice.



    Fong,
    thank you

    ReplyDelete
  20. I love how you did the chocolate shavings - makes the cake look so beautiful and high class! And what your daughter does is what I do sometimes too :p

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  21. I love the layering of this chocolate feather bed cake is so neatly done!

    ReplyDelete
  22. woahh so pretty! Love flourless cakes, prefer the texture than that of cakes with flour.

    ReplyDelete
  23. This cake looks amazing!! I love how the layers are so thin and perfect- and the chocolate curls make it look so elegant! Now i want to make a chocolate like this :) I've always wanted to make flourless chocolate cake, but I've never quite gotten around to it...

    ReplyDelete
  24. your cake is so amazing,Wendy ! *can't stop smilling to see your personal assistant try to clean up hahahah..

    ReplyDelete
  25. Swee San,
    kekeke.. sudah habis oh


    Janine,
    Haha.. who can resist yummy choc ganache. I can't too, but I let her lick



    ah Tze,
    trimming it at the end helps a lot


    pigpigscorner,
    True true, so much more tender



    Von,
    don't wait.... :)



    “追食富迪”,
    thankyou

    ReplyDelete
  26. your cake look so pro wt the deco!! wish I can eat this rich choc cake instead of your BIL!! lol!

    ReplyDelete
  27. that looks really really impressive, and to think this is one of your "easiest" cakes ever. you should set up a bakery, i'm serious!

    ReplyDelete
  28. My Asian Kitchen,
    Haha, come then :)


    Shu Han,
    I'm serious, no bakery for me. :)
    It's easy because the only decoration are the choc curls and the cake is bare sided. That's a lot less work you see. And ganache is one of the easiest frostings compared to preparing buttercream or frosting the nightmarish dairy cream.

    ReplyDelete
  29. You know what? I've shortlisted this recipe too but there are simply too many recipes to try. And with a lazy bug biting me now, I've not been baking for a long time.

    I always have problem with choc curls, they are either too short or melts too fast for me to handle.

    ReplyDelete
  30. BH,
    The temp is always crucial when working with choc.
    I turn on the aircond, directly at the choc.
    If too short, the choc is too cold
    Melts too fast? Turn the choc around after a few shavings.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Wow Wendy! This is really gorgeous!!! I love it!

    ReplyDelete
  32. Hi, have you heard of "Paillete Feulletine"?
    It's actually wafer crunch.
    If mixed with praline...as a base of this cake, i think the result would be awesome. It's add a crunch...a different dimension to the taste of this cake.

    But it's really hard to find it though. I'm searching for it myself.

    Lili

    ReplyDelete
  33. Lili,
    I think Pastry Pro has it.
    With that in a souffle cake?
    I can't imagine.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Hi, as a base of a cake :p
    Can't find it in Singapore though

    Lili

    ReplyDelete
  35. Lili,
    If you are really keen to get some, contact them. It's quite hard to believe that it's available here but not in Singapore.
    http://www.pastrypro.com.my/pastrypro/catalog/exchange/11502768780/115027687858/

    ReplyDelete
  36. Hi,how many serving does the cake bring in?

    ReplyDelete
  37. Trang,
    In the 2nd paragraph after the birthday pic, I did mention it was 8 portions, but then again, it depends on how big you prefer the portions to be.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Hi Wendy, Tried this wonderful recipe and it turn out great. Have difficulty getting the chocolate curls. How do you do that?

    ReplyDelete

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