Happy Saturday everyone.
I am so lucky to work with some AWESOME women. And when it’s their birthdays it’s my absolute pleasure to make them a birthday cake.
It was Veronica’s birthday in October, Vivi’s in September, and Laura’s in August ,so there will be more cakes, all spectacular and all made with love, so stay tuned…
Veronica’s cake is a three-layer cake. A dark and solid chocolate cake, layered with a thick and rich chocolate sauce, topped with raspberry sauce and smothered with Chantilly cream. Happy birthday again, Veronica , thank you for all that you do it is greatly appreciated.
This cake is for people who love a dense, dark, heavy cake.
The combination of Chantilly cream, raspberry sauce and chocolate ganache is a match made in heaven. However, Chantilly cream is not practical for hot weather. This cake will go well with butter cream icing too but I prefer Chantilly cream (I can’t stand the idea of eating such a huge amount of sugar that goes into butter cream icing) the cake is dense and the cream is light so it needs to be kept in the fridge and brought to room temperature before serving.
Chocolate cake ingredients
Ingredients
80g cocoa powder
350g light brown sugar (you’re going to need it, this cake is not sweet)
300mls boiling water
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
300g unsalted butter at room temperature
150g dark chocolate
6 eggs cold (no need for them to be room temperature)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
220g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
Raspberry sauce
500g frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons cornflour mixed with 3 tablespoons of raspberry liquid from the pot
Chantilly cream
Ingredients
600mls thickened cream
5 tablespoon icing mixture (sifted)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Chocolate sauce/ganache
Ingredients
170g chocolate chips
It could be dark chocolate or 85g dark chocolate and 85g milk chocolate or any combination of chocolate you like.
300mls thickened cream
Method
In a saucepan, heat the cream but don’t let it come to the boil, so just before it starts to boil, turn heat off, add the chocolate and stir until it has completely melted. Bring to room temperature then place in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight.
Method for cake
Preheat the oven to 170C
Divide the cake batter into three equal portions.
Line three 20cm round cake tins with baking paper, brush with melted butter and coat with cocoa powder.
In a heatproof measuring cup, pour 300mls of boiling hot water, transfer to a heat-resistant bowl and whisk in 100g brown sugar, cocoa powder and coffee.
Stir until all three ingredients have completely dissolved in hot water, set aside.
In a medium-size bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder and bicarb soda, set aside.
Place medium-size sauce pan filled with 3cm of hot water on low heat. Place a large heatproof bowl on top of the saucepan. Put the butter and the remainder of the brown sugar in the heatproof bowl and stir continuously until the sugar and butter have melted completely and are liquid. Add the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted and all three ingredients are well combined. Turn heat off, remove the bowl from the saucepan and stir in the coffee mixture, and set aside.
Break six eggs into a bowl add the tablespoon of vanilla extract and mix eggs with vanilla. Stir eggs and vanilla into chocolate mixture.
Sift the flour with the baking powder, salt and bicarbonate over chocolate mixture and stir into mixture. Using a handheld electric mixer, mix batter to smooth out any lumps: about 30 seconds.
Divide into the three baking tins. There should be 500mls per cake tin. Bake for 25min. Unless you have an awesome oven, I suggest you bake one at a time or two at a time, but you will need to rotate them, so they bake evenly.
For best results, bake one at a time.
Once the cakes have cooled down, remove from the tins and place on a cake wire to cool completely. I leave them for a couple of hours.
Raspberry sauce
Method
For best results, prepare a few hours ahead or the day before.
Place raspberries in a saucepan over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons water, and stir in the sugar. Bring to the boil, stir in 3 tablespoons of cornflour with 3 tablespoons of the raspberry liquid from the pot and stir mixture back into the pot.
Stir to combine. Turn heat off and leave to cool completely. Transfer mixture into fridge.
Chantilly cream
Method
With a handheld mixer or a stand-alone electric mixer, whip cream, sifted icing mixture and vanilla extract until firm peaks form.
Transfer whipped cream to fridge and leave for a couple of hours.
Assembly
Place the first of your three cakes directly onto your cake stand or serving plate. Spread a 1/3 of your chocolate ganache on top. Spread your raspberry sauce on top and spoon 1/3 of your cream on top of the raspberry sauce. Repeat with remaining layers.