18 Feb Special Gold and Dark Chocolate Cake
[:en]
Serving size: 10 or 12 delicious slices.
(As this cake has Chocolate bars for decoration, small cake slices work better)
Dark Chocolate cake
95 g vegetable oil
180 g all-purpose flour
70 g Unsweetened Dark Cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
300 g sugar (i prefer to use half white and half brown sugar)
2 large egg
1 egg yolk
190 g Buttermilk (I used the juice of half a lemon plus whole milk, mixed and relaxed for 10 minutes)
170 g Boiling water (Coffee works great too)
70 g bittersweet chocolate chopped in small pieces
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease and flour 2 cake pans of 15 cm or 6 inches diameter.
3. Whisk buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs, egg yolk and vanilla until smooth. Set aside.
4. Sift dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda). Stir in salt and chopped chocolate.
5. Pour buttermilk-eggs mixture over dry ingredients using a hand mixer or blender, starting from low speed and increasing slowly. Add hot boiling water and beat 1 or 2 minutes maximum or until you see no lumps.
6. Pour mix evenly among two cake pans and take them to the oven for about 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Place a wire rack on top of the cake pan and invert, lifting off the pan. Let cool.
Chocolate Ganache
400 g Dark or Bittersweet Chocolate Best Quality coarsely chopped
150 g Cream / 35% minimum fat
150 g Dulce de Leche ( Or use more Cream instead)
50 g Unsalted Butter
5 g Special Dark Cocoa ( Optional. Cocoa will produce a deeper flavor )
1 tp Vanilla
1. In a small saucepan mix Cream, Dulce de leche, cocoa and butter. Bring pan over medium heat stirring ingredients to dissolve completely and until almost boil.
2. Pour hot mixture over over crushed chocolate. Let rest about 1 minute moving the bowl with your hands.
3. Start mixing gently with a spoon until chocolate melts completely. Add vanilla and mix gently.
4. Let the Ganache rest overnight or until it gets a spreadable consistency.
Chocolate Glaze
(If you feel too lazy for making this Glaze. Melt some of the leftover Ganache and use it to drip as following instructions)
75 g Dark Chocolate Best Quality coarsely chopped
45 g Butter
Some drops of Black food coloring (Optional)
1. In a small saucepan mix both ingredients. Bring pan over medium heat until both ingredients dissolves completely. Let cool and use it at 30 ° C / 86 ° F. If you don’t have a thermometer, make sure the glaze is at room temperature before using it, in this way the Chocolate will not melt buttercream and you will get a more interesting thickness. Drip it over the center of the cake and take it to the edges using a offset spatula.
Simple Syrup
(Optional. Simple syrup will make a moist cake)
100g White sugar
100g Cold water
1. In a small saucepan mix both ingredients. Bring pan over medium heat stirring until sugar dissolves completely. This may take up to 2 or 3 minutes.
Chocolate Sail
40 g Dark Chocolate Best Quality coarsely chopped
25cm x 25cm square parchment paper
Edible Gold Dust
1. Melt in a double boiler or in a microwave.
2. Spread the melted dark chocolate onto the piece of parchment paper using a offset spatula and then fold and shape the sail using a cup.
3. Place in a cool place to set completely. Don’t refrigerate or Chocolate will lose shine.
Pour chocolate over parchment paper using a offset spatula. Make a crazy shape folding the paper and standing over a cup. Once thick. Use a brush to paint the Sail with golden dust.
To Assemble and decorate Cake
Some Gold Foiled Milk Chocolate Coins
6 Gold Foiled Ferrero Rocher
1 Kit Kat Wafer Bars
1 Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate bar
Edible Gold Dust
1. If cakes are domed on top, even out with a knife (Frozen cakes work better here). You can cut both cakes in half so you get 4 evenly layers. Or you can make a 2 layer cake only.
2. Place the first layer on a cake board. Brush hot syrup over the cake and the spread Ganache over the first layer. Repeat the process twice.
3. Spread Ganache evenly all over the cake, then smooth. Freeze the cake before brushing with edible gold powder.
4. Freeze again before spreading Chocolate Glaze.
5. Brush edible gold dust over Chocolate bars and decorate the cake following your own instinct.
[:]