My Culinary Trial Room

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Chocolate Truffle Cake ~ For His B'day

It was A's birthday last week and I have been planning for his cake months back maybe by the start of the year. Was not sure on wat flavor will go into my cake - upside-down pineapple / apple-cinnamon, chocolate / mocha, traditional Mexican flan as Monica suggests / or a Lamington tower. Oh I just couldn't decide on wat to make and was browsing for impressive cake recipes for days together..

Finally one day I decided to give my chocolate boy loads and loads of chocolate - a moist chocolate cake with chocolate whipped cream sandwiched in between and covered with mouth watering chocolate ganache... Ohhhhhh doesn't that sound perfect for two ardent chocoholics!

So it was nothing but the most addictive Chocolate truffle cake. This cake is very easy to make and assemble provided you make the pre-preparations like preparing the ganache, chilling the whipped cream, a day before and to be frank, these preparations take less than half an hour. If you were a bake-aholic like me, then you wouldn't even bother about the time and effort that goes into a gorgeous cake. Line up your pans, assemble your ingredients, take out your special equipments, switch on your favorite music and start measuring and mixing and you will not know how time flies.

I borrowed the recipe from Divya's easy cooking and adjusted to suit my comfort. So you will need 2 loafs of perfect chocolate cake, chocolate whipped cream, chocolate ganache and soaking syrup

~*What U Need for the perfect chocolate cake*~

AP Flour - 1 3/4 cups
Sugar - 2 cups
Cocoa Powder - 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 1 1/2 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Eggs - 2
Milk - 1 cup
Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
Oil - 1/2 cup
Boiling water - 1 cup

How I Made it:
Preheat ur oven to 175C. Grease and line ur cake tins. Sift together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl atleast 3ice. Beat together eggs, milk, oil and vanilla for 2 minutes. To this add the sifted mixture and fold well. Don't overwork. Stir in boiling water. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool the cake keeping it in the pans for 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. You can also chill the cake to prevent crumbs.

~*What u Need for the Chocolate whipped cream*~
Dark Chocolate - 50 gms
Amul Cream - 200 ml / one packet
Sugar - 1-2 tbsp

How I Made it:
Boil the cream along with the sugar. In a big mixing bowl, chop and throw in the chocolate and pour the boiling cream over this. Mix well till the chocolate melts fully and the mixture become shiny and smooth... Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight. Beat the cream well using a hand held mixer until it starts forming soft peaks. Keep refrigerated until use.

~*What U Need for the Chocolate ganache*
Dark Chocolate - 100 gms
Amul Cream - 100 ml

How I Made it:
Chop the chocolate. Heat the cream just until it starts boiling,add to the chocolate and stir well. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate till use.
Ganache tends to thickens as it cools down,so if it is not in pourable consistency then microwave in intervals of 10 sec until it becomes the required consistency.

How I Made the Soaking Syrup:
Mix together 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water along with a tsp of vanilla and mix well.

~*What else do you need*~
Milk chocolate - 10 gms

How I assembled the cake:
Poke small holes on the cakes using a fork and using a pastry brush,apply the soaking syrup all over. Be very generous in this step. Place one cake on the pedestal. Dump the chocolate whipped cream over this and smooth it out with a spatula or knife. Place the second cake on top of this and crumb coat it with the remaining whipped cream. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes. Apply the chocolate cream on top and sides again to cover the cake completely. Pour the chocolate ganache on top and tilt the cake slightly so that it is pours down the sides of the cake equally. Donot tilt it to much or u will the ganache running all over the plate. Chill it in the fridge and when the ganache is a bit firm, smooth it down evenly all over the sides of the cake. Chill this again for half an hour. Now either pipe the ganache on top and sides of the cake or you can make it to drip slightly as i did. Melt the milk chocolate and draw circles on top of the cake or using the chocolate cream make a spidey web pattern on top. Serve chilled.

It came out very well just the way I wanted - dripping chocolate all over. The overall taste was rich, laden with oodles of chocolate and yummy... We even saved a piece ( that was all we could) to have with a scoop of ice cream and it tasted more similar to the chocolate sundae that u get in CCD.

Here comes the much awaited part:
Verdict from the B'day boy himself in his very own words. (For the first time, after lots of cajoling :( ...)
Hi everyone there!!! Let me introduce myself. I am the so called Mr.A in this blog. Anandkumar. The guinea pig of all the recipes blogged by my wife. Oh she is nudging me... Okay in other words, the lucky man who gets to taste all her awesome preparations first hand... How does that sound dear!!!
So now on to my take on MY Birthday cake. My wife prefers to call this the chocolate truffle cake. But I prefer to call it Death by chocolate as the first time I sunk my teeth into the cake I felt like I was in heaven and wanted to stay there. Only the smiling eyes of my wife made me return back to her arms.. for more of this delicious cake!!