Friday, November 28, 2008

Chocolate Cake SHOWDOWN!

It is the time of the year where tinsel tinged malls have erected their giant fir trees that have been put in mothballs for the past 12months and restaurants planning for dinner 'promotions' that will filch away couples' purses. It is the time where colour combinations of red, green and white IS THE à la mode. Yes. With just a little more than a month, the world will be celebrating Christmas!

Other than putting up pictures of our famous Saint Nicholas, chocolate cakes would be the definite must buy/bake/gorge during christmas. Though they usually loom in the form of log cakes, they are nevertheless made of chocolates. Btw, the best chocolate cake ever would be my first chocolate cupcake, baked by my mum, eons years ago. That was probably also the cause of my first toothache and puberty weight gain. Then again Mcdonalds' might still be the culprit (for the weight part)

Anyhow, what i want to blog about is that.. I partook in a chocolate cake bake off. I'm supposed to bake>decorate>photograph>blog>send in, easy as that. Since it's my first challenge, I really want to do a good (bake), dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's!

My Gustatory cells nearly died of happiness~

I'm not a great fan of buttercream, so i melted chocolates with (lite) sour cream instead for the filling, it's not as heavy and can pretty well used to frost the cake. For the deco I piped chocolate ganache over the cake to give a more desirable look. And for the sponge i've added ovalette to give it a smoother and softer texture.

I was actually introduced to Myers Rum by my baking tutor. i heard that the CEO of bakerzin Daniel Tay is also a great fan of that rum. It really satisfied my olfactory system, i would definitely recommend this to every baker.

Even in the pantheon of cocao, this is one helluva chocolate intense cake. From the sponge, filling to the fudge, i admit, it's quite a choco rich bake. All chocoholics would just find it all soooo lovely.

p/s. The winner gets a box of chocolate flown all the way from the other side of the hemisphere!
p/p/s. i'm not sure if it's goin to be a voting event. But if there is, VOTE FOR ME!! if you wanna share the chocs with me!:)

Ingredients

Sponge cake
4 eggs
105g caster sugar
110g flour
20g unsweetened cocoa powder
60g melted butter
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ovalette
1 tsp vanilla essence
45g low fat milk
Rum

Chocolate Frosting
160g 60% (bittersweet) chocolate chopped
160g milk/semi-sweet chocolate chopped
1 1/2cup lite sour cream

Chocolate ganache
80g semi-sweet chocolate chopped
100g heavy cream

Method

Chocolate sponge cake
1. Beat the eggs and milk at low speed.
2. Add the dry ingredients and ovalette, and continue beating at low speed for 1 min then swith to high speed and beat for 6 minutes
3. Add vanilla essence and melted butter to mixture and beat at medium speed until well mixed

Chocolate Frosting
1.Melt chocolate in a double boiler/heatproof bowl over barely simmering water.
2. Beat in the sour cream until well mixed.

Layer cakes to about 1cm (my preference) divide frosting accordding to the number of layers you are planning to set. e.g 3 layers, divide frosting into 4 portions. 4 layers>5 portions so on and so forth.

Dot a little rum on each songe cake layer before spreading the frosting. Use remaining to frost top and sides of the cake.

Chocolate ganache
1. Heat heavy cream to boil.
2. pour heated cream over chocolate and mix until homogeneous.
3. Let it cool a little, and pour over cake. (You can choose to cover the whole cake with the ganache. But be warned, it's goin to be very rich!)
4. Chill for about 15mins.
5. ready for devour

17 comments:

Eric said...

the dripping chocolate effects are really good. Very appetising looks. Getting a little hungry right now.

Anonymous said...

My goodness, that cake carries a certain character....it looks so "hotelish"!

*.*MENGNI*.* said...

oh yeah?~ Thanks for the comment! I feel so hotel chef-ish now:) keke

Larry Lan said...

your cakes are amazing.. :( I hope I can make smth like you..

Anonymous said...

that looks ridiculously delicious.

Larry Lan said...

I'm sorry if this is bothering you.. I can't find any way to email you or something so i decided to leave a comment here..
What chocolate you use to melt? I tried cadbury chocolates (I know it's stupid haha) and it didn't turned out very nice and glossy like yours.

*.*MENGNI*.* said...

i like to use Ghirarldelli/Valrhona:) Cadbury.. they are nice to nom but will taste "over-processed" for cakes i think. Otherwise, Hershey's? But in my opinion they are a wee too sweet:P

Larry Lan said...

Ghirarldelli/Valrhona? Where can I find them? You're living in Singapore right?

*.*MENGNI*.* said...

yup:) you can find baking Ghirarldelli in cold storage. Otherwise, you can travel down to Sun lik at 33 seah street, it's just behind Raffles hotel. If it's inconvenient for you, you can always try shermay's cooking school in holland village. they sell valrhona too:)

Cheers!:)

Trying To Heal said...

thanks for commenting on my blog. your cake looks absolutely amazing! much better than any of my cookies! hehe!

Y said...

Cake looks awesome. Love how shiny the glaze is, and those show stopping drips!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

looks yummy! wish i could bake a cake like this =(

Anonymous said...

You know,i am really impressed with your cake....but it does look too good to be eaten leh!!!

DID YOU USE PHOTOSHOP??!LOL

Anonymous said...

MENG NI!!!!! I want one of those cakes for xmas!!!!
All in favor say "AYE!"

"Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye" "Aye"

Hear the crowd and bake tt cake!!

PLEASSEEE!!!!!

*.*MENGNI*.* said...

Haa..!!! teh.. You're so funny!!