It was Mr Hubby's birthday on Monday, so I thought I would bake the cake during the weekend, (normally I would bake the cake first and the next day I would decorate it)..but Mr Hubby's auntie came over and overnight at our house, and only managed to start on Sunday afternoon...
The stress started about a week ago..browsing the net, looking for ideas & recipes for the cake. After much thought, I decided on this 'Thousand Layer Chocolate Cake' which I found in
Honey Bee Sweets's blog..Again wanted to challenge myself in preparing for the cake..and also to redeem last year's which I made another type of Thousand layers cake, and felt bad after that cause it looked like I didnt put in much effort in preparing for his birthday..
Well anyway, back to this, ...After preparing all the ingredients, I proceeded with the 'project', cream the butter, whisk the eggs and bake the cake..When its time to roll the cake as per instructions, I was quite nervous as it seems not happening for me!!! After reaching to the last piece...my heart start to pump very fast..hahaha...Verbally telling the cake,(as if the cake can understand what I am saying)...repeatedly saying 'Please dont disappoint me!'.. and a few seconds later.. 'Gedebuk',(dont play2 still got sound effect ok..hahaha) . 1/2 of the cake dropped off!!! and I was like Arrrrrghhhh!!!..
Quickly picked up the pieces, and dropped it into a near tray....but the layers have gone haywire!!..Very sad and disheartened...that night, I cant sleep well... I tossed and turned & was quite worried about the cake..In the dark although my eyes are closed, my mind kept thinking on how to save the cake..I came to realise that there is no way to save it but to bake another one!!!!..,After 'accidentally' dropped the cake into the tray earlier, it gave me an idea how to assemble it...
Next day,(Monday, THE day) after Marsya went to school, I brought out my mixer ..repeat the whole process again. Bake another cake.. but when come to assembling it, I did what was like in the pictures below..in and out of the fridge ....by 6 pm my cake still not decorated yet and to make matter worst I ran out of whipping cream!!..High level of stress started to approach me!! Summoned Hasif to cycle to the nearest baking store to get for me the whipping cream...After flipping books, clicking the mouse here & there, nothing that fits into my cake that has chocolate coating...mostly are fondants cakes and floral butter cream.. Somehow, I didn't know how I came out with this design...and it was done within 1 hour..Phew!!.. Mr Hubby returned home at 9.30pm, and was quite surprise with this..hahaha..
Would like to thank Bee Bee, for shairng this nice recipe, very chocolaty & moist cake, definitely chocolate lovers like my family love it very much...To me its nicer & moist after 1-2 hours taken out from the fridge and eat it at room temperature....Ermm yummy..Sorry too, I adjusted some of the steps and ingredients to suits my convenience.
Ingredients for 'Thousand Layer Chocolate Cake'
330g all purpose flour
325g caster sugar(portion to 200g & 125g)-(Ayu used 247g - portion 180g & 67g)
1.5 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
110g unsweetened quality cocoa powder-(Ayu used Valrhona)
5 egg yolks
225g unsalted butter, room temperature-(Ayu used salted butter so I omit the salt)
1 cup buttermilk-(Ayu used 1cup milk +1 tbsp vinegar put aside for 20 minutes)
1/2 cup sour cream-(Ayu made 1 cup plain yogurt + 3 tbsp melted butter- but only used 1/2 cup for this)
5 egg whites
200ml strong brewed espresso coffee-(Ayu forgot to put this hehehe)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Chocolate Cream Layering:-
250ml non-dairy whipping cream, whipped
125g quality dark chocolate-(Ayu used Valrhona)
50g unsalted butter
Buttercream Frosting:-
125g unsalted butter
75g shortening-(Ayu used 1/2 shortening 1/2 krimwell)
100g confectioner's sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Chocolate Coating:-
200g quality dark chocolate-(Ayu used Valrhona)
200ml heavy cream-(Ayu used whipping cream)
Decoration(optional):-
Unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup dark chocolate crunch balls
Method:-
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and 200g(Ayu used180g) sugar together till it is light and fluffy. Then add in the egg yolks and mix well.
- Add vanilla extract in and stir till blended. Sift the plain flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder into another bowl. Stir the sour cream and buttermilk together and set aside.
- Alternating with the flour mixture, then the buttermilk mixture, add in 3 separate portions into the butter mixture. Beat well after each addition. Continue till everything is incorporated in.
- In separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites and the remaining 100g(Ayu used 67g) of the sugar till stiff peaks.
- Gently fold in the egg white mixture into the cake batter in separate portions till everything is blended in.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Greased and lined with parchment paper a baking tray of 10"by12"(Ayu used 12x12").
- Pour 1/3(Ayu poured 1/2) of the cake batter into the prepared baking tray and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 170°C to bake for another 5 minutes. Bake till cake is done and remove from oven to cool completely on rack.
- Repeat the above step twice again till all the cake batter is baked and you have 3 sheets(Ayu has 2 sheets) of chocolate cake of 10"by12"(Ayu 12x12") in size.
- Meanwhile make the chocolate cream: Melt the chocolate and butter under double boiler and let cool. Mix the melted chocolate mixture together with the whipped cream and set aside.
- After the cakes has cooled. Cut the cake length wise to get two 5" by 12"(Ayu cut 4 pieces of 2.5inch x 10.5 inch-cake shrunk to this size) cake sheets. Repeat with the other 2 cake and you will arrive with 6 sheets of 5" by 12" cakes.(Ayu got 8 pieces in all)
- Spread 1/6 of the chocolate cream all over the surface on one of the cake sheet. Then roll it up from the short side inwards in a swiss roll form.-(Ayu placed in tray for this-See pictures)
- Be extra careful in handling the cake while rolling as this cake is rather delicate and moist (with the presence of buttermilk and sour cream), not your usual swiss roll cake texture.
- Refrigerate the cake for 1hr before proceeding. Meanwhile, make the buttercream frosting: Cream all the ingredients together till all is well combined and mixture is light and fluffy. Takes about 4 to 5 minutes.
- To make the chocolate coating: Heat up the heavy cream till bubbly. Then pour the chocolate in and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir mixture till smooth. Let cool before using it.
- After 1 hr, take cake out from the fridge and trim away the uneven edges on the top. Then frost the whole cake with buttercream. Place the cake back in the fridge and chill for another 1 hr.
- After 1hr, gently place the chilled cake on a rack and slowly pour the chocolate coating all over the cake to completely cover it. Let sit for 2 minutes to let the chocolate finish dripping on the sides, then place it in the fridge again to chill for another 30 minutes.
- Once set, remove cake from fridge. Dust some quality cocoa powder on top and decorate cake with some chocolate crunch balls on top.
This was how I did mine..
After I brought the cake out, from the oven, I cut to 4 pieces of the sizes that I want.
Using an 8" tray, I placed a piece of cling wrap plastic on the base with some extras out from the tray.
I placed pieces of the cut sliced cake at the sides of the tray pushed it against the wall and cover all round. Scoop some chocolate layer cream and paint it on the sides of the cake. Once done, I placed another piece of sliced cake and apply the cream till all the layers are covered.
Once all are covered, I placed the cake in the fridge for 1 hour. After that, brought out from fridge and pulled out the cling wrap together with the slightly 'harden' cake out from tray.
Discard the cling wrap and place the cake on a cake board.
I sliced the top with a cake leveler.
The cake is now ready to be frosted with the buttercream.
Put the cake in fridge again for 1 hour before pouring the chocolate coating.
Decorate to preference.
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