It was my husband's birthday few days back. It was a weekend and he was extremely busy with his work and could not leave work earlier, so I decided to we celebrate at home with some nice home cooked food, which I will post soon, and a cake!
This is my 5th baking attempt and my 2nd for cake. The first one was a marble cake which has not be posted yet. I think I was really ambitious when I decided to baked this. I have never done ganache before and I failed in doing my icing the 1st time round (you'll see when I post my cuppy recipe). I don't know what made me to choose to do this cake but I got everything prepared anyways. hahaha ...
The results ... outlook was not pretty. Not smooth as what it's suppose to be. There were lots of bumps because I had forgotten to grease the pan!! And I had also forgotten the flip the cake over!!! *slaps head twice* Luckily, taste wise was great.
Anyone who could bake would have done a much lovely job so please make this to give it justice. Haha!
Ingredients:
- 125g All-Purpose Flour, shifted
- 30g Coca Powder, shifted
- 250g Caster Sugar
- 100g Butter
- 60g Strawberry Jam or your preferred fruit jam
- 4 Eggs, separated
Ganache Topping:
- 170ml Cream
- 200g Dark Chocolate, chopped (I used bittersweet chocolate cooking bars)
- 90g Caster Sugar
How to do it:
- Preheat oven to 180c.
- Grease cake tin and line with baking paper
- Add flour and cocoa powder into a bowl and make a well.
- Combine sugar, butter and half of the jam in a pot or bowl over another pot of simmering water.
- Stir till the sugar is melted
- Add sugar mixture to the flour.
- Add the egg yolks.
- Stir till combined.
- Beat egg whites till soft peaks form
- Fold in the whites into cake mixture.
- Pour into the cake tin.
- Bake for 40 -45 minutes or do the toothpick test.
- Rest of 15 minutes before removing the cake to be cooled on a wire rack.
- To make ganache topping, add cream, chocolate and sugar in a pot over another pot of simmering water.
- Stir till mixture is melted and smooth.
- Level the top of the cake and turn it upside down on a plate or tray
- Brush the remaining jam over the cake.
- Pour the topping over the cake.
- Tip the cake, so the topping will flow to the side of the cake.
- Tap the plate to level the surface.
- Refrigerate for 1/2 hours to let the chocolate set.
Note:
- The icing on top of the cake is additional.
- I have not master the butter icing yet which require 100g of butter and icing sugar each and 1/2 tablespoon milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence. I could get to be firmed.
- The one shown here is just using butter and icing.
- Click HERE for printer-friendly version of an original recipe.
* folding egg whites into cake mixture *
* fresh from the oven *
* my bumpy cake and un-uniformed piping *
* the inside of the cake *
i am impressed :) i have baked quite a few cakes and only attempted to ice it once. it turned out gross :(
ReplyDeleteyours look really nice for a first attempt!
Wow..it looks like a cake I ate in a chocolate shop here! and it is expensive..mmm..it makes me drool again after looking at your post..
ReplyDeleteTracy,
ReplyDeleteThank you! Beginner's luck maybe? ;)
somebodyhastobe,
Thanks! I think the cakes cost too much nowadays.
wah... it looks really good to me! :) I've never done ganache b4. Maybe I should attempt this too. :)
ReplyDeleteBlurmommy,
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Please do!! You are so good in baking! Bet you will do a very good job with it!! I would love to see it! :D
Hi there, thank you for the recipe. I will let you know when I'm success to make this beautiful and delicious cake.. fingers cross:-) Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteJudy,
ReplyDeleteYes, do let me know! Good luck with it and hope you enjoy the cake! ;)
Thank you!
hihi wokkingmum, i tried ur cake receipe last week and i must say the taste is good! i love the ganache! but i failed at the cake texture! it was really really dry! i wonder wat went wrong.. can i check if:
ReplyDelete1.did u melt the sugar entirely into liquid with the butter and jam?
2.i had a super hard time mixing in the eggwhites as my cake mixture was super gooey due to the thick sugar+butter+jam mixture.
thanks!
Hi! I just tried out your recipe cos I found your blog link in a magazine :)
ReplyDeleteMay I ask if the top crust is supposed to be hard? It was difficult to level the cake cos of the hard crust.
And the texture of the cake is not really even. There were huge air bubbles inside. I folded the eggwhites as stated in your recipe and folding means to trap air is that right? So I don't know what went wrong :(
One last thing! Is the topping supposed to be thick after mixing over simmering water? Mine was thick but slightly fluid at the same time :( don't know if the mixture will stay on the cake
hope to hear from you soon! thank you :)
Noelle,
ReplyDeleteThe top crust is a bit harder but it's only to top thin layer. Below that was ok.
Maybe you might want to tap the cake mixture in the pan on the table. Hope you know what I meant. It will help make the cake more even ie, lesser big bubble.
The ganache is like melted chocolate but much thinner. If you find your ganache too thick, add a bit more cream. Like wise, tip and tap on the cake hold, so the ganache will flow down the cake. Hope this helps.
Tracy, Sorry I missed your comments.
Just in case anyone is interest, these are my answers:
1. Yes, sugar has to be melted completely.
2. The sugar mixture shouldn't be thick. You melt the mixture over the hot steam. It should not touch the water. If you do that the sugar mixture will thicken.
If you can see from my pic on mixing the egg white, the mixture is not thick at all.
Halo workingmum... i like all your cooking :) i cant view all your video posted. How do i get to see?
ReplyDelete